If Allah prevent their hearts from
contemplating.
Al-Hassan RA said: "He whose
words are not those of wisdom, his silence is not spent in contemplation and his
observations are not to take lessons. Such a person is heedless and is
squandering his time.” He, May Allah has mercy upon him, said regarding the one
hundred and forty-sixth verse of chapter Al- A’raaf in which Allah says:
This means:
“I will turn away from My signs those who are arrogant upon the
earth without right…”
[Al-A’raf: 146]
That it means "I (i.e., Allah)
will prevent their hearts from contemplating.”
‘Abdullah ibns Al-Mubaarak RA, once
saw Sahl ibn ‘Uday RA in silent contemplation, so he asked him: “How far have
you reached?” to which he replied: “The Sirat (i.e., the bridge over Hell).”
Bishr RA said: “If people contemplate
over the greatness of Allah, they will never disobey Him.”
Abu Shurayh RA once sat down and
covered his head with his garment and began weeping. When he was asked why, he
replied: “I contemplated, and realized how much of my life has ended, how few
my good deeds are, and how close I am to death - so I cried.”
Abu Suleiman RA once advised the
people saying: "Train your eyes to cry and your hearts to contemplate.”
Ibn ‘Abbas RA, said: “Contemplating
over good deeds causes one to perform them and regretting evil leads to one
abandoning it. When the slave’s main concern is to please Allah, He will make
his silence be spent in contemplation and his speeches consist of praise and
gratitude to Allah.”
The most honorable gatherings are
those which are spent in contemplation and pondering upon the Names and
Attributes of Allah, Hell, Paradise, the reward of Allah, the punishment of Allah,
the favors of Allah, the Hereafter, and the verses of the Qur’an. These are
indeed the sweetest and purest gatherings.
Imam Shaafi’i’ RA said: “Virtue lies is in four things: Wisdom,
the basis of which is contemplation; chastity, the basis of which is
controlling one's desires; strength, the basis of which is controlling oneself
at the time of anger; and justice, the basis of which is being moderate in ones
views”
The most beneficial type of
contemplation is over:
1. What
benefits the slave in the Hereafter and how to achieve them?
2. Preventing
evil consequences in the Hereafter and how to avoid them.
These are the most honorable
matters to contemplate over, and the way to attain such benefits and prevent
such evils is by contemplating over the favors of Allah, His commandments and
prohibitions, His Names and Attributes in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, how
quickly this life will vanish, and the eternal nature of the Hereafter; the more
one thinks about the brevity of this life, the more effort he will exert to appropriately
utilize his time. After these matters, the following are next in importance:
·
Matters that is beneficial in this life, and how to
attain them.
·
Evils that could afflict one, and how to avoid them.
Allah Has mentioned contemplation in the Qur’an
and parallels it with mentioning His favors, His creation and His abilities,
such as when He says:
Which means: Would one of you like
to have a garden of palm trees and grapevines underneath which rivers flow in
which he has every fruit? But he is afflicted with old age and has weak [i.e.,
immature] offspring, and it is hit by a hurricane containing fire and is burned.
Thus does Allah make clear to you [His] verses that you might give thought.” [Al- Baqarah: 266]
Such a man’s heart would be
attached to his garden from the following perspectives:
· It is a huge garden, not a small
one.
· It includes many types of trees
such as palm trees and grape trees.
· It includes trees that are very
expensive.
· The garden is watered by running
rivers and not from wells, which would have meant that a great deal of hard
effort would be required to irrigate it.
· The man has become old and
naturally needs a means of income without having to expend much effort.
· His children are young and sick,
and he fears that they would not have any source of income after his death
except from this garden.
All the aforementioned points mean
that the man's attachment to the garden would be immense, so how devastated
would he be if this garden were to be struck by a tornado that would cause a
fire that would razed his garden? He would be affected deeply; he would be
confounded and distressed. Let us contemplate, why did Allah give such an example?
This is an example that Allah gives
to those who perform many good deeds, but do them only to be seen doing so; on
the Day of Resurrection, these people will need every good deed that they
performed and their rewards; they will see the deeds that they performed in
this life and also see Hell before their very eyes; the sun will descend, very
close to people’s heads; they will sweat greatly; the Sirat will be erected
over the Hellfire and the only way for salvation will be by virtue of their
good deeds, after the mercy of Allah. But what will happen then? Allah will
then make their deeds worthless and scatter them everywhere. How devastated
will they then be? What would it therefore take to make people contemplate and
thus strive to be sincere in their deeds? It would take examples such as these
- that are found in the Qur’an.
Other similar verses are for
example where Allah says:
which means: “The example of this
[worldly] life is but like rain which We have sent down from the sky that the
plants of the earth absorb – [those] from which men and livestock eat - until,
when the earth has taken on its adornment and is beautified and its people
suppose that they have capability over it, there comes to it Our command by
night or by day, and We make it as a harvest, as if it had not flourished
yesterday. Thus do we explain in detail the signs for a people who give thought?”
[Yunus: 24]
