Chapter on Knowing What the Servant Must First Prepare
Chapter on Knowing What the Servant Begins With of Preparation for Standing Before God Most High
Let the first thing you begin with of preparation for that standing be taqwa (mindful fear) of God, Mighty and Majestic, in secret and in public, so that your heart may be secure in that standing «with the hearts of the God-fearing» when He fulfills for them what He promised them of security, felicity, and joy.
And what you see of His gentle care of them in this world, along with what He gives them in the Hereafter, «until He illuminated their hearts» and made them know themselves, and enriched them thereby from His creation, and bestowed upon them bliss through His obedience. So He bound their hearts with fear together with good expectation of Him and intimacy with His hope, then He crowned that with longing for Him, Mighty and Majestic, and for His Garden. So He transferred them from hardship to bliss through obedience to Him and joy of splendor, and He cut them off from this world with little [effort], and made their livelihood pleasant therein, and perfected therein His aid and support of them. And that is what He promised them, for God, Mighty and Majestic, said: «Indeed God is with those who believe and those who do good» [16:128].
Is there upon one with whom God, Mighty and Majestic, stands through aid and support any harm or abandonment? For they are the most honored of creatures in souls, the most illuminated in hearts, the most enriched by Him in wealth, the most pleasant in livelihood. Their grief is in what delights people, and their joy is in what grieves people. Their pursuit is of what people flee from, and their fleeing is from what others among the people of heedlessness and delusion desire. They find intimacy when people feel estrangement, since their intimacy was with God, Mighty and Majestic, alone in devotion to His intimate converse. So with Him they lay down their sorrows, and to Him they turn in their needs. They had taken Him as a refuge, a shelter, and a sanctuary , and they trusted in Him apart from His creation. They cut themselves off to Him, Mighty and Majestic, from every distraction that would cut them off from Him. They felt estrangement when people felt intimacy—in withdrawal from creatures and in intimacy with their Lord.
It is the foundation of works and the root of obedience, and it is the first station of the worshippers, and the loftiest of the legacies of taqwa, because the supererogatory acts come after it, and no supererogatory act is accepted except through it and with it, and it is that which
it became widespread. And the reciters — those who strove in worship — and the greatness of its worth and the worth of those who upheld it with splendor, and he drew attention to it and to the way of God (upon it), and the greatness of his adherence to His sunna (prophetic practice), and the worth of the scholars after him up to this age of ours.
As for the explanation of what God, exalted and mighty, commanded in His Book: He [the narrator] said: Sunayd ibn Dawud narrated to us, on the authority of… «And cooperate in» [al-Ma'ida 5:2]…
On the authority of al-Hasan, he said: The worshippers have not worshipped God with anything more excellent than abandoning what He forbade them from.
He said: al-Walid narrated to us; he said: 'Umar ibn Hafs ibn Thabit al-Ansari narrated to us, on the authority of Sufyan al-Thawri, on the authority of a man, on the authority of al-Hasan, he said: «Indeed, God is with those who have taqwa (God-consciousness) and those who are doers of good» [al-Nahl 16:128]. He said: They had taqwa of God — exalted be His praise — regarding what He forbade them from, and they excelled in what He made obligatory upon them.
And Sunayd ibn Dawud narrated to us: «And when it is said to them: Fear what is before you and what is behind you» [Ya Sin 36:45] — he said: from sins. So seek mercy by abandoning sins.
And Abu al-Nasr narrated to us, on the authority of Shu'ba, on the authority of Mansur, on the authority of Ibrahim or Mujahid, regarding the saying of the Most High: «And for the one who feared the standing before his Lord, two gardens» [al-Rahman 55:46] — he said: He intends to sin, then he fears his Lord [and refrains]. Or: that which the soul speaks of within itself — he said: «that which the breasts conceal» [Ghafir 40:19].