Perspectives

21. A PERSON WITH DETERMINATION IS CAUGHT BETWEEN HIS HIGH HOPES AND SHORT ONES

I was granted a strong determination (hinima ‘aliya), but old age arrived impeding achieving what I had hoped for. So I prayed for a long life and a strong body to achieve what I had hoped for.

Nature blamed me for doing so and said, ‘What you are asking for goes against nature’, so I responded, ‘I am praying to Him who defies nature’.

A man was asked, ‘We need a small favour’, and so he answered, ‘ask for it from a small man’.

Another person was asked, “we would like to ask you for a favour that will not harm you’, so he answered, ‘then ask it from a lowly person’.

If proud men say such things then why would not we have hope in the bounty of the One who is generous and able? I prayed for this in Rabi ul-Thani of the year five hundred seventy five AH, if I live long enough and achieve my hopes, then I will move this chapter to a later position of the book and will mention that I have achieved what I had hoped for.

If not, then I am certain that my Master knows best what is good for me. He never abstains from answering a call out of stinginess (bukhl).

There is no power except through Him.

(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)

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John Doe

23/3/2019

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John Doe

23/3/2019

John Doe

23/3/2019

21. A PERSON WITH DETERMINATION IS CAUGHT BETWEEN HIS HIGH HOPES AND SHORT ONES

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