Having Hope in Allaah The Almighty - II

It is rare for one to benefit from his faith if his heart is full of
evil, just as seeds cannot grow in saline water or a swamp. The
slave's hope can be compared to that of a farmer's. Only if a
farmerseeks good, fertile soil, sows quality seeds in it, waters it
and takes good care of it, can he thenwait for the favour of Allaah
The Almighty. This is real hope.
On the other hand, if the farmer were to implant his seeds in a
swampy, slanted area where water cannot reach, it would be ridiculous
of him to expect any result or hope for anything to grow there. Also,
if the farmer were to plant good seeds in goodsoil, but it is above
ground level and on a hilly slope so that watercannot reach it; he
certainly cannot hope for plants to grow there, but he might indulge
in wishful thinking.
Hope means waiting eagerly for results after one has exerted all
efforts and employed all possible means available to them. Therefore,
one should exert oneself in performing acts of obedience and worship
and then wait for the bounties from AllaahThe Almighty to make him
steadfast, to protect him from deviating until he dies, and to guard
him from misguidance until he leaves this world and meets a Lord Who
is pleased withhim.
The person with hope is someone who has been consistent in his acts of
obedience and fulfils the implications of faith. He hopes that Allaah
The Almighty will not cause him to stray from the straight path; he
hopes that Allaah The Almighty will accept his good deeds and not
reject them; he hopes that Allaah The Almighty will reward him
doubly.This is a person who can be said to have exerted all possible
efforts, and who can then hope for the mercy of his Lord.
Conversely, someone who habitually indulges in immoral acts, fails to
water his heart with obedience, and does not curb his pleasures and
lusts, and then hopes for the forgiveness and mercy of Allaah The
Almighty, is adeceived fool. Allaah The Almighty Says (what means):
{Andthere followed them successors who inherited the Scripture [while]
taking the commodities [i.e. unlawful gains and pleasures] of this
lower life and saying, 'It will be forgiven for us.'} [Quran, 7: 169]
In the Quran, Allaah The Almightytells us what the ungrateful
disbeliever said, whom Allaah TheAlmighty blessed with a garden: (what
means): {I do not think the Hour will occur. And even if I should be
brought back to my Lord, I will surely find better thanthis as a
return.} [Quran, 18: 36] This was a case of wishful thinking on his
part.
Hope is a cure that two types of people require:
1. Those who have reached the state of despairing from the mercy of
Allaah The Almighty, to the point that they have given up worshipping
Him, concluding that it is fruitless and useless.
2. Those whose fear has overwhelmed them to the point that they have
caused harm uponthemselves and their families; such fear transgresses
the limits permitted in Islam, and thus these people must correct
themselves and be balanced by also having hope in Allaah The Almighty.
Talking to some people about hope can cure and motivate them; however,
it does not cure those deceived sinners who thinkthat they possess
hope, but in fact are only wishful thinkers because they wish for the
forgiveness of Allaah The Almighty whilst not doing enough acts of
worship. Talking about hope with such people would only cause an
increase in their transgression and make them stray even further. The
only way to help them is to severely admonish them into refraining
from sinning – which is a very important point that we must all pay
attention to.
Some of the scholars said, "The person admonishing others should be
kind and look to the areas of weakness and disease in people and
address them, aimingto cure each person according to his level and
situation; but nowadays, one should not address matters from the hope
perspective, but rather exaggerate in terrifying them. The admonisher
should only mention the virtues of having hope and how one can attain
it inorder to attract the hearts." Thus, one should scare people, but
not to the level of making them feel despair, as 'Ali said,"The true
scholar is the one who does not make people give up on the mercy of
Allaah, nor make them feel secure from His wrath." - - ▓███▓
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Having Hope in Allaah The Almighty - I

There are certain deeds that should never be neglected, whichaffect
the heart permanently. Yet,some people, due to their weakness in
faith, may be careless and may not perform them regularly.
