Fruits of slavery to the Аlmighty

Fruits of slavery to the Аlmighty

Acknowledge your weakness and the Almighty will support you with His strength and power. Recognize your neediness and poverty and the Creator will help you with His riches. For he who sincerely feels and manifests his continual need of Allah will gain the greatest wealth; that is the absence of need of anything or anyone other than Almighty Allah. After all, there is no salvation and refuge for the slave except for Almighty Allah.

And in him in whom the qualities of slavery (`ubudiyya) before Allah are innate, the Creator will help with is His dominion (rububiyya), especially if the slave constantly remembers Allah (dhikr). For, like a magnet, the remembrance of the Almighty attracts to itself the qualities of true slavery before Allah.

As soon as a person sincerely and with all his heart wants to be called a slave of the Almighty, Allah will certainly support him with His power. And that this slave will witness the great mercy to him of Almighty Allah is only a minor part of the Creator’s support.

This is because the Almighty Creator very soon bestows His blessings on him who constantly endeavours to demonstrate the qualities of slavery, poverty and need in Allah. So let him who desires to quickly gain the blessings of the Almighty sincerely admit his true need of Him. Almighty Allah said in the Quran (meaning): “Verily, offerings are intended for the needy” (Sura AlTawbah, ayat 60).

That is, the more Allah endows with blessings those who have attained spiritual perfection, the more the display of their slavery before the Almighty is strengthened and the more their inner faith is strengthened, the closer they become to their Creator. As the nobility and authority of such individuals grows, so also their humility is strengthened manifested as modesty towards believers, as it also is in genuine nobility and in superiority to unbelievers.

Whenever people who have achieved a high degree of spiritual perfection avail themselves of what their nafs desires, it expresses gratitude for this. Indeed, sometimes even the righteous partake in what their nafs desires. This is because for such people the nafs is like a small child whom one needs to indulge by showing kindliness and compassion and sometimes by bringing presents.

At other times such people deprive their nafs of what they want, following the advice of the prophets by limiting worldly enjoyments for themselves.

CHAPTER 2

THE ESSENCE OF CONTENTMENT WITH THE LORD, COMPLETE

SURRENDER TO HIM (TASLIM) AND ENTRUSTING OF ALL YOUR AFFAIRS TO HIM (TAFWIZ)

Know that contentment lies in your lack of any dissatisfaction with the predestination of Allah, no matter what the severity of any misfortune that befalls you. Know that the irremissible obligation of a slave is contentment with whatever happens by the decree of Allah and with that which the slave was ordered to be contented with. For, not everything that happens by the predestination of the Almighty may be satisfying, for example, the commission of sin.

Contentment is the elimination from the heart of any discontent so that only joy and complete satisfaction are left in it. That is, it is tranquility of the heart concerning the Almighty’s decisions, concurrence with what Allah is pleased with as well that He has chosen one as His own slave.

A sign of such contentment is a person’s conviction that he has no right of choice before a predetermination of Allah is fulfilled and also that no dissatisfaction arises after the fulfillment of the predetermination. Yet another sign is the manifestation of love for Allah under any hardship whatsoever. Truly, the feeling of the sweetness of faith is only achieved by one who is contented with Allah as Lord: this sweetness will not be felt by one in whose heart there is any place at all for love of the worldly.

Contentment is divided into two kinds: contentment with the Almighty Himself as establishing optimal order in everything and contentment with all of His decisions. Thus, one who is content with Almighty Allah does not express objection to His predestinations. And he who is sure that the Lord really chooses only the best for His slave sincerely wishes for His choice alone.

As for tafwiz and taslim, these are the renunciation of one’s own choice with complete submission to the will of Allah. Taslim, islam and istislam are words derived from a single root at the basis of which are obedience and submission to Allah and the manifestation of one’s slavish position to Him. Tafwiz is the rejection of choice regarding any matters of worldly life, complete trust in one’s Lord and the rejection of all that is in contradiction to His choice. They say that tafwiz precedes the implementation of a decision of the Almighty and taslim after it. Tafwiz and taslim belong to the qualities of those who attain knowledge of Allah.

PREDESTINATIONS OF ALLAH – A BLESSING FOR HIS SLAVE

Contentment is the joy of the heart concerning everything that happens according to the predestination of Allah. This is why a person is bestowed a great reward for being contented with all Almighty Allah’s decisions. It is relayed that on the Day of Judgment the herald of the Almighty will cry, “Where are the pure ones, chosen from My slaves?” Then the angels will ask, «Who are they, Your chosen slaves?» The Almighty will answer, «These are the slaves who were content with My gifts and were content with My predestinations.»

The Prophet e said: «Almighty Allah addressed the Prophet Musa ,’You will not come close to Me by means of anything more beloved for Me than contentment with My predestination’.»

Imam Abul Hassan ash Shazali passed on to us: “Flee from your own choice to the choice of Almighty Allah. Truly, one who has chosen something for himself does not know whether he will receive it or not. If he receives it, he does not know whether he will retain it or not. And even if it is retained until the end of his life, he does not know whether this is good for him or not. This why there is no good other than that which Allah has chosen for you.”

Hussein ibn Ali was told, «Companion Abu Zarr says, «Poverty is more desirable to me than wealth, and illness is more pleasant than health.» Hussein then said, “May Allah have mercy on Abu Zarr . As for me, I will say: he who is confident that Allah chooses the best will prefer His choice above all else.”

Companion Umar ibn al Khattab wrote to Abu Musa al Ashari : “All good lies in contentment with the predestination of Allah. If you can be content with this, then this is best, but, if not, show humility.”

Satisfaction with the decisions of Allah is the result of a good view of the Almighty. For this reason, Ibn Mashish said, “Do not doubt anything at all of the decisions of the Almighty and maintain a good view of Him in everything. Do not in any way yield preference to your own choice over that of Allah.

Theological scholars noted that contentment with the predestination of Allah is a blessing. That is, it is a good deed, in the presence of which evil deeds will not be able to do harm. They also distinguish two kinds of evil, in the presence of which even a large number of good deeds will be of very little benefit: discontent with the predestination of Allah and oppression of slaves of the Almighty.

There are also two blessings in the presence of which there will be little harm even from a large amount of evil deeds: contentment with the predestination of Allah and forgiveness and tolerance towards slaves of the Almighty. Scholars also have noted that contentment with the decisions of Allah is the most valued of deeds. Certain scholars have said that, «There are four most worthy deeds: love for Almighty Allah, contentment with the predestination of Allah, the heart’s detachment from the worldly (zuhd) and hope in Allah in everything.»

Indeed, he who is satisfied with the predestination of Almighty Allah lives with great joy and tranquility in his heart. But he who chooses and plans everything in his own way will live a restless and vexatious life. The great righteous Sahl al Tusturi said, “Renounce planning and the choosing of actions [1], because these two qualities make life difficult for people.” Imam ibn Ataillah al Iskandari said, “Give your nafs respite by liberating yourself from planning and management. Do not occupy yourself with what the Other is occupied in doing for you.”

The great righteous have studied this issue in fine detail and have thus considered that condemnation by a slave constitutes a condemnation of his Creator who has predetermined and chosen this destiny for His slave. Imam ash Shaarani noted, “They obtained a commitment from us that, when we see someone who finds himself in a difficult and constrained situation, we not hasten to call him unfortunate. For in such behavior there is the spirit of opposition to Almighty Allah. On the contrary, we need to ask Allah for his alleviation, forgiveness and indulgence.”

[1] You can plan but only if you comprehend this to be with the decision and permission of Allah.Ed.

FROM THE BOOK “VIRTUES OF THE RIGHTEOUS” BY SHEIKH AHMAD-AFANDI, MUFTI DAGESTAN