6.4. THE CLASSIFICATION OF PEOPLE IN WORSHIP (‘IBADAH)
The people are like this regarding their states and actions as well. The correct state is that of the believer who fears Allah by doing what he has been commanded and abstaining from the unlawful, and by having patience with the predestined afflictions that befall him. Such a person abides by the divine commands and prohibitions, adheres to the religion and the Sharfah, and seeks the help of Allah in that:
“It is You we worship and You we ask for help.” (al-Fatihah (1): 5)
When he commits a sin he seeks forgiveness and repents. He does not use destiny as an excuse for his sins and does not hold that the creation can object to the Lord of all existence in any way. He believes in destiny and does not use it as an excuse. It is stated in a sound hadith: “The best seeking of forgiveness is that the servant says:
‘O Allah, You are my Lord and there is no god but You. You created me and I am Your servant. I abide by Your covenant and promise the best I can. I seek refuge with You from the evil I have done. I acknowledge to You Your blessings upon me and I admit my sin. Forgive me, for none can forgive sins but You.
A believer acknowledges the blessing of Allah when he does some- thing good and knows that it is He who guided him and facilitated for him the state of ease. He also admits his sins and repents. Some of the pious have said: ‘1 have obeyed You by Your grace, and the favour is Yours, and disobeyed you while You knew, and the proof is with You. I ask You by the necessity of Your proof against me and the absence of mine that You forgive me.’ A sound divine hadlth states: “My servants! It is only your deed that I count for you and then give you in full. Let the person who then finds good praise Allah, and let the one who finds something else only blame himself. This topic has been studied in greater detail elsewhere.
Others are of the type that only focuses on the commands; they do their best to obey their Lord but the lack of their observance of the divine decree renders them unable to truly seek His help and to truly put their trust in him with patience.
Another group only observes the divine decree; they seek Allah’s help more earnestly than the previous group and put their trust in Him with true patience, but do not adhere to the commands of Allah.They do not abide by His laws by sticking to the religious rules of the Book and the Sunnah. This group seeks His help while not worshipping Him and the one before them wants to worship Him but does not seek His help. The true believer, however, both worships Him and seeks His help.
The fourth category is the worst: under it falls the group that neither worships Allah nor seeks His help, thereby belonging to neither those who focus on the Shari’ah nor those who emphasize the universal decree.
These four categories are the outcome when we look at the level of people’s reliance, seeking of help and other such acts before afflictions befall them and the level of their patience, contentment and other such virtues after them. People are thus divided into four categories of God-consciousness which means abidance by religious commands and patience with the universal decree.
By Shaykhu’l-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah
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