One deed of the heart is to have constant hope in the kindness,
generosity and favours of Allaah The Almighty. One should be
optimistic and never lose hope in the bounty of Allaah The Almighty,
which He bestows on whom He wills. However, this hope should be
coupled with a reason, or means, for one to feel that it will be
realised. Thus, one should keep performing good deeds that give one
the opportunity to harbour hope in the generosity and kindness of
Allaah The Almighty, for if these means are not present, then it is
mere wishful thinking on one's part.
Hope is not for a person who is lazy and does not endeavor to remain
upon the path of those who strive and exert great efforts. Such a
person is just like someone who wants to grow plants and see them
bearing fruit, without bothering to cultivate or water the seeds. Is
this person equal to another, who digs the soil, plants the seeds and
waters them carefully and regularly? Only the latter can realistically
hope that his plants will grow fruitful. This is also the case
regarding hope for the bestowal of the mercy and bounty of Allaah The
Almighty.
Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {It [i.e. Paradise] is not
[obtained] by your wishful thinking nor by that of the Peopleof the
Scripture.} [Quran, 4: 123] Moreover, it was said, "Faith is not
wishful thinking, but rather, it is what is instilled in the heart and
proven by good deeds."
Hope is necessary for those who are heading towards Allaah The
Almighty, because if a devout worshiper loses hope, then he is heading
for ruin. A sincere Muslim hopes that Allaah The Almighty will forgive
his sins and that He will enable him to rectify a fault in himself. He
hopes that Allaah The Almighty will accepts his good deeds and hopes
to draw closer to Allaah The Almighty. Thus, hope is one of the most
important means that one must possess in order to continue his journey
towards Allaah The Almighty with steadfastness, especially during the
age of trials and tribulations we now live in.
Hope is a means of steadfastness.It is the complete opposite of
despair, and to feel despair is to give up on the mercy of Allaah The
Almighty, which is a sin in itself, as Allaah The Almighty Says(what
means): {And despair not of relief from Allaah. Indeed, no one
despairs of relief from Allaah except the disbelieving people.}
[Quran, 12: 87] This was the advice of Prophet Ya'qoob tohis sons.
How does one achieve hope?
• By remembering the past favorsof Allaah The Almighty on you.
• By remembering the promise ofgreat rewards from Allaah The Almighty,
and remembering His generosity and kindness towards his slaves,
especially when his slaves do not even ask Him for them and are
unworthy of receiving them. The slave will continue receiving all
these blessings and favours as long as he remains upon the straight
path.
• By remembering the bounties of Allaah The Almighty with regards to
one's faith, body, and life in general.
• By remembering the great mercy of Allaah The Almighty andthat His
mercy precedes His wrath, and that He is the entirely Merciful, the
especially Merciful; that He is Kind and Compassionate. Thus,
acquiring hope in Allaah The Almighty can be achieved by knowing His
Names and Attributes.
Those whose hearts are alive recognize the fallacy of this world, and
realise that this life is like a field in which they plant seeds for
the Hereafter. The similitude of the heart is like thatof the earth.
Just as the earth must have seeds sown in it for it to yield fruits,
the heart requires acts of obedience to make it flourish and remain
alive. Just as the earth requires continuous attention, watering,
digging, andso on, the heart requires continuous attention; it is
enlivened by its obedience of Allaah The Almighty. Just as the earth
needs maintenance like removing harmful weeds from around the plants,
the heart needs to be purified from doubts and desires, lest they ruin
the fruits of one's acts of obedience, which have been irrigated with
the water of servitude. - - ▓███▓ Translator:->
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Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah (691-751 A.H.)

"Through patience and poverty one attains leadership in religion.The
seeker of Truth needs the will that will inspire him and push him
upward and (religious) knowledge that will lead him andguide him."
These words of our hero sum up the personality of this great
man,Muhammad bin Abi Bakr, who is better known as Ibn Qayyim
Al-Jawziyyah or Ibn Al-Qayyim . He was born in 691 AH.
