3. THE INTELLIGENT PERSON HEEDS TO THE CONSEQUENCES
He who wishes for continued safety and well-being must fear Allah. No person commits a sin, no matter how small, except that he will be punished for it sooner or later.
You would be foolish to think that if you face no difficulties and that your life is smooth and rewarding after committing a sin, that you have been forgiven. All the while, you seem to forget that Allah said,
“He who commits a bad deed will be recompensed for it.” [al-Nisa (4): 123]
Perhaps your ‘self says to you that Allah is All Forgiver and so you remain lenient! It is true that Allah certainly forgives sins, but only to those whom He Wills. Let me elaborate by explaining a scenario to help you understand the meaning of forgiveness (maghfira), which I advise you to contemplate:
If a person commits a sin not without having the intention (qasd) to do so, without determining beforehand to indulge in such a sin and willing never to go back to it again. But then, after he commits the sin, regrets it and seeks Allah’s forgiveness; it is as if he had committed the sin in error. The example of this case is when a man is exposed to a beautiful woman, his innate nature overpowers him so he enjoys looking at her beauty all the while his heart and mind is heedless to the Divine Command that forbids such a look. This causes him to become as if he is intoxicated or unconscious. When he awakes from the intoxication of his innate nature and realises the sin he committed he becomes remorseful. This remorse (nadm) washes off the dirt of the sin that was unplanned mistake. This meaning is expressed in the verse,
“Indeed, those who fear Allah—when some suggestion from Satan assails them, they remember Allah, and at once they have insight.” [al-A’raf (7):201]
On the other hand, if such a person continues to look at her and repeats his looks while insisting on it, it makes him in the position of a person who intentionally and arrogantly violates the prohibition of Allah. In this case, the distance between him and the forgiveness of Allah depends on how insisting he is to commit the sin.
From the signs indicating that he is far from receiving the forgiveness of Allah is when he does not notice the punishment of what he did.
It was reported that Ibn al-Jalla said: ‘One time, my teacher saw me looking diligently at a Christian youth!’141 He admonished me and said: ‘what are you doing?’ You will find the punishment of what you did sooner or later. Because of that sin, and after forty’ years from that incident, I forgot the Qur’an I memorised.
Know that is from the greatest trials that a person believes he is safe after committing a sin just because he was left unpunished. This is because punishment is postponed sometimes. It is also from the greatest punishments that a person is being punished but remains unaware of that! It is even worse when the punishment is depriving one from his piety or sealing his heart or choosing that which harms his ‘self— and the sign of this kind of punishment is that a person commits a sin then afterwards his body becomes healthy and his worldly objectives are achieved.
One of those who reflect and are mindful of what happens to him said, ‘Once I looked at what it is unlawful for me to look at, and after I realised my sin I waited for my punishment. Some period later I had to take a long trip that I did not intend or planned. During this journey I faced a lot of difficulties and later the dearest person to my heart passed away; in addition to other things that were taken away from me and had a great effect on me! I then decided to overcome these hardships with repentance and turning to Allah, so my affairs were rectified. My desires however overpowered me again. They made me look at what it is unlawful for me to look at, upon which my heart became idle, deprived from its softness and I lost more than what I lost the first time.
Furthermore, I was compensated for what lost. If I was not compensated it would have been better for me! When I contemplated what I have been compensated and what has been taken away from me, the pain of these lashes made me cry out and since then 1 am here standing on the shore [of safety] crying out: ‘O my brothers! Beware of the troubled waves of this sea [of sins] and do not be fooled with its calmness. Resort to the shore for safety and remain in the fortress of piety for the punishment is bitter.
You ought to know that holding fast to piety’ (taqwa) will make you endure some bitterness such as losing material objects and desirable things. Yet this is required because it is like the example of dieting that makes you avoid what you like, but afterwards it helps you to recover since if you do not follow the prescribed diet, it may cause your sudden death.
By Allah, if you had to sleep between the garbage with dogs just to seek the pleasure of the Inflictor (Allah), it would have been nothing compared to attaining His pleasure. And, if you have achieved all that can be achieved in this life, all the while He is displeased with you, your assumed safety will then be your destruction. Your assumed recovery will then be your illness, and your assumed good health will be your disease. This is because a matter is judged by its end and the intelligent one is he who heeds to the consequences.
I advise you to be patient while being afflicted with a calamity for such hardships does not last for long!
And Allah is the Guide to success for there is no power except by Him and there is no strength except by His Grace.
(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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