Contentment with the Decree of Allah

The servant may experience one of two states as regards what he dislikes: the state of being content, or that of being patient. Being content is a praiseworthy quality, while being patient is a duty which a believer must fulfill.

At some times, the people of contentment witness the Wisdom and Beauty of the One Who Tests when He tests His servant, and they see that He is always Right in whatever He decrees.

At other time, they witness the Might and Majesty and Perfection of the One Who Tests, to such an extent that they become completely immersed in these Attributes of Allah, Exalted is He, so they do not experience pain.

This station can only be attained by those who have great knowledge and love. And so it is possible that they find pleasure in whatever they have been afflicted with - because it has come to them from their Beloved.

Being patient involves restraining the self and preventing it from giving in to resentment, in spite of any suffering that experiences - in hope that the misfortune which afflicts it will come to an end - as well as restraining the limbs from behaving badly, out of impatience.

Being content, on the other hand, involves feeling at ease in accepting the Divine Decree, and being unconcerned with when any suffering will stop, even though it is being experienced. Being content alleviates any suffering by reason of the heart's immersion in the spirit of certainty and knowledge. If the contentment increases in its intensity, then it removes the experiencing of any suffering altogether.

It  has been related to the authority of Anas ibn Malik that the Prophet ﷺ  said, "When Allah loves someone then He tests him: as for whoever is content - Allah will be pleased with him; and as for whoever is discontented - Allah will be displeased with him." (At-Tirmidhi, Kitab az-Zuhud, 7/77)

Taken from "The Purification of the Soul",  compiled from the works of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.

Doing without the pleasures of this world

Al-Hasan al-Basri said, "I have known people and kept company with groups who neither rejoiced when the things of this world came to them, nor grieved when they lost anything in this world. The life of this world was more insignificant to them than dust. One of them might live for a year or sixty years without having a garment that would entirely cover them, and without ever having anything that would come between him and the ground, and without ever having any food that he could ask to be prepared for him in his own home.

"When night came, they would be on their feet, with their foreheads flat against the earth, tears rolling down their cheeks, secretly calling on Allah to save them on the Day of Judgement. If they did something good, they never stopped being grateful for it, and were always asking Allah to accept it. If they did something bad, they would be saddened by it, and would keep on asking Allah to forgive them for it. By Allah, they were not safe from wrong actions, and were saved only by their constant turning in repentance. May Allah pleased with them and grant them His mercy."



Taken from "The Purification of the Soul",  compiled from the works of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.

Poisons of the Heart: Unnecessary Talking

Abu Huraira related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The servant speaks words, the consequences of which he does not realise, and for which he is sent down into the depths of the Fire further than the distance between the east and the west.” (Al-Bukhari in Kitab ar-Riqaq, and Muslim in Kitab az-Zuhud)

Uqba ibn Amir said: “I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, what is our best way of surviving?’ He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, replied: ‘Guard your tongue, make your house suffice for sheltering your privacy, and weep for your wring action.’” (At-Tirmidhi in Kitab az-Zuhud, with a slightly different wording)

It is also been related by Abu Huraira, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Let whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day either speak good or remain silent; and whoevel believes in Allah and the Last Day be generous to his neighbor; and let whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day be generous to his guest.” (Al-Bukhari, Kitab ar-Riqaq, 11/308)

Abu Huraira reported that Ibn al-Abbas said: “A person will not feel greater fury or anger for any part of his body on the Day of Judgement more than what he will feel for his tongue, unless he only used it for saying or enjoining good.”

Al-Hassan said: “Whoever does not hold his tongue cannot understand his deen.”

The least harmful of a tongue’s faults is talking about whatever does not concern it. The following hadith of the Prophet ﷺ is enough to indicate the harm of this fault: “One of the merits of a person’s Islam is his abandoning what does not concern him.” (at-Tirmidhi, Kitab az-Zuhud, 6/607)

There are far worse things, like backbiting, gossiping, obscene and misleading talk, two-faced and hypocritical talk, showing off, quarreling, bickering, singing, lying, mockery, derision and falsehood; and there are many more faults which can affect a servant’s tongue, ruining his heart and causing him to lose both his happiness and pleasure in this life, and his success and profit in the next life. Allah is the One to Whom we turn for assistance.

Taken from "The Purification of the Soul",  compiled from the works of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.

