Islam Guidance

SERMON 160 - Praise of Allah

Allah’s verdict is judicious and full of wisdom. His Pleasure implies protection and mercy. He decides with knowledge and forgives with forbearance.
O Lord! Praise to You for what You take and give, and for that from which You cure or with which You afflict. I praise You in away which is the most acceptable to You, the most liked by You and the most dignified before You, praise which fills all Your creation and reaches where You desires, praise which is not veiled from You and does not end and whose continuity does not cease.

Greatness of Allah

We do not know the reality of Your greatness except that we know that you are Ever-living and Self-subsisting, the One by Whom all things subsist. Drowsiness or sleep do not overtake You; vision does not reach You and sight does not grasp You. You see the eyes and counts the ages. You hold (people as slaves) by their forelocks and feet. We see Your creation and contemplate on it because of Your might and describe it as (a result of) Your great authority, whereas what is hidden from us, of which our sight has fallen short, which our intelligence has not attained and between which and ourselves curtains of the unknown have been cast, is far greater.
He who frees his heart (from all other engagements) and exerts his thinking in order to know how You established Your throne, how You created Your creatures, how You suspended the air in Your skies and how You spread Your earth on the waves of water... his eyes will return tired, his intelligence defeated, his ears eager and his thinking wandering.

Part of the Same Sermon
about Hope and Fear in Allah

One claims, according to his own thinking, that he sets his hopes on Allah. By Allah, the Great One, he speaks a lie. His status is that his hope (in Allah) does not appear through his action, although the hope of everyone who hopes is known through his own action. Every hope is so, except the hope in Allah, the Sublime, if it is impure. Every fear is established except the fear for Allah, if it is unreal.
He hopes big things from Allah and small things from men, but he gives to man (such consideration as) he does not give to Allah. What does he think is the matter with Allah, glorified be His praise?! He is accorded less (consideration) than what is accorded to His creatures. Do you ever fear to be false in your hope in Allah? Or do you not regard Him as the center of your hope? Similarly, if a man fears another man, he gives him (such consideration) out of his fear which he does not give to Allah. Thus, he has made his fear for men ready currency, while his fear of the Creator is mere deferment or promise. This is the case of everyone in whose eye this world appears big (and important) and in whose heart its status is great. He prefers it over Allah, so he inclines towards it and becomes its devotee.

The Example of the Holy Prophet, Peace be Upon Him

Certainly in the Prophet of Allah Prophet - peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and his progeny - was a perfect example for you and a proof concerning the vices of this world, its defects, the multitude of its disgraces and evils. Because its sides had been constrained for him, while its flanks had been spread for others, he was deprived of its milk and turned away from its adornments.

The Example of Musa (Moses)

If you want, I will, as a second example, relate to you concerning Musa, the Interlocutor of Allah (p.b.u.h.), when he said: “O Allah! I am in need of whatever good You may grant me” (Holy Qur’an, 28: 24). By Allah, he asked Him only for bread to eat because he was used to eating the herbs of the earth, so much so that the greenness of the herbs could be seen from the delicate skin of his belly due to his thinness and the paucity of his flesh.

The Example of Dawud (David)

If you desire, I can give you a third example of Dawad (p.b.u.h.). He is the holder of the Psalms and the reciter among the people of Paradise. He used to prepare baskets of palm-tree leaves with his own hands and would say to his companions: “Which of you will help me by purchasing it?” He used to eat barley bread (bought) out of its prices.

The Example of `Isa (Jesus)

If you desire, I will tell you about `Isa (p.b.u.h.) son of Maryam (Mary). He used a stone for his pillow, put on coarse clothes and ate rough food. His condiment was hunger. His lamp at night was the moon. His shade during the winter was just the expanse of earth eastward and westward. His fruits and flowers were only what grows out of the earth for the cattle. He had no wife to allure him, nor any son to grieve him, nor wealth to deviate (his attention), nor greed to disgrace him. His two feet were his conveyance and his two hands his servant.

Following the Example of the
Holy Prophet, Peace be Upon Him

You should follow your Prophet (p.b.u.h.), the pure, the chaste, Allah bless him and his descendants. He is the role model for his follower and the consolation for the seeker of consolation. The most beloved person before Allah is he who follows His Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and who treads in his footsteps. He took the least (share) from this world and even then did not take a full glance at it. Of all the people of the world he was the least satiated and the most empty of stomach. The world was offered to him but he refused to accept it. When he knew that Allah, the Glorified One, hated a thing, he, too, hated it. When he knew that Allah regarded a thing as low, he, too, regarded it as low. When he knew that Allah regarded a thing as small, he too regarded it as small. If we love what Allah and His Prophet (p.b.u.h.) hate and deem as great what Allah and His prophet hold as small, that by itself will be enough to isolate us from Allah and a transgression against His Commands.
The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) used to eat on the ground and sit like a slave. He repaired his shoe with his hand and likewise patched his clothes. He would ride an unsaddled ass and seat someone behind him. If there was a curtain on his door with pictures on it, he would say to one of his wives, “Take it away out of my sight because if I look at it, I will then recall the world and its allurements.” Thus, he swayed his heart away from this world and destroyed its remembrance from his mind. He loved that its allurements should remain hidden from his eyes so that he would not secure any good outfit from it, should not regard it as a place of stay and not hope to linger in it. Consequently, he removed it from his mind, let it go away from his heart and kept it hidden from his eyes. In the same way, he who hates a thing should hate to look at it or to hear about it.
Certainly there was in the Prophet of Allah (p.b.u.h.) all that would warn you of the evils of this world and its defects: He remained hungry along with his main companions. Despite his great nearness, the allurements of the world remained remote from him. Now, one should see with one’s intelligence whether Allah honored Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) as a result of this or disgraced him. If he says that Allah disgraced him, he certainly lies and perpetrates a great falsehood. If he says, “Allah honored him,” he should know that Allah dishonored the others when He extended the (benefits of the ) world for them. Allah holds the same away from anyone who is the nearest to Him from among all men. Therefore, one should follow His Prophet (p.b.u.h.), tread in his footsteps and do as he did; otherwise, he will not be safe from ruin. Certainly Allah made Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) a sign for the Day of Judgment, a conveyor of tidings for Paradise and a warner of retribution. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) left this world hungry but entered upon the next world safely. He did not lay one stone upon another (to make a house) till he departed and responded to the call of Allah. How great is Allah’s blessing in that He blessed us with the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) as a predecessor whom we should follow, a leader behind whom we should all march!

His Own Example

By Allah! I have been putting patches in my shirts, so much so that now I feel shy of the patches themselves. Someone asked me whether I should put them [such patched garments] away, but I said, “Get away from me! Only in the morning do people (realize the advantage of and) speak highly of the night journey [which they had undertaken].”

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