Narrated Abu Hurairah on authority of ‘A’ishah: “I missed Allah’s Messenger from my bed one day. I searched for him, and my hand touched the soles of his feet while he was on the floor prostrating himself to the Lord, invoking: ‘O Allah! I seek refuge in Your Contentment from Your Wrath, in Your Forgiveness from Your Punishment; and I seek refuge with You from You. I can not praise you enough, for You are as You praised Yourself.’” Allah, Most Gracious, in a Divine Hadith, says: “O son of Adam! Seek Me, for if you find Me, you find everything, but if you miss Me, you miss everything; and I am more beloved to you than everything.” If your eyes saw of Our Beauty that which they saw, You would not turn away from Us to other ones. And if your ears heard the Beauty of Our Speech, You would take off the cloak of pride and come to Us. And if you tasted of (Our) Love even a little, You would excuse those who died of Our Love. And if only a breeze from near Us blew to you, You would die of alienation and eagerness to Our Nearness When the last of the Arab kings of ancient Spain left Spain, he cried sadly. His mother, whose name was ‘A’ishah, addressed him sarcastically, “Cry like women for a lost kingdom that you could not preserve like men!” So what is man’s value if Allah forsakes him?! Allah, All-Mighty, says “See you not that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and all living creatures, and many of mankind, prostrate themselves to Allah. But there are many (men) on whom the punishment is justified; and whomsoever Allah disgraces none can ever honor him. Verily, Allah does what He wills.” [XXII; 18] Allah’s Messenger, (PBUH), says “A believer should humble himself.” They asked, “How does he humble himself?” He, (PBUH) replied, “By seeking burdens that he fails to bear.” [narrated by At-Tirmithi] Allah’s Messenger, (PBUH), also says “Seek things with self-respect, for all matters run according to Divine Foreordainment.” And one day, he, (PBUH), addressed a man who was humbling himself before the others “Raise up your head, O brother!” Then he, (PBUH), added: “He (the man) has deadened our religion for us!” One day, Imam Abu Hanifah entered upon Ja’far Al-Mansour for a certain matter. Ja’far was very pleased to receive such a venerable scholar in his palace and said: “O Abu Hanifah! Why don’t you always come to visit us! It is a great honor for us to receive you! You are most welcome!” Abu Hanifah said, “O Commander of the Faithful! Why should I visit you?! I don’t have anything with you for which I fear you! Does anyone visit you unless they have something with you for which they fear you?! I have nothing with you for which I visit you!” This means that the less aspirant you are after what other people have, the more honored Allah makes you; and the more you prostrate yourself in veneration to Allah, the more honored He makes you. A Caliph once wanted to have a scholar brought to him for religious counsel. The Caliph’s men went to Imam Malik, the venerable Imam and scholar, saying, “O Malik! The Caliph wants you to come to him.” Malik replied, “I do not need him! If he needs me, let him come to me!” Then he added: “Knowledge is sought (come to)! It does not go to anyone!” When the Caliph, whose name was Haroun Ar-Rasheed”, was informed about what Imam Malik had said, he said, “He speaks the truth! I shall go to him!” When the Caliph went to see Imam Malik, the latter said, “Let him sit behind and wait until it is his turn to see me!” By the way, Allah’s Messenger, (PBUH), used to sit behind, just like anyone else, and did not have a throne or a special place to sit in. One day, when an Arabian came to see Allah’s Messenger, who was sitting with his venerable Companions, he could not recognize who was Allah’s Messenger, and, therefore, he asked, “Who is Muhammad from among you?!” What modesty! He, (PBUH), never distinguished himself in sitting from his Companions! However, when it was the Caliph’s turn to see the Imam, he came to him and sat on a chair. But the Imam addressed him: “He who humbles himself to Allah, Allah honors him. And he who displays arrogance, He (Allah) humiliates him.” The Caliph, Haroun Ar-Rasheed, stood up, saying, “Take away this chair!” and sat down on the floor. If a scholar desires to be ‘Aziz (honored and mighty), he should never aspire to what people have, he should renounce their world, and he should have a job by which he earns a decent living. Someone asked: “How can I get to Allah?!” It was wisely said to him: “If you know Allah, you will certainly know how to get to Him!” This is because if you know Allah, you know, through your natural disposition, how to please Him, how to get to Him, how to stick to His Divine Commands, how to sacrifice yourself for Him, and how to prefer Him to anyone or anything else. He asked: “How can I get to Allah?!”; and he was answered: “If you know Him, you will certainly know how to get to Him!” He asked: “I don’t understand what you mean. How can I worship someone I do not know?” He was answered: “How come that you disobey Him (Allah) after you have known Him?! You disobey Him! You disobey the Lord wile you claim to love Him! Such is indeed an amazing claim! If your love were true, you would obey Him. Verily, he who loves someone does obey him. A man was once asked: “When did you get to know Allah?” He