Long Hope...Causer of Illnesses and Malady of People
Golden dreams... glittering hopes... and pleasant imaginations... then there is only Destiny! Only the Act of the Lord of the humankind is done!
- Categories: Tazkiah -
All praise and thanks be to Allah who possesses Pride alone, and is far above defects and partners; and peace and blessings of Allah be upon the master of the sincere and the example of the pious and upon his master devout family and companions; then:
My Muslim brother: here are the years passing by and lives reaching their end! And the disasters of time never cease!
Brother: there is not a day passing but that it holds within great lessons and examples! I wonder, however, to whom it carries them? I wonder who would understand them?!
Lessons pass every day; and there are examples that are written by days on the face of time! They seem as if saying to man: read if you understand and learn lessons.
Brother: I am not saying to you: count each example and lesson in life! But I say to you: have you counted each lesson and example that has passed by you in your life?!
Brother: I do not think that everyone in this life counts the lessons of time which are given each and every day!
Brother: how miserable the human being is! He/She opens the eyes each morning with great hopes! But he/she forgets that whatever efforts he/she exerts, he/she can only achieve what is destined for him/her!
Golden dreams... glittering hopes... and pleasant imaginations... then there is only Destiny! Only the Act of the Lord of the humankind is done!
O my brother in Allah: how many hopes in this worldly life have you thought about? How many desires you have exhausted your life in achieving them?
Brother: do you know what the chronic disease is; doctors are perplexed for its remedy and scholars have spent a long time in its cure recipes?!
Brother: do you know what this disease is?
This is the disease of (long expectation!!). The description of which is as follows:
It is said that: it is: “Adhering to, devoting oneself eagerly to and loving this worldly life and turning away from the Hereafter!” [Imam Al-Qurtubi].
It is said that: “Hope is wishing what the soul loves of long life and increase in riches. Its meaning is near to wishful thinking!” [Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar].
Brother: this is long hope “A chronic and incurable disease which if controlled the heart, it will spoil its temper, and it will be hard to be cured! The illness will not leave it and medicine will not be successful in curing it! It has sickened the doctors! And scholars and doctors became desperate of healing it!” [Imam Al-Qurtubi].
Brother: Allah Almighty has dispraised His enemy because of their long hope, as this is a reason for their turning away from guidance.
Allah Almighty has addressed His Prophet: {Leave them to eat and enjoy, and let them be preoccupied with (false) hope. They will come to know} [Surat Al-Hijr 15:3].
{ذَرْهُمْ يَأْكُلُوا وَيَتَمَتَّعُوا وَيُلْهِهِمُ الْأَمَلُ ۖ فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ} الحجر: 3
Transliteration: Tharhum yakuloo wayatamattaAAoo wayulhihimu alamalu fasawfa yaAAlamoona
Allah Almighty has said in dispraising the Jews: {And verily, you will find them (the Jews) the greediest of mankind for life and (even greedier) than those who ascribe partners to Allâh (and do not believe in Resurrection - Majûs, pagans, and idolaters). Every one of them wishes that he could be given a life of a thousand years. But the grant of such life will not save him even a little from (due) punishment. And Allâh is All-Seer of what they do.} [Surat Al-Baqarah 2:96].
{وَلَتَجِدَنَّهُمْ أَحْرَصَ النَّاسِ عَلَىٰ حَيَاةٍ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا ۚ يَوَدُّ أَحَدُهُمْ لَوْ يُعَمَّرُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ وَمَا هُوَ بِمُزَحْزِحِهِ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ أَن يُعَمَّرَ ۗ وَاللَّـهُ بَصِيرٌ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ} البقرة: 96
Transliteration: Walatajidannahum ahrasa alnnasi AAalahayatin wamina allatheena ashrakoo yawaddu ahaduhum law yuAAammaru alfa sanatin wama huwa bimuzahzihihi mina alAAathabi an yuAAammara waAllahu baseerun bima yaAAmaloona
My Muslim brother: do not you wonder with me: hopes go up and down with this human being! Man becomes aged and days gnaw away his youth. However, his hope remains fresh and strong!
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said: “The heart of an old man remains young in two things: in loving this worldly life and in having long hope” [Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
«لا يزال قلب الكبير شابا في اثنتين: في حب الدنيا وطول الأمل» رواه البخاري
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said: “The son of Adam grows old, and two (desires) in him grow with him: the desire for wealth and the desire for long life” [Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
«يكبر ابن آدم ويكبر معه اثنتان: حب المال وطول العمر» رواه البخاري
Brother: do not you know that long hope was a cause for destroying many nations?
