26. THE TRIAL OF THOSE WITH HIGH ENDEAVOUR
Severity of trials befalling people is according to their ranks. You observe many people being pleased and content with their share from piety (wara’) and worldly pleasures (ladhat). This group is either not destined to reach the higher ranks of forbearance (maqamat al-sabr al-rafi’a ), or is known to be too weak to forebear trials and so Allah made it easy on them.
The greatest trial is that Allah endows you with high endeavour (himma’aliya ), which makes you never settle for anything less than achieving full piety and perfecting your religion (din) and knowledge (ilm); but you happen to have a desirous self that inclines towards the lawful and claims it only seeks the lawful so it can be focused afterward to achieve all the virtues.
However, this cannot be because each from this worldly life and the Hereafter stand on a different side. Therefore a person needs to heed to the priority’ of fulfilling the obligations (.wajib) and not to give room for the self to operate in the premises of the lawful so it does not neglect an obligation or overlook piety afterwards. The one who is trialled with is ought to cry out because it’s better that it is the child who cries out and not the father.
Know that opening the door of the permissible (bab al-mubahat) is to indulge in it, this may bring forth much harm to the religion. It is for this reason you should make sure to seal the bottle before the water leaks, wear the shield before the fight, heed to the consequences of what you will earn before working, and be always cautious of what could lead to harm even if you are not certain of it.
(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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