Chapter on Urging the Sinner Toward Ikhlāṣ (Sincerity) in His Works

Chapter on Urging the Sinner toward Ikhlāṣ (Sincerity) in His Work

I said: Ikhlāṣ (sincerity) is the station of the strong and the elect among the worshippers.

He said: The people of strength are indeed the closest of servants to it, yet the sinful, compromised person is in more dire need of sincerity in his voluntary acts than the God-fearing person of waraʿ (scrupulous piety). For the God-fearing person of waraʿ, if all his voluntary deeds are nullified, is saved by his standing in the obligatory acts. Have you not heard the saying of Mujahid: "The voluntary supererogatory prayer (nafila) is only for the Prophet — peace be upon him — because he has already been forgiven." Then he recited: «And during part of the night, keep vigil with it as an additional prayer for you» [17:79].

Abu Umama said: The voluntary prayer was only for the Prophet — peace be upon him — exclusively .

Abu Hurayra, Tamim al-Dari, and Anas ibn Malik narrated that the Prophet — peace be upon him — said:

"The servant will be held to account on the Day of Resurrection for his obligatory prayers, and if they are deficient, it will be said: 'Look whether he has any voluntary prayers.' If he has voluntary prayers, his obligatory prayers will be completed thereby." Al-Tirmidhi said in his hadith: "And if he had no voluntary prayers, he would be seized by his extremity."

So the one who mixes [good and evil] comes on the Day of Resurrection with his obligatory duties deficient and with many sins upon him. If his voluntary works are nullified, all of them or some of them are ruined, because he performed them for the completion of the obligatory duties and the expiation of evil deeds.

The one who has taqwā (God-consciousness) works for the elevation of degrees. If his voluntary works are nullified, there remains among his good deeds what outweighs the evil deeds, and so he enters Paradise. The one who mixes [good and evil] balances with them [i.e., barely breaks even]. The enemy desires that no good deed remain for him.

The strong person of waraʿ (scrupulous piety), when his states are rectified and he knows that people commend whoever manifests such states — the enemy finds this a weak point for his stratagems. So he [the enemy] disrupted his plots against him and overcame him, [driving him] to abandon his supplication to his Lord, exalted is He.

He intended to call him to the conviction of riyāʾ (ostentation), so as to nullify what used to call him to abandon what he obeys in. So he calls him to claiming religiousness, and magnifies in his eyes the degree of standing among people, until it becomes more overpowering upon his nature than the worth of gold and silver. For the servant may abandon gold and silver, then when he reaches [a position of status] he desires them back, so that it be said: "He has renounced and practiced zuhd (renunciation)." For the nafs (self) is [driven] by its caprice, and the enemy [likewise] — they both call the servant to acts of disobedience.

As for the soul, it seeks the attainment of its pleasure. As for the enemy, out of envy and enmity he desires the servant's destruction. So when he [the servant] refuses their call to abandon the supererogatory acts, they both say: "Scrupulous piety suffices you." If he disobeys [this suggestion], then they both engage in voluntary worship and call him to showing off through it. And likewise they both call him, even if he does not shift to showing off through his scrupulous piety.

As for the soul, it seeks standing among people and their veneration of him. And the enemy, out of envy and enmity for him — if he refuses, they both show him that this is showing off on his part and that he will not be saved from riyāʾ when it crosses his qalb (heart). If he still refuses and insists upon proceeding with the deed in ikhlāṣ (sincerity) and aversion to showing off, they call him to disputation — since he was refusing it and averse to it — [seeking to show] that what they had claimed against him was false.

and disputation. They say to him: "You are showing off, and he will refute them." And the denial of that — both of them claim that [damaged]

— to preoccupy him thereby with what he is engaged in, so that he does it through the preoccupation of his heart away from the Hereafter. As for the nafs (self), let it attain some of its comfort from reflection on the Hereafter along with its toil. As for the enemy, his desire is that the servant should fall short in obedience to God, exalted and glorified, so that it becomes complete for him — for example, through the uprooting of reason therein, and out of enmity toward him and envy, just as he envied his parents and showed hostility to them before him.

And God, exalted and glorified, has warned us of that, saying: «O Children of Adam, let not Satan tempt you as he brought your parents out of the Garden» [al-A'raf: 27].

And He, exalted and glorified, said: «He is to you a manifest, misguiding enemy» [al-Qasas: 15] — meaning that he is one of enmity.

And He, exalted and glorified, said: «Rather, your selves enticed you» [Yusuf: 18].

And He, exalted and glorified, said: «Indeed the self is ever commanding to evil» [Yusuf: 53].

So God, exalted and glorified, has informed us that the self commands to evil, and that the enemy leads the servant astray and bars him from obedience to God, exalted and glorified.