Chapter on A Man Who Has Two Companions

Chapter: A Man Who Has Two Companions

One of them is wealthy and the other is poor, and he frequently visits the wealthy one and increases his acts of kindness toward him to the exclusion of the poor one. How can he be safe from that, and what is the source of its corruption?

I said: I may have two companions, one of them poor and the other wealthy, and I find myself inclined toward kindness to the wealthy one, preferring him with visits, calling on him when he is ill, and other such things.

He said: That may be sound and it may not be sound, depending on the intention for God, Exalted and Glorified.

As for what is sound: if the wealthy one among them is more obedient to God, Exalted and Glorified, and more pious, or is more beneficial to you in your religion, or you find that your heart becomes more upright and increased in what is better for you in your religion when you are with him, or you benefit from him in knowledge that benefits you in your religion — and so you prefer him by coming to him, intending God, Exalted and Glorified, by that, and you do not seek worldly gain by that — then he is foremost in being preferred with kindness and visiting, unless the poor one suffers from hunger or is unclothed, in which case you should begin by consoling him at that point.

Likewise, the wealthy one may live near to you, and you are energized to come to him because of the nearness of his dwelling, while God, Exalted and Glorified, knows that your soul is generous enough that if the poor one's dwelling were as near, you would not have preferred visiting the wealthy one over him. If they are equal in obedience, safety, benefit, nearness, and kinship, then your preferring the wealthy one is undoubtedly for the sake of this world — unless you are a scholar and the wealthy one fears his own weakness, regression, and slackening, and he is weaker in heart than the poor one, so you win him over through kindness, hoping that he will grow stronger in religion. If you prefer him with kindness for that reason, intending God, Exalted and Glorified, by it, then he is more deserving at that point of kindness and visiting.

I said: The intention may be present to me when visiting the wealthy one, but it does not arise when visiting a poor brother. I am not safe from self-deception, so how do I recognize that?

He said: Present it to some of the poor — that is, if the circumstances of this poor person and the circumstances of this wealthy person were equal, would you have come to him? If your soul is content with that, then you know that it [your intention] is not truthful.

I said: If the means of wealth and poverty are equal, and you came to her out of hunger, were you afraid for [damaged]? He said: As for going [to the wealthy], there is no [harm], but rather that you mention knowledge, spread wisdom, and manifest khushūʿ (reverent humility) — most of what comes from you should be toward the poor. Then examine that, and set aside what is in between them of merit.

It has been reported that Ibn al-Istāk said to a slave-girl of his who had wealth when he came to Baghdad: Do I seek wisdom? His slave-girl said to him: It sharpens your tongue for listening.

She spoke truly. Indeed the servant increases in speaking of good in the presence of the wealthy what he would not speak in the presence of the poor, either because greed stirs him to that, or out of aggrandizement of worldly life. And likewise he manifests khushūʿ (reverent humility) and other acts of obedience [for the same reasons].

This is the end of the Book of Riyāʾ (Ostentation).

And praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.

Chapter on Knowledge of the Self and the Brethren

Section: The servant resolves upon tawba (repentance) then relapses — and what strengthens him and aids him upon taqwa (God-consciousness) and overcoming hawā (caprice) and shahwa (desire)

I said: My soul has already become generous through the observance of the rights of God, Mighty and Glorious, and the abandonment of riyā' (ostentation) in obedience to the servants of God, Mighty and Glorious, and I resolve upon that. Then it happens that I slip away from that until I squander some of the rights and cling only to some of the obedience. So from where have I been brought to this?

He said: Your khawf (fear) is weak, and your wariness of God, Mighty and Glorious, is slight.

I said: How then can I attain strength of fear and intensity of wariness?

He said: I have already answered you regarding that: through the constant persistence of reflection by way of frightening your soul.

I said: I have indeed frightened my soul as you commanded me, until I became generous through resolve, and I rejected persisting in acts of disobedience and riyā' (ostentation) over obedience. Then it was not long before I slipped and relapsed. So I returned to repentance and resolve, then I slipped, then I returned to repentance and resolve, then I relapsed into sin and affected compliance in some matters while fulfilling others. What is my condition?

He said: You are one whose acquaintance with ignorance and stumbling is recent, long in the habit and familiarity with acts of disobedience, slight in attentiveness to murāqaba (vigilant self-awareness) and ṣidq (sincerity). Your hawā (caprice) is strong and your shahwa (desire) is turbulent due to the intensity of your rejection of your soul—

So whoever is quickest to return and has not truly achieved fulfillment through pleasures and the direct pursuit of desires—"

I said: How would it be for me with the death of my desires, the weakness of my caprice, the strength of my fear, and the intensity of my wariness?

He said: Persist in reflection upon what has preceded of sins, and fear of what God—Exalted and Glorious—has made incumbent upon you, and reflection upon the hardship of the reckoning, the resurrection and the questioning, the severity of punishment, and the deprivation of reward—for indeed you deserve that. And the renewal of tawba (repentance) and the renewal of resolve, and wariness of what lies ahead, and denying the soul its pleasure in what God—Exalted and Glorious—abhors. If you slip , return quickly and resume resolve and repentance.