He began his long journey onthe road of learning early in his life,
moving from one teacher to another to quench his thirst for knowledge.
At the age of 21 (in 712 AH), Ibn Al-Qayyim met his teacher Ibn
Taymiyyah another great hero of Islam and arevivalist of the faith.
Their companionship lasted to the end of the teacher's life. Ibn
Al-Qayyim kept close company to Ibn Taymiyyah with whom he suffered
the pains of imprisonment and flogging manytimes. Apparently, it was
from Ibn Taymiyyah that Ibn Al-Qayyim learnt many special qualities
such as frankness and courage in defiance of the falsehood of others,
including those in authority. For both, the truth hadto be said
regardless of the consequences. However, unlike his teacher, Ibn
Al-Qayyim was less fierce in his attacks -- in words or actions.
The 8th century AH witnessed a state of ignorance and feuds in the
Muslim community. Muslims were fighting each other, and each trying to
impose his authority in everything, including religious opinion and
scholarship,which suffered from stagnation. The majority of religious
scholars were acting more like 'recorders' of knowledge rather than
true scholars and teachers. To them, their teachers were the main, if
not the sole, source of knowledge, and the schools of thought they
blindly imitated were the only acceptable ways.
Like his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Al-Qayyim spent his life
attempting to correct the wrong course the community was following. He
fought the exaggerated reverence for the tombs of the pious despite
the strong resistance he met from the masses. He tried to show the
errors committed by the misled sects and their blind followers. He
considered that the disputes and fights among the Muslims of his time
were caused by their sectarian attitude and chauvinistic practices,
each one considering himself and his sect or school of thought the
only right one, and claiming that everyone else was on the wrong path.
Ibn Al-Qayyim spent most of his time and great efforts trying to unite
the people, pointing out to them the dangers of blind imitation of the
predecessors. He explained that a Muslim should be open-minded; that
is, he should accept what is right and good regardless of the teacher,
as long as what he or she acceptsis consistent with the Quran and the
Sunnah, the consensus of the scholars, and the general spirit ofthe
faith. To him imitation was wrong in the following cases:
If it entails violation of Divine teachings,
If it represents an act of blind following of people we are not sure
of their knowledge,
If it is in defiance of truth after finding it.
It was blind imitation that caused stagnation in scholarship and
differences among people. Some so-called scholars, he pointed out,
were not really scholars of Islam but rather simple propagators of
others' opinions. To those people the words and views of their
teachers or leaders were the onlycorrect way of understanding
thefaith, to the extent that they subjected even the interpretationof
the Quran and the prophetic teachings to the views of their teachers,
which they wrongly took for the ultimate criteria.
Ibn Al-Qayyim considered that the sources of religious knowledge were
to be taken in the following order:
1) ) The Quran, (2) The Sunnah (the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, )
and (3) The teachings of the companions of the Prophet . To these, one
could add the consensus of Muslim scholars and analogy. Bigotry and
prejudice were to him the enemies of learning. To propagate his views,
he wrote scores of books besides teaching directly to the people.
In his private life, Ibn Al-Qayyim was a very pious and devout
worshipper who spent most of his time in prayers and recitation of the
Quran. He was, in fact, an ascetic who rejected the unorthodox
practices of some Sufis (mystics) who claimed that religious teachings
had external and internal sides, implying that religious obligations
(such as prayers, fasting during Ramadhaan etc.) did not apply to
them.
As pointed out earlier, our hero was a man of courage and frankness to
whom truth was theultimate goal. His open-minded and flexible attitude
is reflected in his views on the correct understanding of religious
laws ( Sharee'ah ), and that these should be interpreted in the
lightof the circumstances of time and place, because Islam is intended
and practicable for mankind at alltimes. He wrote many books to
explain this invaluable principle. Many of his views find their
application in the legal system of modern nations, more than six
centuries after his death in 751 AH. - - ▓███▓ Translator:->
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Excessiveness is the Way of Satan

When excessiveness befalls some people, they go beyond all limits.