Do you know that having short hopes and being ascetics concerning desires were reasons of the righteousness of this pure generation of the ancestors of this nation; may Allah be pleased with them?
If you wish my brother, I can tell you the unquestionable truth about that. The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said: “The righteousness of the beginning of this nation is by asceticism and faith, and its last generations perish by miserliness and hope” [Reported by Al-Albani, Good (Hasan) due to other narrations]
«صلاح أول هذه الأمة بالزهد واليقين، وهلاك آخرها بالبخل والأمل» الألباني، حسن لغيره
Some wise men said: “Beware of long hope as it is the cause of destroying the nations!”
Brother: long hope is a trap of Satan’s, which he throws in the way of the son of Adam to chain him so that he can control him, eventually, as he wishes.
Some wise men said: “Hope is the power of Satan over the hearts of the heedless!”
Brother: How miserable are those who think that weaving the robes of hopes is considered happiness! They, in fact, have left happiness where they hate!
Al-Fudhayl Ibn ‘Ayadh, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “Long hope is from misery! And from bliss is short hope”
Mohamed Ibn Wasi’, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “Four matters are from miseries: long hope, cruelty of the heart, coldness of the eye and miserliness”
My brother in Allah: how many hopes have we raised in these souls? How many times have we indulged them in great expectations? However, brother, have we held them responsible? Have we asked them? What do you want from these hopes?
Are they for the sake of Allah and the Hereafter? Or do you want to lean upon the world of delusion?
Have we, rather, asked them: do not you know, O soul, that the moment of death is observed? You may die before achieving your hopes, which happens too much, O, soul, are you heedless?
Brother: the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has given us an example. Would you, my brother, contemplate with me about such an example?
Abdullah Ibn Masood, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him drew a square. He drew a line in the middle that got out from it. He drew small lines beside such one in the middle. He said: The Prophet drew a square and then drew a line in the middle of it and let it extend outside the square and then drew several small lines attached to that central line, and said, “This is the human being, and this, (the square) in his lease of life, encircles him from all sides (or has encircled him), and this (line), which is outside (the square), is his hope, and these small lines are the calamities and troubles (which may befall him), and if one misses him, an-other will snap (i.e. overtake) him, and if the other misses him, a third will snap (i.e. overtake) him.” [Reported by Al-Bukhari].
«خط النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم خطا مربعا، وخط خطا في الوسط خارجا منه، وخط خططا صغارا إلى هذا الذي في الوسط من جانبه الذي في الوسط، وقال: هذا الإنسان، وهذا أجله محيط به - أو: قد أحاط به - وهذا الذي هو خارج أمله، وهذه الخطط الصغار الأعراض، فإن أخطأه هذا نهشه هذا، وإن أخطأه هذا نهشه هذا» رواه البخاري
Awn Ibn Abdullah, may Allah have mercy on him, said “How many persons start a day and do not complete it and wait for tomorrow but do not reach it. If you look at death and its path, you will hate hope and its delusion”
Brother: By Allah, how much have we leaned upon hopes and their delusion? How many times have we woven the ropes of hopes for long times?
Brother: think for a little time with me. If I ask you, what have the people of long hopes gained?
Have they achieved their desires? Have they got their dreams which they have always cherished?
Brother: think again. Regard that the people of hopes have achieved such hopes. Have they achieved them pure without troubles? If so, have what they have achieved lasted. If they have lasted for a long time, have they been satisfied with them and have not talked to themselves about other hopes?
O you who think of hopes even if they are far
From him and he claims that he achieves the remotest ones
How do you win what do you hope while
You are not sure to achieve the nearest ones
Brother: this is your soul and you know it best. Ask it, though I think that it will not tell you the truth. However, brother, if you hold your soul responsible, you will know its diseases. If you know the disease, the remedy will be easy.
Brother: do not you see what lies in the hearts of cruelty and heedlessness? Neither threatening frightens them nor do promises reform them. They are lazy if invited to acts of obedience, active and vigorous if invited to lustrous desires!
Brother: this is the disease of long hope, the master of diseases and caller of fancies.
Brother: how bad the disease of long hope is. And what evil is the breeding of long hope! Long hope generates laziness in obedience, procrastination for repenting, desiring this worldly life, forgetting the Hereafter and cruelty of the heart. The sincerity of the heart and its tenderness happen by remembering death, the grave, the reward, the punishment and the horror of the Day of Resurrection. Allah Almighty has said {and the term was prolonged for them and so their hearts were hardened?} [Surat Al-Hadîd :16] [Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar].
