Chapter on A Man Who Leaves Some Supererogatory Acts Out of Concern for People

Chapter on a Man Who Abandons Some Supererogatory Acts Out of Compassion for People, Lest They Disobey God, Glorious and Exalted, Therein

I said: What do you say regarding: "Is it more virtuous that I abandon some supererogatory acts out of compassion for people, lest they disobey God Most High concerning me, or that I perform them?"

Morals

Indeed in that there is a delusion from you: that you suppose about a servant that he would do evil to you, so how would your intellect

and so you abandon works on account of that.

You have thus combined two traits: you harbored ill suspicion about him, and you abandoned what draws you near to God, Exalted and Glorious.

And you may also abandon some of what is obligatory. Perhaps you abandon visiting relatives out of fear of passing by them. And perhaps you see from someone a reprehensible act, yet you refrain from commanding him because in your estimation he will not accept, though you do not know that from him with certainty. So you let that matter pass and harbor ill ẓann (suspicion) about him — unless he is an openly dissolute sinner, for in that case the suspicion about him is warranted alongside his open sinfulness.

And perhaps when you command him, the reciter will argue with you, so you abandon much of the obligatory and the supererogatory lest God be disobeyed. If you were truthful in your claim, then you have been cheated and you harbored ill suspicion.

And if you were not truthful, then the nafs (self) merely recoiled from blame, and it made you imagine that it desired compassion and sincere counsel, while you showed no concern for them in other matters — you do not leave them alone regarding your worldly affairs, and even if you supposed that they disobey God, Exalted and Glorious, you do not become angry — if you were to become angry — neither on their behalf nor for anything else.

And this quality which you claim is the quality of the prophets, the abdāl (substitutes), and those who show mercy to creation — examine whether you recognize in yourself such concern for creation in your states. If you recognize yourself by this, then you have placed compassion in a situation other than its proper place, since ill suspicion has barred you from obedience, and you are not certain about a matter concerning him over which you would show such concern — unless it be a matter that would not diminish from you any obligation or supererogatory act, so you abandon it out of solicitude lest Satan gain entry over them.

But you are only in that state at the very time you show concern for them, yet you do not say "lest I expose them to temptation," and you do not leave them alone regarding either supererogatory or obligatory acts — and so the enemy has obtained from you what he desired.

As is narrated from the Prophet ﷺ that he said:

"She is Safiyya."

And that is because she came to him while he was in i'tikaf (spiritual retreat). [damaged] He said: "I feared that Satan might enter upon you." O Messenger of God, would we think anything but good of you? He said: [damaged] he might say that he has already entered upon you.

And Ibrahim [al-Nakha'i] and al-A'mash wanted to be seen together on the road, and people would say "a one-eyed man and a bleary-eyed man." Al-A'mash said: "What does it matter to us? We are rewarded and they sin." Ibrahim said: "What does it matter to us? We are safe and they are safe."

So as long as you do not diminish any good, there is no harm in showing compassion toward them, without severing his evil from them. Most often that is out of anxiety about blood and the loss of standing, so let not the intelligent, discerning servant be deceived by that!!