[Taken from 'An Explanation to Riyaadh
as-Saaliheen' Vol1, Trans. Abu Sulaymaan and
modified.] Al-Fawaa`id [218-219]
of
Imaam Ibnul-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, may Allaah
have mercy upon him.
Sincerity cannot coexist in a heart that
contains the love of praise and commendation
and the yearning to possess that
which
is owned by the people save in the manner
that fire and water or a lizard and fish may
coexist.
If your soul directs you to seek sincerity
then first turn your attention towards your
yearning and slaughter it with the knife
of
renunciation. Then turn your attention
towards praise and commendation and forsake
it with the asceticism of those who
loved the world for the sake of the
Hereafter. When your slaughtering of your
yearning and the renunciation of praise and
commendation
becomes firm then attaining sincerity will
become easy for you.
If it is asked: what may facilitate the act of slaughtering ones yearning and renouncing the love of praise and commendation?
I would
reply: as for slaughtering your yearning
then this is made easy by you having certain
knowledge that there is nothing
that one
would desire except that its treasures are
in the Hand of Allaah alone and none has
power over it save Him. There is no
one
who may bestow these things to a servant
except for Allaah.
As for
renouncing the love of praise and
commendation then this is made easy by your
knowing that there is no one who
can
praise you such that it would benefit you,
or censure and vilify you such that it would
harm you save Allaah alone.
This is what
occurs in the hadeeth in which the Arab said
to the Prophet (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa
sallam), "my being
praised is
adornment and my being vilified is
disgrace," to which the Prophet (sallallaahu
’alayhi wa sallam) said, "that is (for)
Allaah."
[Reported by at-Tirmidhee [no. 3266] with a saheeh isnaad from Baraa`a bin Aazib (RA).]
So
renounce the praise of one whose praise
cannot beautify you and the vilification of
one whose censure
cannot disgrace you!
Instead desire the praise of the One whose
commendation contains perfect beauty and the
One
whose censure contains total disgrace. This
cannot be attained except after patience and
certainty for when
there is no
patience and certainty then you are like one
who wished to traverse an ocean without a
vessel to carry him!
Allaah said,
"Be
patient! Indeed the Promise of Allaah is
true and let not those who are devoid of
certainty discourage you from
conveying
(the message)." [al-Rum (30):60]
"We have
made from amongst them leaders, guiding
under Our Command when they were patient and
believed in Our Signs
with
certainty." [al-Sajdah (32):24]