The Etiquettes of Seeking Knowledge 4

بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم

So hold fast - May Allah shower His mercy upon you - to the most trustworthy handhold (sincerity) that will save you from these fatal blemishes, by becoming - along with exerting yourself in becoming sincere - very fearful of anything that nullifies it, and displaying great poverty to Allah, along with turning to Him sincerely.

And it was narrated that Sufyan Ibn Sa'eed ath-Thawri said, "I did not treat anything more difficult than my sincerity"

The most difficult struggle in terms of correcting oneself is the struggle with sincerity - because there are so many forces to divert us from it. The correct intention is essential for an act of worship to remain an act of worship; for it to bring us closer to Allah.

And all human beings are faced with this struggle. If we truly claim to believe in Allah, we have to be sincere in this claim and submit to Allah completely. Many people prefer to keep one foot in and one foot out, but then your intention isn't firm and it'll affect and corrupt all the various aspects of your عبادات. And Allah said in [2:208]:

The attainment of sincerity is very difficult, and because of that, the Prophet ﷺ said:

If there's no sincerity, saying لا اله الا الله will not do anything. 

And sincerity is not enough in itself. Saying لا اله الا الله has to be preceded by knowledge. Allah said in [47:19]:

Without knowledge, you can be sincere and wrong. It's not like Christians and Hindus and others aren't sincere and dedicated, but it's sincerity based on ignorance, so they're just paving a path to hell.

And it was narrated that Umar Ibn Dharr said to his father, "O my father! Why is it that when you preach to people, they are taken by weeping, and when others preach to them they don't cry?

He replied, "O my son! The bereaved woman who lost a child and cries is not the same as the woman who is hired to cry over the dead"

Ibn Uthaymeen said in commentary:

This is a great example; for the woman who lost her child cries from her heart, while the hired wailers, their wailing and crying has no effect because it's artificial.

It was a common practice during those days to hire people for weeping.

Both women are making sounds, and the sounds may even sound similar, but one comes from the heart. And what comes from the heart touches the heart, whereas what comes from the mouth goes into one ear and comes out the other.

Also, this statement and similar statements made by the Salaf, should not be understood in the context of self-praise and pride. As Allah said in [53:32]:

The Sheikh who made this statement was actually a very humble individual.

We should think good of them. They were giving an understanding; illustrating and clarifying for us various points which have to do with sincerity - what one needs to know about oneself.

This is similar to the statement of one of the scholars, who made an oath to fast every time he caught himself backbiting (in order to quit the bad habit). But that didn't stop his bad habit, he ended up just weakening himself. Then he decided to give charity every time he backbit, and he was able to stop. This is because of human nature; we love money and tend to have a greater resolve in order to protect it. 

He wasn't trying to promote himself by this statement, he's just giving us advice and methods to deal with the weaknesses of ourselves.

Secondly: The comprehensive quality that guarantees the goodness of this world and the hereafter is the love of Allah, the Most High, and the love of His Messenger ﷺ, and actualizing them by genuine following, and following the tracks of the infallible (The Prophet ﷺ)

Allah said in [3:31]:

"Say: If you really love Allah then follow me (and in turn) Allah will love you and forgive your sins and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful"

Ibn Uthaymeen said in his commentary:

There's no doubt that love has a great effect in defense and prevention; for the lover will use maximum effort in order to reach his beloved. He will seek whatever pleases his beloved and brings him closer to him. He'll also exert his maximum efforts to avoid what displeases his beloved and distances him from it.

Ibn AlQayyim mentioned in his book "The Garden of Lovers" that: All actions are based on love. 

And this is true for all human actions, because desire does not occur from an intelligent person except for something he hopes to benefit from or hopes will repel some harm. Everything that drives us to do or not to do is based on love. We do things out of love that they'll benefit us. And this applies to the normal, intelligent person.

As for a mad or foolish person, he won't have that sense, and may do things harmful to himself. But common sense tells us that when the harm outweighs the benefit, we avoid. And the Shari'ah is based on the same principle. 

E.g. Alcohol. Allah says in [2:219]:

There are benefits in alcohol. People enjoy it, people who sell it make money from its business, and western medical scientists claim that if you drink half a glass of wine with your meal, it lowers your risk of a heart attack. But the bottom line is that Allah tells us its harm is greater than its benefit. The little benefits become meaningless when you put the harm on the other side of the scale. 

Harm so great that even the American Government in the 1920's banned the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol for 11 years. It's human nature to act according to things we see benefit in. If it benefits us, we love it. If it harms us, we hate it.

Thus love is the driver of one to Allah. Love leads and drives human beings.

Look at those who dislike what Allah revealed. From the verse, we see that the result of this was disbelief. Thus love is that which combines the good of this life and the next.

Ibn Uthaymeen goes on to say:

With regards to love of the Messenger ﷺ, it causes you to follow him externally and internally, because the lover follows the lover even in worldly affairs. You'll find him imitating his dress, speech, and even his handwriting. Ibn Uthaymeen remembers some of his classmates who would imitate Shaykh Sa'di's handwriting even though it was poor and illegible, due to their love of him. 

The more a person loves another, the more he tries to imitate his characteristics,

So if you love the Prophet ﷺ, then this love will guide you to follow him, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him.

So following the commands of Allah and the Prophet ﷺ becomes the yard stick; the criteria, with which we measure our love. If we really love them, we wouldn't disobey them, nor would we hesitate to follow their commands.

  

The author mentions the verse which the Salaf used to call "The Verse of Love". In [3:31]:

This is the test of true love. So many people claim that they love Allah.

If you think about it, the expected, logical response would be "Say, if you really love Allah, then follow me, and you'll be truthful in your claim". But Allah didn't answer it that way. He said, "..then Allah will love you". Because there's something greater than just proving that you love Allah; and that's Allah loving you. 

This verse indicates that the greatest affair is Allah loving you. This is the most important thing for the believer; it's the fruit and goal. Because in Allah loving you is success in everything, and without it is failure in everything. This is where our focus should be - striving to gain the love of Allah.