When you persist in reflection by frightening your soul, your fear grows strong. And when you persist in turning the soul away from its habitual ways, it despairs of your granting it its pleasures, and its desires die since you do not employ them. And whatever of them you have employed, you follow up with fear and grief.

At that point you grow strong and stand firm upon sidq (truthfulness), and you rise in murāqaba (vigilant self-awareness) of God—Exalted and Glorious—and in ikhlāṣ (sincerity).

I said: This may take long with me, though it may also come quickly. So what is it by which I seek aid against my weakness, so long as I remain weak, until I grow stronger—after my persistence in reflection and struggling against my soul as you have described?

He said: Two qualities strengthen your weakness and give you power over your soul:

One of them: Cut off every cause from which your temptation and downfall would occur, except a cause whose engagement or fulfillment is obligatory upon you, or a cause that is an aid to you in your obedience to your Lord, Exalted and Majestic.

And the second quality: spending little time lingering after the slip, and hastening to desist before the nafs (soul) that has committed the sin grows attached and the sweetness of desire takes hold of one's qalb (heart).

What sort of things are the occasions from which error and slipping occur, and what are the causes?

He said: Like a man who complains of the love of gazing at what is not permissible for him, while he sits on the road conversing, or he finds ease in that and frequently meets with brethren. Every time he sits on the road, intending not to look, what stirs his desire toward gazing surprises him, and so he looks. Then he reproaches himself, feels remorse, and repents. Then he returns to sitting, and the same thing befalls him. [Thus] if he cuts off the sitting and keeps to his mosque, the cause that used to tempt him falls away from him, and he becomes, in that quality, despite his weakness, stronger than the strong one who exposes himself to temptation by sitting. For the weak one, when he cuts off the cause from which he is afflicted on account of his heart, becomes stronger than the strong one who exposes himself to the cause that tempts him.

Likewise, going out for needs that are not dear to him—he leaves them and thereby cuts off from himself the cause of his temptation.

If you say: What if the need involved righteousness and obedience?

He said: If it was an obligatory need, let him go out for it and not disobey his Lord, Exalted and Majestic. There is doubt: he does not know whether it [the sin of gazing] will occur or will not occur; for his leaving the going to righteousness and obedience is a sin, while the gazing on his part—he does not know whether it will occur or not. Rather, if he goes, God, Exalted and Majestic, knows of him that had the encounters been something he saw or desired, or a need in which there was pleasure for him, he would not have gone so as to preserve his religion. Were it not for the obligation of fulfilling what is due to God, Exalted and Majestic, he would not have gone to gaze upon what his Lord, Exalted and Majestic, detested. For example:

So when God, Exalted and Glorious, knows the sidq (truthfulness) in that from him — out of his fear that the gaze might anger God, Exalted and Glorious — he goes for the sake of God, Exalted and Glorious, and were it not for what has gone, he would have placed his tawakkul (trust) upon God, Exalted and Glorious. And when He knows that he does not go for the sake of his own soul's comfort, God protects him. So when he goes upon that basis, God, Exalted and Glorious, is too Generous to forsake him.

If it was a worldly need from which he has no sufficiency — whether food for himself or for his dependents — then he stands in the place of one who, when God, Exalted and Glorious, knows from him that he was going for the sake of accumulation, or showing off (riya'), or boasting, and were it not that he went, he would have preferred abandonment so as not to expose himself to what angers his Lord, Exalted and Glorious, and were it not for seeking aid upon obedience to his Lord, Exalted and Glorious, and the excuse regarding his dependents and their hardship — he would not have gone, placing his tawakkul (trust) upon his Lord, Exalted and Glorious. When He knows that he goes for the pleasure of his own soul, I hope that God, Exalted and Glorious, will not forsake him; rather, He will not forsake him, and He will aid him and protect him, if God wills.

If his going was for a worldly need from which he has sufficiency, while he knows that he will not be safe from what he has experienced of his soul — so he abandons that at first until he grows stronger — I do not command him to do that his entire life, but rather to yield to that a little until he grows stronger.

Likewise, if he complains of his tongue — that it races him to backbiting (ghiba) and jesting in what is not lawful, and mocking others — then when God, Exalted and Glorious, knows that he is a man [damaged] he abandoned sitting with the brethren and others, unless an obligatory duty (fard) attaches to him, in which case he sits with them, for he cannot fulfill the obligation except by being with them, or for a matter from which he has no sufficiency, or to seek sustenance — as nourishment for his soul's comfort and its desires — placing his tawakkul (trust) upon his Lord in that, that He will protect him. Since He knows that he abandons sitting for the pleasure of his soul and its desires, and were it not for fulfilling an obligation incumbent upon him or seeking what aids him in fulfilling an obligatory right, he would have preferred abandonment for the sake of God, Exalted and Glorious, out of fear that he might speak what angers his Lord, Exalted and Glorious — God, Exalted and Glorious, will protect him and aid him, if God wills.