The Signs of a Healthy Heart

For the heart o be healthy, is should depart from this life and arrive in the next, and then settle there as if it were one of its people; it only came to this life as a passer-by, taking whatever provisions it needed and then returning home. As the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to Abdullah ibn Umar,

“Be in this world as if you were a stranger or passer-by.” (Al-Bukhari, Kitab ar-Riqaq, 11/233). 

The more diseased the heart is, the more it desires this world; it dwells in it until it becomes like one of its own people.

This healthy heart continues to trouble its owner until he returns to Allah, and is at peace with Him, and joins Him, like a lover driven by compulsion who finally reaches his beloved. Besides his love for Him, he needs no other invocations are needed. Serving Him precludes the need to serve any other.

Yahya ibn Mu’adh said “Whoever is pleased with serving Allah, everything will be pleased to serve him; and whoever finds pleasure contemplating Allah, all the people will find pleasure in contemplating him.”

This heart has only one concern: that all its actions, and its inner thoughts and utterances, are obedient to Allah. It is more careful with its time than the meanest people are with their money, so that it will not be spent wastefully. When it enters into prayer, all its worldly worries and anxieties vanish and it finds its comfort and bliss in adorning its Lord. It does not cease to mention Allah, nor tire of serving Him, and it finds intimate company with no-one save a person who guides it to Allah and reminds it of Him.

Its attention to the correctness of its action is greater than its attention to the action itself. It is scrupulous in making sure that intentions behind its actions are sincere and pure and that they result in good deeds.

As well as in spite of all this, it not only testifies to the generosity of Allah in giving it the opportunity to carry out such actions, but also testifies to its own imperfections and shortcomings in executing them.

Taken from "The Purification of the Soul",  compiled from the works of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.

The Nature of Intention

The intention of a person is not his utterance of the words, “I intend to do so and so.” It is an overflowing from the heart which runs like conquests inspired by Allah. At times, it is made easy, other times, difficult. A person whose heart is overwhelmingly righteous finds it easy to summon good intentions at most times. Such a person has a heart generally inclined to the roots of goodness which, most of the time, blossom into the manifestation of good actions. As for those whose hearts incline towards, and are overwhelmed by worldly matters, they find this difficult to accomplish and even obligatory acts of worship may become difficult and tiresome.

The Prophet ﷺ said: “Actions are only by intention, and every man shall only have what he intended. Thus, he whose hijra was only for Allah and His Messenger, his hijra was for Allah and His Messenger, and he whose hijra was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his hijra was for that for which he made hijra.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

Imam ash-Shaf’I said: “This hadith is a third of knowledge.” The words, “actions are only by intention”, mean the deeds that which are performed in accordance with the sunnah are acceptable and rewarded if the intentions behind them were sincere. Likewise, the words, “every man shall only have what he intended”, mean that the reward for an action depends upon the intention behind it. So deeds which are apparently identical may differ, because the intentions behind them are different in degrees of goodness and badness, from one person to another.

Good intentions do not change the nature of forbidden actions. Worship and permissible actions can be turned into forbidden ones because of the intentions behind them, and permissible actions can become either good or bad deeds by intention; but wrong actions cannot become acts of worship, even with good intentions.

The fundamental principle should be the act is intended for the worship of Allah alone. If our intention is to show off, then these same acts of worship will in fact become acts of disobedience. As for permissible deeds, they all involve intentions – which can potentially turn them into excellence acts which bring man nearer to Allah and confer him the gift of closeness to Him.

Umar ibn al_Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “The best acts are doing what Allah has commanded, staying far away from what Allah has forbidden, and having sincere intentions towards what-ever Allah gas required of us.” (Tahdhib al-Asma’ li-Nawawi’, 1/173)

Yahya Ibn Abu Kathir said: “Learn about intentions, for their importance is greater than the importance of actions.”

Ibn Umar once hear a man who was putting on his ihram say: “O Allah! I intend to do the Hajj and Umrah.” So he said to him: “Is it not in fact the people whom you are informing your intentions? Does not Allah already know what is in your heart?” (Sahih, Ja’mi’l-‘Ulum wa’l-Hikam, p.19). It is because good intentions are exclusively the concern of the heart, that they should not be voiced during worship.

Taken from "The Purification of the Soul",  compiled from the works of Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.