7.23. OPINIONS ON CONTENTMENT
What we are saying here is that the contentment that leads to Allah does not include abstinence from obligatory or recommended acts. Leaving an obligatory or recommended invocation is not a part of being content just like leaving any other obligatory deed or committing an unlawful one is not a part of it. We can now see the mistake of these people in thinking that contentment with everything that happens is prescribed in Islam and in not differentiating between the invocation that has been prescribed as an obligation or a recommendation and the invocation that has been declared unlawful.
It is necessarily known by all the followers of the religion of Islam that asking for Paradise and seeking protection from Hell is one of the greatest prescribed supplications of all of the Messengers and the Prophets as well as the truthful, the martyrs, and the pious. It is further common knowledge that this invocation is either obligatory or recommended. The path taken by the proteges of Allah is noth- ing less than doing the obligatory and recommended acts. The rest, namely the forbidden, the disliked, and the merely permissible, is of no religious benefit.
One of the things that led these individuals to err like this was their observation that many people did not ask Allah to grant them beneficial things and to ward off evil from them, not even to grant them Paradise and to protect them from Hell, with the intention of worship, obedience, and doing good deeds. What they found instead was that many were doing all of these things because the souls wanted it. Therefore, they decided that being on the correct path entailed abstaining from everything that the soul decides and desires. This in turn led to the notion that they should have no will of their own at all, that the only thing one should seek, whoever he may be, is being subject to the divine decree.
As a result, many of them began leading monastic lives that con- tradicted the Shari( ah to the extent that they would abstain from the necessary food, drink, and marriage, which are the requirements of a truly religious life. They saw how the lay people considered these acts as mere natural inclinations, desires, and customs, and it is well-known that actions done with this intention are not considered worship, obedience, or an attempt to earn Allah’s proximity. This led them to assume that for one to travel the true path to Allah he has to leave these acts of worship and deeds that are only performed due to the natural inclination. They then began living lives that included hunger, staying awake, isolation, silence, and other practices that entail abstinence from one’s share in this world and bearing great difficulties. In the end, they began to abandon obligatory and recom- mended actions and committed the disliked and even the unlawful.
Neither of the aforementioned ways of looking at the matter is commendable and there is no order anywhere to indicate that. These views do not lead to Allah: not the view of the negligent who did the things they were in need of with no intention of worship and earn- ing the proximity of Allah, nor the view of the extremists who left these actions all together. The correct way that Allah has prescribed is doing these things with the intention to earn the proximity of Allah while giving thanks to Him.
Allah, Most High, says:
“Eat from the good foods and work righteousness.” (al-Muminun (23): 51)
And
“Eat from the good things which We have provided for you and be grateful to Allah.’’(al-Baqarah (2): 172)
Here Allah commands eating and drinking. He who eats without giving thanks is worthy of blame and so is he who neither eats nor gives thanks. It is related in the Sahih that the Prophet said:
Indeed, Allah is pleased when a servant takes a bite of his food and praises Him for it and when he takes a sip of his drink and praises Him for it.”31 The Prophet also told Sa(d (radijAllahu ‘anhu): “Indeed, there is not a single thing you spend with the intention of seeking the pleasure of Allah but it raises you in status and rank; even something as small as a morsel that you put in your woman’s mouth.”Another hadith in the Sahlh says: “What a believer spends on his family in anticipation of Allah’s reward is charity.”
We can apply this to the invocations we are discussing here: some people do not ask Allah to grant them what benefits them and to avert harm from them with the intention of following the Sharfah and worshiping Allah, but because it is the natural thing to do and something they are used to. This, however, does not mean that I my- self have an Islamic justification to stop invoking Allah completely because of the shortcomings and negligence of these people. Rather, I am to do what they did but with the intention of following the Shari’ah and worshiping Allah.