{...فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَمَدُ فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ} الحديد: 16
Transliteration: fatala AAalayhimu alamadu faqasat quloobuhum
My Muslim brother: as you see, laziness in obedience, desiring this worldly life, and forgetting the hereafter are the soldiers of long hope. How many hearts there are which have been spoiled by long hope and how many times it has smeared people in the mud of sins.
How odd, brother, “all of us have been certain of death but we can see no one ready for it, all of us have been certain of Paradise, but we can see no one working for it, and all of us are certain of Hellfire but we can see no one fearing from it, so for what matter are you ascending? What are you waiting for? Is it Death? It is the first thing to come to you from Allah with good or evil omens!
“O brothers walk well to your Lord” [Khulayd Al-’Asry].
Brother: is it not strange that lives are spent while hopes never end? Each day has its hope, each month has its hope and each year has its hope. In this manner, a person of hope has an endless journey.
Some wise men said: “How could he be joyful of this worldly life whose day devours his month? His month devours his year? His year devours his life? How could he be happy whose years lead him to his terms? Whose life leads him to his death?”
These days are only stages
By which a herald urges for death intentionally
The strangest thing if you ponder is that
They are ranks folded while the traveler is sitting
Brother: where are you from your leisure?
Have you spent it in performing acts of obedience or have you invested it in seeking the mirage of hopes?
Mu’awyya Ibn Qurra, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “The severest reckoning on the Day of Resurrection is for the unoccupied healthy!”
Brother in Allah: “a faithful believer is occupied only by seriousness!
A faithful believer is distracted from hopes and desires!
A faithful believer always strives with himself!
A faithful believer is the one who says in the morning to his inclination “retreat!” and says to the obedience of his Lord “advance”.
Khulayd Al-’Asry, may Allah have mercy on him, said “A believer can only be met in three statuses: in a mosque that he maintains, a house which protects him or in a matter of this worldly life in which there is no harm”.
Brother: do you know who the true ascetic is?
The scholar Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him, was asked: what is asceticism in this worldly life?! He replied “short hope, this who wakes up in the morning says I will not stay alive till the evening!”
Brother: this is the true ascetic. This worldly life, brother, is more contemptible for a man’s heart to stick to, to waste his life gasping behind it, that if he misses something of it, he becomes sad and gloomy!
Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “This worldly life; from its beginning till its end does not deserve the grief of one hour, so what about the grief of the whole life?”
He has not enjoyed this who has collected
From the vanities of money if death comes
This life is as a transient shadow
Over which sun rose so it vanished
Brother: how many collectors of this worldly life who has suddenly met his death, so he leave this worldly life with nothing following him but his deeds?
O brother, listen with me to this precious advice by the sincere companion Abu Ad-Darda’, may Allah be pleased with him. He stood one day in the Damascus mosque and said, “O people of Damascus, do not you hear from an adviser brother? Those who were before you were collecting a lot, constructing lofty buildings and having far-reaching hopes. Their collections became ruined and hopes became delusions. The people of ‘Aad have filled countries with people, money, horses and men! Who buys their heritage from me today at two dirham?!”
My Muslim brother: can you say with me: O the mindless, who told you that this world is a home of residence? Do not you see people leave each day to the Hereafter? Whoever lived in this worldly life until reaching all his hopes?!
Brother: do not you see the advice of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, to Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him and his father, when he took hold of his shoulders and said: “Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a passerby.” Ibn Omar used to say, “If you survive till the evening, do not expect to be alive in the morning, and if you survive till the morning, do not expect to be alive in the evening” [Reported by Al-Bukhari].
«أخذ رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم بمنكبي فقال: (كن في الدنيا كأنك غريب أو عابر سبيل). وكان ابن عمر يقول: إذا أمسيت فلا تنتظر الصباح، وإذا أصبحت فلا تنتظر المساء، وخذ من صحتك لمرضك، ومن حياتك لموتك» رواه البخاري
Brother: “if this worldly life is not a home of residence for a believer, so he must be in one of two conditions: he is to be a stranger who is living away from home, so his intention is to take provisions to return home, or to be a traveler who is not residing at all. That is why the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, advised Ibn Umar to be in this worldly life in one of these two conditions” [Imam Ibn Rajab]
Brother: no one has had long hopes but he has picked thorns and bitter melon. No one has had short hopes but he has picked the ripe and sweet fruits. If you wish, brother, I can inform you about the fruits of the two parties.
Nasr ibn Muhammad As-Samarqandi, may Allah have mercy on him, said: whoever has short hopes is blessed by Allah Almighty with four honors:
The first: He will strengthen him in obeying Him. If the slave of Allah knows that he is shortly dying, he will not care of the misfortunes he will face and will strive in obedience and increase his deeds.
