Chapter on the Error in How One Guards Against Iblis

Chapter on Error in Vigilance Against the Enemy, Iblis

I said: If a passing thought occurs as a warning for repulsion, can there be error in the warning?

He said: The most beneficial warning is that which does not engender a sense of [false] security.

[damaged]

He said: He calls you to be cautious of riyāʾ (ostentation), by abandoning the deed.

So do not obey him and do not respond to that. His caution of showing off by abandoning deeds is as if he said: "You are a show-off, so leave off the deed." Thus he returned you to what he originally intended for you—the abandonment of the deed.

So when you did not respond to him, his warning bequeathed you a sense of security from him. So when you felt secure, realize that he only intended to deprive you of the reward of the deed, since he presented it to you under the guise of warning against harm, and that you intended ikhlāṣ (sincerity) by that, yet you did not attain sincerity. You did not purify anything for God, exalted and glorified, when you abandoned the deed.

For sincerity is that you act, and you beware of showing off, and you repel it from your deed, so that it becomes sincere for you before your Lord, Most High. Sincerity is not that you abandon the deed, for then your deed would not be sincere for God, exalted and glorified. So the one who seeks sincerity must seek it in his deed, for abandoning the deed with the intention of sincerity—nothing of his deed becomes sincere for God, exalted and glorified. Rather, his abandonment of it [is the opposite of sincerity].

Consider: if a slave whose master gave him wheat and said to him: "Clean it and make it free of chaff and barley"—or silver, and he said to him: "Cast it into the refining fire so that it becomes purified from impurity and adulteration." So he threw away the wheat and the silver, saying: "I fear it will not become pure." Would he have purified anything for his master?

So whoever is deceived on the part of sincerity by abandoning the pursuit of sincerity where he was commanded or encouraged to do so—that is because purification is not the same as sincerity.

Sincerity is that the true and excellent thing be pure and unadulterated from everything that resembles it. Likewise, purification in one's deed for God, exalted and glorified, is: the negation of passing thoughts, the rejection of acceptance of showing off, the conviction of sincerity—so that the deed becomes sincere after distinguishing what was mixed with showing off, isolating it from it, and negating any showing off from mingling with it.

Likewise silver — it only becomes pure when it is refined. So the foul is distinguished from it, male and female. Likewise wheat, when the tares are distinguished from it.

It may also occur as an obstruction from Satan: if one were to abandon the deed out of fear of riyāʾ (ostentation) in it, then the abandonment itself [becomes a trap]. Nothing will save him from it, even if he entered beneath the earth, along with what he is deprived of by abandoning the deed. That is because if he were speaking well, and it was suggested to him: "Be silent, lest you be ostentatious," and he fell silent, they would say: "Now he only fell silent seeking ikhlāṣ (sincerity)." So he fled.

If he then fled, it would also be suggested to him that they would say: "He only fled out of dislike of ostentation and desire." And if he entered a tunnel in the earth, the sweetness of flight and seclusion therein would attach itself to his heart, and so He teaches him what must attach to their hearts of veneration for one who seeks sincerity and flees in pursuit of it. Nothing saves him from that except knowledge, abhorrence, and indifference to it.

The Difference Between False Claim and Reality:

Between a false claim and a claim grounded in the reality of discernment: when a caller calls you from your heart, saying: "Beware — you are ostentatious!"

If you, from your intellect and your knowledge, which are an unwilling deterrent — even if the enemy is present alongside that, intruding, and the nafs (self) is severed from disputing — then you know that it is a false claim from your enemy, to obstruct you from what you are engaged in, or from what has presented itself to you of goodness and obedience, before entering into it.

But if another thought intrudes upon you regarding that, and you return to yourself and find your heart inclined to it together, yearning for the praise of creatures, with no deterrent from your intellect repelling the desire of your soul, then you know that this is an alert from God, Mighty and Glorious, regarding what you have harbored of riyāʾ (ostentation). So you feel remorse and seek forgiveness.

If you are capable of ikhlāṣ (sincerity) toward God, Mighty and Glorious, then punish the soul by adhering to that deed for the sake of God, Mighty and Glorious, with firm resolve, without self-deception. This becomes clear to you through the heart's consensus: that if they had not known of it, you would have done it out of shame before God, Mighty and Glorious — since you had debased yourself before creatures through obedience for the sake of their praise, and turned away from the will of God, Mighty and Glorious. If you find this strength in yourself after remorse —

— then resolve firmly, with seeking forgiveness and the intention from you not to return to the like of that in deeds.

If you do not find that in your heart, then abandon the deed. If the initial contract was for the sake of creatures, then abandon the deed, with shame before God, Mighty and Glorious, that your soul should be debased by performing the deed for the praise of creatures, and not be debased by performing the deed for the praise of the Creator, Mighty and Glorious.

If the initial contract was for God, Mighty and Glorious, then you wavered after that, then recognize that and feel remorse over it, and return to your original resolve, and act upon it with shame before God, Mighty and Glorious, not seeking the praise of anyone other than Him — even if creatures were to look upon your inner conscience along with it. Rather, even if they were to look upon it, out of fear of their displeasure you would not desire their praise. So feel shame before God, Mighty and Glorious, who surveys you and surveys your heart's turning away from Him toward one who possesses for you neither benefit nor the warding off of harm.

And if they were to look upon your inner conscience, they would be more awe-inspiring to you than He, Majestic and Exalted. So let your shame before Him be greater.

If you are able to increase in deeds out of shame before your Lord, Mighty and Glorious, and as punishment for your soul, then do so.

If a passing thought occurs to you while you are engaged in a deed that you intended for God, Mighty and Glorious — it does not claim upon you that you are an ostentatious person, but rather it warns you of riyāʾ (ostentation) and says: "Abandon it, lest you be showing off" — then that is from the enemy and from the desire of the nafs (self).

But if a thought occurs that warns you of ostentation and commands you to complete the deed with vigilance so that it may be sound and sincere, then that is an admonition from your Lord, Mighty and Glorious.