Some of these people want to do the most perfect of acts, but theygo
astray. Facts state that such people end up giving up the performance
of these righteous deeds altogether. Ibn Hajar said, "If a person
delves into religious deeds and abandons moderation, he will stop and
will become unable to continue, and will be consequently overwhelmed."
The Prophet said: "The religion [of Islam] is easy. Whoever
overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in
that way." Satan has driven such people to excessiveness when he found
in them audacity and courage, so hecaused them to deviate from the
right path.
The religion of Allaah is only one true religion: Islam. It is in a
middle stage between excessiveness and disinclination. The Prophet
warned us against excessiveness and said: "Beware of excessiveness in
religion. Indeed excessiveness in religion caused those [nations]
before you to perish." Ponder over what the Prophet said when he knew
about the case of the three people who swore to do excessive acts; one
of them said, "I will not marry." The second said, "I will not eat
meat," and the third said, "I will not sleep on a bed." Then, the
Prophet said: "How is it that some people said such and such a thing?
I pray and sleep; fast andbreak my fast and marry women. So, whoever
turns away from my Sunnah is not a true follower of me." Moreover, the
Prophet said thrice: "Doomed are those who go to extremes" Does not
this indicate the danger of excessiveness and extremism?
The Righteous Predecessors' Warning Against Excessiveness
The righteous predecessors and scholars knew the danger of
excessiveness and warned against it. When a man asked 'Umar ibn
Al-Khattaab about the meaning of the Arabic word "Abb" which means
"grass" in the verse (which means): {And fruit and grass} [Quran
80:31], 'Umar said, "We were forbidden from excessiveness and
exaggeration." Also, 'Ubaadah ibn Nusayy once said to his people, "I
witnessed people who neither went to extremes like you nor asked
questions like you."
In another example, a man wrotea letter to 'Umar ibn 'Abdul-'Azeez
asking about fate. 'Umar ibn 'Abdul-'Azeez wrote in reply,
I advise you to fear Allaah, to be moderate in applying His commands,
to follow the Sunnah of His Prophet and to abandon what innovators
innovated [in the religion] after the Sunnah of the Prophet was
established. They [the righteous predecessors] were saved [by Allaah
The Almighty] from the burden of innovation [as Allaah The Almighty
has completed and perfected His religion in a way that makes it free
of the need of any additions or omissions]. You should follow the
Sunnah, for it will protect you[from deviation, destruction or
punishment].
You should know that for any innovation in religion, there is a proof
before it [mentioned in the Quran or the Sunnah to indicate that it is
a religious innovation] or there is a lesson in them [in the Quran and
Sunnah] which proves that [this new thing is a religious innovation].
After all, the Sunnah is prescribed by the One who knows that what
contradicts it is wrong, faulty, and foolish.
So, follow the same way that wasadopted by the righteous predecessors,
for they had great knowledge, and with deep insight they forbade
[religious innovations]. They were more able to recognize matters [of
religion]. They are worthier to be followed by virtue of their state
of belief. If what you follow is the[true] guidance, then, you have
surpassed and preceded them to it [which is clearly wrong].
If you said that which was innovated after them, it is [also wrong]
because it was invented by those who followed other than their way and
were preferred to them, indeed, you are wrong for they were the
foremost [in faith and performing righteous deeds]. They [the
righteous predecessors] identified and clarified religious matters
extensively and thoroughly in a way that leaves no room for anyone to
increase or decrease inthem.
Some people abandoned matters that they [the righteous predecessors]
did not abandon so that they became negligent; and some aspired to go
beyond them so that they went to extremes. However, the righteous
predecessors are in themiddle of these two levels, as they were
following the right path.