After this, you should know that those who do this as an act of following the Sharfah and worshiping Allah are ultimately seeking to benefit themselves and to collect their praiseworthy share which is the good of this world and the hereafter. This is not the case with those who do this out of natural inclination, for they are only seeking worldly benefits. Allah, Most High, says:
“And among the people is he who says, ‘Our Lord, give us in this world,’ and he will have in the Hereafter no share. But among them is he who says, ‘Our Lord, give us in this world (that which is) good and in the Hereafter (that which is) good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.’ Those will have a share of what they have earned, and Allah is swift in account.” (al-Baqarah (2): 200-202)
This being the case, the seeker of Paradise who also seeks protection from the Fire is only seeking the good of the Hereafter, so his deed is praiseworthy.
What further clarifies the matter and proves the futility of the notion of these people is that the logical consequence of their belief is that a servant ends up following no commands and does not abstain from the unlawful. In other words, he does not pray, fast, give charity, perform the pilgrimage, join jihad, or do any of the acts that bring one closer to Allah because the only benefit of these acts is the reward and the averting of the punishment. If one does not seek the reward, which is Paradise, and does not try to avoid the punishment, which is Hell, he will not follow orders nor abstain from the unlawful. Instead, he will say: ‘I am content with everything that He does with me, even if I am to become an unbeliever and a repugnant sinner.’ In fact, he might even say: “I disbelieve, sin, and disobey until He punishes me and I remain content with that. By doing so I achieve the rank of being content with His decree.” Such words are only uttered by the most ignorant and idiotic beings that have taken the worst path of deviance and unbelief
As for their ignorance and idiocy, it is because being satisfied with that is impossible as it necessitates bringing two contradictories together. As for their unbelief, it is because their belief leads to the nullification of Allah’s religion with which He sent His Messengers and Books.
There is no doubt that thinking about the divine decree has led many Sufis who focus on the issue of will to this abandonment of obligations and committing of sins, and as a result they have become either deficient and deprived of good, or disobedient sinners, or even sheer unbelievers. I have seen all kinds of beliefs like this. Allah says:
“And he to whom Allah has not granted light for him there is no light.’’ (al-Nur (24): 40)
These Mu’tazilites and their ilk from the Qadariyyah hold diametrically opposed views as one group focuses on destiny and dismisses the divine orders and the other group focuses on the divine orders and dismisses destiny. Both groups assume that paying attention to * Both the divine orders and destiny are impossible and one group says that such would be against wisdom and justice. These three parties are the Zoroastrian Qadarites (al-qadariyyah al-mujusiyyah), the Polytheist Qadarites (al-qadariyjah al-mushrikiyyah), and the Iblisite Qadarites (al- qadariyyah al-Iblisiyyah).We have talked about them in detail elsewhere.
The Polytheist Qadarites are the source of what the wayfarers who focus on the issue of will and the lay people have been afflicted with in our times, because they focus on the divine decree but dismiss the divine commands. Some scholars have said about them: ‘When it comes to obedience, you are a Qadarite, but when it comes to sinning, you are a Jabarite! Whenever an ideology agrees with your desires, you adopt it!’
The real Islamic position is the opposite: one must seek the help of Allah before an act of obedience and thank Him after it. He must strive to abstain from sinning, but if he does sin, he must repent at once and seek forgiveness. The hadith of the most virtuous forms of seeking forgiveness (Sayyid al-Istighfar) says: “I acknowledge Your blessings upon me and I acknowledge my sin.” A sahih hadith qudsi states: “My servants! It is only your deeds that I count for you and then give you in full. Let the person who finds good praise Allah, and let the one who finds something else only blame himself.”
This is also where some of the “people of will” stopped invoking Allah and others considered having reliance on Allah and loving Him something that only a layman would resort to. We have talked about these and other similar blunders elsewhere and clarified the difference between the correct position and the wrong ones. This is why some of the Shaykhs command the people to follow sound knowledge and the Sharfah. Sahl Ibn Afidullah al-Tustarl says: ‘All ecstasy (wajd) that is not testified to by the Book and the Sunnah is null and void.’ Al-Junayd Ibn Muhammad says: ‘Our discipline is qualified by the Book and the Sunnah, so he who has not read the Qur’an and has not written hadlth cannot talk about our discipline.’ And Allah knows best.
By Shaykhu’l-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah
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