Chapter on Knowing When the Servant Should Be Moved to Urgency

Chapter on Knowing When the Servant Takes Fright and Feels Need Toward God Most High

The approach of rajāʾ (hope) at that time is that it be within the precedence of His knowledge, His decree, and His appointment for His Lord, and that the moment is the date of the ruling of His patronage, and the seal of one whom He has made felicitous, that He may purify him before His meeting, and adorn him for presentation before Him. So God grants him resolve for tawba (repentance) at every sin so that he remembers Him, and abandonment [of sin] until he knows Him, and the fulfillment of wrongs owed to their rightful people in the immediate life of this world, and humbling oneself before them in hope of being honored in the Hereafter through safety from being singled out before the hands of God — until, when he is granted resolve not to return to his sins, and to fulfill all of God's rights and what he owed of them.

Such as prayer that he neglected during his period of ignorance, or fasting, or kinship ties that he severed — for many of the reciters spend a long time in their recitation, while upon them are prayers they squandered during their period of ignorance, and they do not remember that making them up is incumbent upon them — like one who was negligent while in a state of major ritual impurity, or intoxication, or a deficiency in ablution that renders prayer invalid, yet this does not grieve him regarding the prayer, and his recitation makes him forget what was upon him during his period of ignorance.

When the servant resolves to fulfill all of God's rights after his knowledge of that, at that point the enemy has deceits against the nafs (self), showing him that he will only attain what he resolved upon through his intellect and his strength, and that after his resolve he will never be overcome, and he forgets tawakkul (trust in God) upon his Lord, so he is not safe from abandonment.

Among the evidence for that is the hadith of Salman, peace be upon him, that he was not given what he sought by the intention of his resolve, since he neglected tawakkul upon his Lord, Mighty and Majestic, by abandoning the exception [saying "God willing"], as the Chosen One ﷺ said.

And as God revealed:

Among them was he who said when the Prophet ﷺ reproached his Companions on the day of Hunayn, saying: "Today no band shall be overcome by reason of fewness" — while they were the best band on earth, fighting in anger for God's sake, supporting the religion of God, along with those who followed them, not a band worshipping other than God — and on the day they neglected that which they were entrusted with of tawakkul (trust in God). So God, Exalted and Glorious, said — when they were gathering to fight the enemies of God — «when your great numbers pleased you», so that the Most High might teach them that He is their helper and He is the one who grants them victory over their enemy. Then He turned upon them with victory, as an honoring of His Prophet ﷺ, and God Most High sent down concerning that a Quran by which He made known to them what had been from them. And the hadiths concerning that are many.

Knowledge of Returning to God and Trust in Him

If one is a servant possessed of reason, he turns at that point to [recognition of] his own weakness, and to the mention of the strength of his Lord, Most High. He turns to Him in desire for assistance from Him in fulfilling His rights and observing them, and he entreats Him with a heart full of awe and longing: "Indeed I forget if You do not remind me, and I am incapable and too weak if You do not strengthen me, and I become anxious if You do not grant me sabr (patient endurance)."

And if he does not entreat his Lord with this, let that be his resolve in seeking assistance. So he resolves and places his tawakkul (trust in God), and seeks help, and seeks rescue, and abandons [reliance on] any power or strength except the benevolence of God, Blessed and Most High, and directs all his hope to his Creator and Master — for he shall find God near, responsive, graciously bestowing favor and compassion.

And likewise is the matter of one who turns back to Him and resolves upon obedience to Him, for He said to His Prophet regarding this: «So when you have resolved, then place your trust in God».

And He described His righteous servant Shu'ayb, peace be upon him, by mentioning what he abandoned, and with tawakkul (trust in God) along with that by seeking enablement from his Lord, and with working in accordance with what He loves. He said: «I desire nothing but reform so far as I am able. My enablement is only through God. In Him I trust, and to Him I turn» [Hud:88].

What arises of self-admiration from the devil and the nafs (self) through aggrandizing the spiritual stations:

In this state, the nafs and the devil deceive through thoughts of self-admiration by aggrandizing this station, and they both call him to attribute that to himself—that he arrived at this only through his intellect, his astuteness, his work, his understanding, his discernment, his resolve, and his strength—rejoicing in himself at his strength over that. Thus he praises himself for that while forgetting that his Lord bestowed that upon him and favored him with it.

If he is heedless and deluded and attributes that to himself—that he is the one who arrived at this solely through his intellect and his astuteness, his sincerity and his striving—and forgets the blessing of his Lord, then at that point he deserves to be consigned to himself. This is like what is narrated from Ibn 'Abbas that David, peace be upon him, when he committed the sin, [it was because] self-admiration had impressed him with admiration of himself.

The mention of ʿujb (self-admiration) in its entirety and self-admiration will be discussed in a place other than this, God willing.

Knowledge of admonition and awakening, and what God bestows upon him through alertness:

He alerts him to the grave peril by awakening him, and that this was through God's blessing upon him, and that his nafs in itself is innocent of it, and that it only acted contrary to its nature, and that it never yielded to him except under compulsion, and never truly fulfilled the rights [of God]—which is contrary [to what is required]—and he needed to force himself into khawf (fear). So how could these states come forth from it [the nafs]?

Has it drawn near to you, and have you been tested by it?

And how can there come from it what you refuse and do not desire — except with the aversion and dislike of the Lord? For it is the one whose destruction came from the direction of its caprice, and that the One who entered it into opposition to the good counsel of its God

[damaged]

and the like of that — stubbornness and denial —

that he does not see in what lies ahead any trace of al-mann (bestowing favor), self-aggrandizement, and resting content in reliance upon the one who bestows such favor; and that the qalb (heart) must hold fast to despair of it, and the obligation of blaming it and being wary of it and suspecting it and abandoning tranquil reliance upon it;

because he has seen what has passed of its deeds, none of which merited that in his estimation after what he knew of it and saw of it. And he knew — exalted and majestic is his Lord — from the traces of His gracious favor what merited al-rajāʾ (hope) and al-shukr (gratitude) and husn al-zann (good opinion) of Him, when the resolve of tawba (repentance) became sincere in his heart after objecting to his sins in what had passed of his life, and He removed self-admiration from his heart, and He made his heart hold fast to good opinion of his Lord. So at that point he is a repenter who has desisted, turning back in penitence, humble, confessing and acknowledging that his repentance was by the enabling grace of God, not by his own strength. And thereby he becomes deserving of increase from God Most High, for He said: «If you are grateful, I will surely increase you» [14:7].

And in the exegesis:

"I will increase you of My obedience."