The second: he is to be of little worries, as this who knows that he is shortly dying; he will not care of the misfortunes he will face.
The third: he is to be satisfied with little, as this who knows that he is shortly dying, he will not ask much, as the Hereafter is his care and worry.
The fourth: his heart is to be enlightened
This who is of long hopes is punished by Allah with four matters:
The first: he is lazy in obedience
The second: he is to be of increased worries in this worldly life
The third: he is eager to collect fortunes
The fourth: his heart is to be cruel.
My brother in Allah: be as the righteous who have held themselves responsible for their slips and incitements to evil. If the selves try to escape they bring them back by the whip of righteousness to the clear aim! I will provide you, brother, with some flourishing flowers from the righteous’ stories that tell you about the splendor and beauty of those faithful persons.
Dawood At-Tâ’i, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “if I hope to live for a month you will see me as if I have committed a great sin! Because how can I hope that while I see afflictions overwhelming people during the hours of day and night?”
If ‘Uways Al-Qarny, may Allah have mercy on him, was asked: how is time with you?
He was replying: “how is time with a man who if survives till the evening, he does not expect to be alive in the morning, and if he survives till the morning, he does not expect to be alive in the evening! He is promised with either Paradise or Hellfire!”
Some of the ancestors said: “I have never slept and thought that I would wake up”
Here is, brother, this anecdote: Muhammad Ibn Abu Towba reported from Ma’rouf Al-Karkhy, may Allah have mercy on him, who narrated that he called once for praying and then he said to Muhammad: come forward (to lead the prayer). Muhammad said: if I lead this prayer for you, I will not lead another prayer. Ma’rouf said: are you talking yourself into praying another prayer? Seek refuge with Allah from long hope as it prevents performing righteous deeds.
Brother: beware of long hope, as it is a fallow land, and this that has it is deluded.
I do not know even if I hoped for a life
That when I get up in the morning that I will not survive until the evening
Do not you see that in the morning of each day
Your life is shorter than the day before
My Muslim brother: if your soul talked you into wishful thinking and hopes tapped your imagination, prevent your soul, brother, by the whip of short hope as it is an excellent remedy.
Brother: if your soul asks you for desires and hops, tell it: O soul would you hope for success for performing good deeds and to increase in doing acts of obedience?
O soul would you desire to be one of those souls which, upon leaving this world, are told {(It will be said to the pious believers of Islamic Monotheism): “O (you) the one in (complete) rest and satisfaction! (27). “Come back to your Lord well-pleased (yourself) and well-pleasing (unto Him)! (28). “Enter you then among My (honored) slaves, (29). “And enter you My Paradise!”} [Surat Al-Fajr 89:27-30].
{يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ ﴿٢٧﴾ ارْجِعِي إِلَىٰ رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَّرْضِيَّةً ﴿٢٨﴾ فَادْخُلِي فِي عِبَادِي ﴿٢٩﴾ وَادْخُلِي جَنَّتِي} الفجر: 27-30
Transliteration: Ya ayyatuhaalnnafsu almutmainnatu (27) IrjiAAee ila rabbiki radiyatan mardiyyatan (28) Faodkhulee fee AAibadee (29) Waodkhulee jannatee
O soul would you desire to be in the company of the righteous people in the Gardens of bliss?!
Tell it, brother: O soul, desire for what you wish! I will occupy you with acts of worship until you know that this is seriousness and all your desires are only delusions!
Brother: for your hopes, you have two conditions: one of them is that you are near your hope, but it does not distract you from the Hereafter, it is then a praiseworthy hope. The second condition is that you are away from your hope. It keeps you away from Allah and the Hereafter. It is then the dispraised hope. What is dispraised from it is to slacken the reins for it and not to be prepared for the Hereafter. This who is safe from that is not asked to leave it” [Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar].
My brother in Allah: the hours of your life are a treasure in your hand! If you preserve it and keep it where Allah Almighty likes, it is then blessed for you. If you waste it in things that do not please Allah Almighty, you will be then a target for abnormal anxieties and false hopes. You will not be, then, satisfied with your life. If long hope is to lead you to sins and disobedience, you will be miserable tomorrow, when mankind stands before the Lord of the ‘Alamîn (mankind, jinn and all that exists).
May Allah keep you and me away from the incitements of the devils and give you and me the best rewards in both this worldly life and the Hereafter.
All praise and thanks be always to Allah, and peace and blessings of Allah be upon His Prophet and upon his family and companions.
Ibn Khuzaymah House