ONE: How can anyone who has common sense trade Paradise
and what is in it
for the pleasure of one hour?
TWO: When you fear the creation, you feel repelled by it
and run away from it, but when you fear the Creator, you feel close to Him
and run towards
Him.
THREE: If knowledge without action were of benefit, why
did Allaah condemn the scholars of the People of the Book? And if action
without sincerity were of benefit, why did He condemn the hypocrites?
FOUR: Repel the thought, for if you don't, it becomes an
idea. So repel the idea, for if you don't it will become a desire. So fight
against that (desire), for if you don't, it will become a determination and a
passion And if you don't repel that, it will become an action. And if you don't
replace it with its opposite, it will become a constant habit. So at
that point, it will be difficult for you to change it.
FIVE: When a decreed matter occurs to Allaah's a'bd
(slave), which he
dislikes, then he should have six perspectives about it
First: The Perspective of Tawheed: And that Allaah is
the One who decreed it and willed it and created it. And whatever Allaah wills
comes to pass, and whatever He doesn't will doesn't come to passSecond: The Perspective of Fairness: And that He
ruled this event to occur in the past and that there is fairness in His Divine ordainment.
Third: The Perspective of Mercy: And that the person's
mercy with regard to this thing that was decreed supercedes his anger and vengeance
Fourth: The Perspective of Wisdom: And that it was Allaah's infinite Wisdom that brought that about. He did not decree it in vain nor did He divinely execute it for no purpose
Fifth: The Perspective of Praise: And that to Allaah belongs the complete and entire praise for that thing that was decreed from every angle of it.
Sixth: The Perspective of Worship to Allaah
('Ubudiyyah): And that he is a pure worshipper of Allaah from every standpoint.
His Master's Rulings and Decrees occur to him by virtue of his being Allah's
possession and slave. So Allah administers him under His decreed
rulings just as He administers him under His religious rulings. So it (i.e.
the decreed event) becomes a place for these rulings to occur to him.
SIX: Little success (from Allaah), bad views,
unawareness of the truth, corruption of the heart, laziness in making dhikr,
wasting time, distaste for the creation, estrangement between the servant and
his Lord, the prevention of the supplication from being answered, hardening of
the heart, the termination of blessing from ones provision and lifespan, the
prevention of knowledge, being covered in debasement, humiliation at the hands
of the enemy, constricting of the chest, prolonged grief and sorrow, a wretched
life of poverty, and a gloomy state of being are all produced from sins and
neglecting to remember Allaah just as crops are produced from water and burning
from fire. And
the opposites of these things are produced from obedience to Allaah.
SEVEN: If your mind would free itself from the
governorship of your desires,
the state would return back to it.
EIGHT: You have entered into the abode of desires, so
you have put your life
at stake.
NINE: It was once to said to one devout worshipper of
Allaah: "Until when will you continue to exhaust your soul?" So he responded:
"It is its
relaxation that I seek."
TEN: The women of this world were made beautiful to
those who can see in order to test which of them prefers them over the women of
the Hereafter So whoever knows the extent of differences, he will choose what
deserves
to be chosen.
Points of Benefit From al-Fawaa`id of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah