Chapter on What Lightens the Weight of Reflection upon the Heart

Chapter on What Lightens Reflection upon the Heart

I said: What causes it to dry up? He said: Heedlessness (ghafla). I said: What bequeaths heedfulness? He said: Knowledge (ma'rifa) — by the greatness of knowing the magnitude of what the reflective person attains through reflection of benefits in this world and the Hereafter, and by the greatness of knowing the magnitude of the harm of heedlessness from reflection upon the Return.

I said: If these three traits assail him when he recalls the greatness of what is attained through reflection of benefits, what then repels them when reflection weighs heavily upon him through the assailing of the three traits?

He said: The servant turns back to himself regarding these three. Since they appeared to him at the point of his resolve upon reflection — whether all three appeared or some of them without others — each trait among them contains a lesson in which he recalls its cause, being of a kind akin to the severities of the Hereafter, nay even greater and more overwhelming. So he turns back to himself with reproach and rebuke regarding that, saying to it:

Does it distress you that I imprison your intellect within you from gazing at the delights of this world? Then how about your imprisonment in the Fire forever? So bear this small, light burden for the sake of deliverance from the long imprisonment in the Fire. Nay, does it distress you that your intellect is imprisoned within you from gazing at this world for the sake of your deliverance and your triumph in the Return? Do not grieve if you have abandoned the reflection that bars you from acts of disobedience that would bequeath you imprisonment and leave you in the Fire forever.

As for imprisonment in the Fire — be distressed then, and bear this small, passing burden for the sake of everlasting deliverance.

As for your distress at the torment of recalling the punishment — how then would be your distress at encountering it? Reflection upon it is easier than directly experiencing it. So bear the torment of recalling it for the sake of deliverance from abiding therein forever.

As for your fleeing from contemplation of what would save you from God's punishment out of dislike that it should spoil your pleasures in this world — then how about the spoiling of the pleasures of the Hereafter for you, and deprivation of the bliss therein? Moreover, God will not leave you to your own devices if you are truthful with Him, along with what you attain of the blessings of the Hereafter as your rightful due — He will grant you bliss through obedience to Him in this world.

For in the blessings of obedience in this world and the attainment of the bliss of the Hereafter there is compensation for the diminishment of worldly pleasures. The worldly pleasures themselves are not — if you but reason — true blessings, but rather a burning of the heart that never ceases, and a craving that never ends, and a darkness in which there is no rest. For when the heart is stripped — through disobedience to God — of the light of obedience and its blessings, then humiliation and disgrace and suffering befall your very self in this world, and the blessing lies in exchanging them for honor, wealth, and delight in the obedience of your Lord.

For the abandonment of pleasure for God's sake is, in the estimation of the one who desires Him, nobler and more lasting in the heart as a pleasure than the pleasure of committing what God detests. For the servant who obtains pleasure for an hour is followed by prolonged regret. And when he abandons it, his pleasure in having abandoned it is like the recollection that he abandoned it in pursuit of [God's] good pleasure, and hope, and the expectation that God may be pleased with him for his having abandoned it, and he finds a joy that is born in his heart — that joy does not cease until he dies.

I said: Reflective thought (fikra) may be obscured from me, and I do not know its path — so what opens it? He said: The gathering together of one's concerns (hamm), along with the demanding [of the self] through the intellect (ʿaql), and reliance upon the Lord — exalted is He — not upon the intellect.

And God — mighty and glorious is He — has described those who truly listen not merely with love but with the gathering of their concerns, for the Almighty said, as one who says: «Indeed in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart or gives ear while he is present» [Qaf 50:37]. The interpreters said: "present" means not absent.

So the presence of the intellect is needed because the intellect is only preoccupied with the scattering of one's concerns in worldly matters. But when the concerns are gathered together, the intellect becomes present and does not stray from reflective thought upon what God loves. Likewise it has been narrated from al-ʿUlāʾ — that is, [al-ʿUlāʾ] — that he was asked: What opens reflective thought? He said: The gathering together of one's concerns. For when the servant's concerns are gathered, he reflects; and when he reflects, he contemplates; and when he contemplates, he perceives.

Chapter on Striving Against What Is Obtained Thereby

I said: So what is striving against it?

He said: Two dispositions: One of them is cutting off the occupation of the limbs with everything other than the thing he intends to reflect upon. For looking with the eye distracts and diverts the qalb (heart), and listening with the ear is likewise, and touching with the hand is likewise — except for a look or a listening by which one seeks assistance in reflecting upon what he intends to reflect upon. Like a man who admonishes you, so you listen to him to understand from him what he says, or you look at him, or reading in the scriptures or the pages of knowledge.

And God, Exalted and Glorious, has described the one who understands thereby, and He said: «Those who listen to the word and follow the best of it» [39:18]. And Abdullah ibn Mas'ud said: The people nearly pierced you with their gazes. And likewise, that you look at things to take admonition from them. But as for what is other than that, do not occupy your limbs with anything from the affairs of this world. So when you intend to reflect — whether you are in solitude, or listening, or taking admonition — then cut off the occupation of your limbs with worldly matters, for that closes upon you the gate of reflection. And regarding that is His saying: «When they listen to you» [17:47] — and His saying: «in secrecy» .

And God described the believing jinn thereby and praised them, and He said: «And when they attended it, they said: Listen attentively!» [46:29] — meaning understanding the Book of God's Messenger, may God's blessings be upon him. And God, Exalted and Glorious, said: «And when the Quran is recited, listen to it and pay attention» [7:204]. So the Blessed and Most High commanded the abandoning of speech in order to attain thereby the understanding of His Book.

And it is narrated from Hamza ibn Abdullah ibn Mas'ud that he said: Blessed is the one whose heart is not distracted by what his eyes see, and who does not forget the remembrance of his Lord by what his ears hear. So when the servant cuts off the occupation of his limbs so that they do not

The Second:

And likewise, Abu Hurayra reported from the Prophet ﷺ that he said: "In the heart of every son of Adam there are valleys and branches. Whoever lets his heart follow those branches, God does not care in which of his valleys he perishes."

That is: that he should not reflect upon that which is of no consequence. And His saying: «or who gave ear and is a witness» [Qaf:37] — that is, he listens attentively.

And that is reported from Mujahid and others.

So when the servant cuts off the occupation of his limbs from outward things, and cuts off the excess of thought from inward things, and prevents his heart from thinking except about what he intends to reflect upon, his concern becomes unified and his intellect becomes present.

Likewise, we have seen the people of this world: when one of them wishes to determine something of his worldly affairs — the planning of work he wishes to do, or an accounting he wishes to settle — he prevents his hearing and his sight from being occupied with anything other than what he intends to do and perfect, and he prevents his heart from looking into anything else, out of dislike that his accounting not be settled properly — for if his heart becomes occupied with thinking about something else, or the eyes look, or the ears listen to something other than that, the intellect inclines toward it, and his accounting becomes confused.

So when the servant cuts off the occupation of his limbs from this world during the time of his reflection, and prevents his heart from looking into anything of this world, his concern becomes unified.

Then, when his concern becomes unified, he should reflect with tawakkul (trust in God) upon God — not relying upon his own intellect — for reflection then opens for him by the grace of God. This is because the servant may be heedless of that: when his concern becomes unified, he relies upon his intellect because of what he knows from his own acumen. And the enemy may whisper to him that reflection is only blocked from you by your preoccupation

and he forgets his Lord, Most High, and relies upon his own intellect. "For when your concern is present, reflection will be opened for you"—but I fear that what he seeks of good will not be opened for him.

Among such is the hadith of Sulayman, the Prophet, upon him be peace, concerning the child. He said:

"Tonight I shall go around to a hundred women, and each woman shall conceive a boy who will fight in the path of God as a horseman." And he did not say, "If God wills." So none of them conceived except one woman, who brought forth half a child. The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: "Had he said, 'If God wills,' it would have been as he wished."

When you reflect upon the return to God, and upon the enormity of the measure of punishment in His presence, by frightening your nafs (the self) the enormity of the measure of punishment [grows] in your qalb (heart) until khawf (fear) surges to the point that it nearly destroys you. The likeness of frightening [the self] in relation to fear is none other than the likeness of fuel in relation to boiling—like the fire stoked beneath a full cauldron: whenever the fuel is sustained, the boiling intensifies.

Likewise the servant: whenever he sustains reflection through frightening [the self] by the remembrance of punishment, the abundance of terrors, the enormity of the questioning, together with knowledge of the greatness of the right of God, Mighty and Exalted, the obligation of obedience to Him, and that he is one who squanders much of that—fear surges.

When fear surges, it casts into the heart the abandonment of persisting in sins, and [the servant] becomes averse to them in revulsion; he regrets, repents (tawba), becomes humble in khashya (reverent awe), and turns back [to God]. Likewise with the fuel: whenever the sustained fuel intensifies, the boiling intensifies, and when the boiling intensifies, the cauldron casts out some of what is within it. So whoever increases in reflection by frightening his self—his Lord threatening him and warning him—his fear surges. He extinguishes the fire of his desires upon which he had persisted, becomes averse to them, breathes freely, ceases from sins, and fears their consequence. This is especially so when he makes reflection constant while he recites the Book of God, Mighty and Exalted, reflecting upon His promise and His threat, the terrors of the Resurrection, and its severities. That is the most fruitful of reflection—when it accompanies the recitation of the Book of God, Mighty and Exalted.