replied: “(I swear) by Allah! I have never disobeyed Him ever since I knew Him!” Once again, I would like to whisper to my dear reader: I swear by Allah, the One and Only God! Even if you acquire knowledge of all of the jinn and humans whereby you attain respect and honor among people, but fail to obey Allah, this means that you do not know Him, you do not know Him, you do not know Him! It has been wisely said: He who does not have enough piety that prevents him from disobeying Allah in his privacy, Allah does not care about anything good he does. Also, do not think of the size of sin, but rather think of Him against Whom you have transgressed by committing such sin. Once you disobey Allah, this means that you do not know Him. If we imagine someone who has the highest university degree in religious studies, who has written more than a hundred books, and who occupies an important religious position: if a woman enters upon him and he keeps gazing at her beauty, this means that he does not know Allah at all. On the other hand, even a naïve illiterate porter, who can neither read nor write, but has only heard Allah’s Words, “Tell the believing men to lower down their gaze and protect their private parts. That is purer for them. Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what they do.” [XXIV; 30] Allah’s Messenger, (PBUH), says “It suffices man in knowledge that he fears Allah; and it suffices man in ignorance that he boasts of his work.” [narrated by Ad-Darimi] Keep these words in your mind: Once you disobey Allah, this means that you do not know Him! It was asked: What are the qualities that a true believer should have towards this Name? Allah, All-Mighty, is “‘Aziz”, but what should a believer’s attitude towards this Divine Name be? The answer is: Once a true believer knows Allah, “Al-‘Aziz”, he should never believe that any creature has the right to be over-esteemed or over-dignified. It is true that as a human being a true believer should be so polite and well-behaved towards other fellow humans, but he should by no means believe that any one of such fellow humans, or anyone else, except Allah, All-Mighty, Alone, has the right to be over-esteemed or over-dignified. In other words, a true believer should belittle everyone and everything compared to Allah, All-Mighty. He should by no means over-venerate anyone but Allah, Creator of all things and Lord of all worlds. He should by no means humble himself to anyone but Him. To this effect, Allah’s Messenger, (PBUH), says “He who humbles himself to a wealthy person loses two thirds of his religion.” But why? The answer is: because belief in Allah, All-Mighty, is something that is deeply rooted in the heart, confessed by the tongue, and verified by work. In other words, belief in Allah consists of three parts: ideology, verbal confession, and action. Therefore, if you over-esteem a wealthy person for his wealth, you are apt to over-dignify him, humble yourself to him and even praise him for merits that he does not really have, and, hence, you lose two thirds of your belief, i.e. verbal confession – when you praise him - and action - when you humble yourself to him. Your act of over-esteeming or over-dignifying anyone besides Allah, Lord of all worlds, reflects weakness of belief in Him, All-Mighty. That is why Allah’s Messenger, (PBUH), says “A true believer attains honor by standing up the night (in prayer to Allah) and dignity by being in no need of people.” A true believer has more dignity and self-esteem than the people of a whole town. In this context, Allah, Glory to Him, says “But honor, might and glory belong to Allah, His Messenger and believers.” A prominent man went to perform the Hajj (pilgrimage) accompanied by tens of servants who kept pushing other pilgrims away from him while he was going round the Ka’bah. Anyway, he completed his Hajj rituals and returned to his country. The narrator of the story said: After some years, I came across a miserable poor man with shabby clothes, begging people for money on one of the bridges of the city of Baghdad. The man looked much like the above-mentioned rich prominent man. When I came forward to look closer at him, he humbly asked, “Why are you looking at me.” I said in amazement, “You look like someone whom I met on the Hajj one day,” and gave him the man’s name. Very sadly, he said: “It is me!” In great amazement, I enquired, “What made you in this miserable condition?!” Very regretfully, he replied, “I displayed arrogance in the place where people should be humble and deservedly incurred, therefore, such horrible punishment.” This story teaches us that going round, Allah’s House, the Holy Ka’bah, or standing before the Lord, All-Mighty, in the Hajj or in prayer should by no means be done arrogantly or boastfully. Nay! It should be done with utmost humbleness and submission to the Lord, All-Mighty. In other words, that man showed arrogance where people are supposed to show humbleness and submission. Therefore, Allah, All-Mighty, punished him by placing him in a humble position in places where people are usually respected. Allah’s Messenger, (PBUH), says “Seek to achieve your needs by self-respect, for things are run by (Allah’s) Divine Decree.”
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:17:37 +0000
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