You wrote to ask about fate [whether believing in it is Sunnahor
religious innovation]. You haveasked, Allaah willing, a knowledgeable
person. I do not know of any innovation whose effects are clearer or
more established than [writing and recording] belief in fate. People
used to mention it even in the dark pre-Islamic era in their
discussions and poetry to consolethemselves on what they had missed.
Then Islam enhanced andclarified belief in fate. The Prophet mentioned
it in morethan one or two Hadeeths. Muslims heard it from him and
talked about it during his lifetimeand after his death. They did so
while they were certain of it and submissive to their Lord, believing
that it is impossible for anything not to be encompassed by the
knowledge of Allaah The Almighty, nor recorded in His Book [the
Preserved Tablet], nor decreed and effected by Him.
Fate is mentioned in the decisive verses of the Quran, and they
[therighteous predecessors] quoted and learned it from them. If you
ask, "Why did Allaah reveal the verse of such and such? Why did He say
such and such?" then you should realize that they [the righteous
predecessors] read what you have read and knew about its meanings what
you are ignorant of. After that, they admitted that there is a decree
and a fate [predestined by Allaah The Almighty], that misery was
decreed [on some people], that whatever is destined will take place,
that what Allaah wills happens, and what He does not will does not
happen, and that we do not possess for ourselves harm or benefit.
Then, they liked [good deeds] andfeared [committing wrongdoingswithout
taking their belief in fateas a justification for not doing good
deeds]. [Abu Daawood, Al-Albaani - Saheeh]
Yet another example is that a man came to Ibn 'Aqeel and said, "I dip
myself in water several times but I doubt whether my Ghusl is valid or
not, what is your opinion?" Ibn 'Aqeel said, "O man, go! You are
notrequired to perform prayer." The man asked, "Why?" Ibn 'Aqeel said,
"Because the Prophet said: Three [types of people] are not held
responsible for their acts: the insane until he regains consciousness
…' and a person who dips himself in water severaltimes and then doubts
whether water touched him or not, is clearly insane!"
Types of Excessiveness
Excessiveness has many types:
Excessiveness in Religion: This occurs when a person has false
beliefs, such as the Christian belief that 'Eesa (Jesus) is God or the
son of God, and the Jewish belief that he was an illegitimate child.
This type of excessiveness exists also in the deviated sects such as
the Khawaarij, the Shiites, and the Murji'ah.
Excessiveness in Knowledge: This occurs when words are distorted from
their proper usages.
Excessiveness in Worship: This occurs when a person overburdens
himself in worship until he gets apathetic, then hates worship and
quits it altogether.
Excessiveness in People or Groups: This occurs when a person holds
some people or a particular group in a higher rank than theirs or
takes their opinions and attitudes as the very basis of allegiance and
disassociation.
How Can we Know Excessiveness?
If excessiveness is so dangerous, is every person entitled to judge
that certain individuals or groupsmay have gone beyond Sharee'ah
limits? Here, reliable scholars should be referred to in this regard
in order to judge whether some acts or doings are excessiveor not.
Dissolute and secular people consider every religious act excessive;
they regard the Hijaab, the beard and the referring to the Islamic
Sharee'ahitself, for example, as acts of excessiveness.
Is Excessiveness an Islamic Phenomenon?
In other words, does excessiveness exist only in Islamic societies? In
fact, reality and history prove that excessiveness is not confined to
Muslims only; Christians and Jewsalso have many forms of
excessiveness. Some modern societies also suffer from a lot of
excessiveness. Different groups inthe world, whether religious or
nationalistic, also suffer from thisdisease. So, it is improper to
blindly follow others and confine this accusation to Muslims. Worse
than this is when some of us approve other's opinions which claim that
the teaching of the Sharee'ah and religious curricula in Muslim
countries is the cause behind some types of excessiveness, although
our history and reality prove that ignorance of Islamic rulings is, in
fact, the greatest cause of excessiveness, but would anyone heed the
lesson?
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