9. O ALLAH, ALLOW US TO RECOGNISE THE REALITY OF EVERYTHING WE SEE
The following supplication was transmitted in one report, “O Allah, allow us to recognise the reality of everything we see.”
These are very eloquent and nice words because most people do not recognise the reality of what they see.
They think of the mortal [i.e. human being] as if he is an immortal being and cannot imagine that there will be an end to their current condition, although they are fully aware of such facts.
The reason for that is because their perceptual eyes only look at the present time and are unable to foresee the end of pleasures and the lasting of its sins. If the thief foresaw the cutting of his hand before stealing, he would have undermined the value of the stolen item.
He who collects wealth and does not spend his wealth is a person who could not see the reality of wealth as being a mere means whereby one can achieve his purposes. It is not something sought for in and of itself.
He who sees the sin with the eyes of lust (shahwa), will not see its reality because sins have all the vices you can name, not to mention its punishment being delayed to the Hereafter and its consequent shame being immediate.
Try to contemplate copulation as the greatest tangible lust of mankind. If you wish to see its reality think of this: the semen is produced only after consuming food and drinking liquids. When you contemplate the food, you will think of the land that needs to be cultivated for a cow and a plough that is made of iron and wood with ropes attached to it.
The plough will make you think of the ropes that will make you come to think of the plant of hemp and how it’s fanned and peeled. And the iron that was used to cut it and flatten it. The wood will make you think of trees and resultant dust, as well as the movement of the wheels and its work, the process of harvesting, fanning and grinding the plants to become wheat then turned to dough that is baked.
The work of the oven and collecting of sticks to heat the oven and many other things if one wants to think of them. This is why people say, ‘for each bite you eat, there are three hundred people who worked until it became a bite in your mouth’.
If one eats this bite of food, one should think of the creation of teeth to cut it and the molar teeth to grind it and the saliva of the mouth that softens it and the tongue that shuffles it around inside the mouth while the muscles of the mouth let part of it pass and some other parts stick in order to facilitate its swallowing.
Then the intestines take it in to deliver it afterwards to the liver that cooks it until it becomes a blood whose deposits are ejected to the spleen and water into the bladder, which takes the best of what the blood and liver purified to the liver, brain and heart.
It marches to the two testicles to prepare the material needed for the creation of a human being.
When the fires of lust move, the drop of semen is gushed forth. The religion declared semen to be pure and so is the womb, and the place where the member of a man penetrates and as a result a human being who testifies that Allah is One is created.
In light of all the above, it is evident that a human has not come into existence until the Most Precious has been implored and after wonders have taken place, and not as a result of things we have made!
Do you think a person who understands the above would waste this semen in unlawful places? Or even penetrate his organ in a filthy place causing this pure semen to be wasted? There are plenty of disasters that result because of adultery and fornication, making the pleasure of one moment nothing compared to one tenth of its harm such as: violating the honour of people, exposing what are unlawful to be sighted, betraying his Muslim brother when cheating with his wife, if she was married.
And the scandal resulting for the female he committed fornication with as she is has a status of his sister and daughter. If she gets pregnant while she is married, the child will be deemed the child of her husband and so this fornicator will cause that child to receive inheritance from his father though he is not entitled to it and prevents someone from receiving inheritance [as in some cases in inheritance when a child is born].
This will continue from one generation to another. As for the wrath of Allah upon the fornicator, it is known. Allah said,
“And come not near to the unlawful sexual intercourse. Verily, it is a fahishah [i.e. anything that transgresses its limits (a great sin)], and an evil way.” [al-Isra (17): 32],
And the Prophet said: “There is no sin greater after associating partners with Allah, in the sight of Allah, than a drop of semen which a man puts in a womb of a woman who is not allowed for him.”
And whoever understands the reality of things will know that the purpose of this drop of semen is to bring into existence people who worship one Lord.
Was it not for the desire to have sex, copulation would never happen because copulation requires the use of the private organs, which are not deemed pretty in appearance or smell; yet the lust is what makes one overlook all these ugly attributes in order to produce a child since this lust is temporary and so whoever sought fulfilling his lust and overlooked the crime of adultery and fornication, is indeed a person who does not see the reality of things.
This example you can apply to other issues such as food, drink, money etc.
(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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