The Treatment To Be Given To Souls And The Reform of Vicious Characters
Imam Ibn Hazm (http://www.gawab.com/cgi-bin/gawabcli?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fislaam.com%2FSchola r.aspx%3Fid%3D58)
In Pursuit of Virtue (Al Akhlaq Was Siyar Fi Mudawat Al Nufus)
M. Abu Laylah
© 1990 Ta Ha Publishers
http://islaam.com/images/px/000000.gif
In the name of Allah the most merciful and clement: [O Allah I implore your assistance, O Allah bless Muhammad and his family and grant them peace.]
Abd Muhammad 'Ali Ibn Ahmad Ibn Sa'id Ibn Hazm [the Andalusian jurist]. Allah may be blessed with him has said:
1. Praise be to Allah for His great gifts. May Allah bless [our master] Muhammad, His servant, the seal of His Prophets and Messengers; may He grant them eternal blessings. I rely on Him for any ability and strength I may have, and I seek His aid and protection against all the various terrors and ills of this world. And may He deliver me from all horror and suffering in the next world.
2. Now, I have gathered together in this book numerous ideas which Allah, the provider of intellect, has enabled me to profit from as day succeeded day, [and year succeeded year] and circumstances altered, permitting me to understand the vicissitudes of fate and to control its fluctuations, to the extent that I have devoted the larger part of my life to it. I have chosen to master these problems by study and contemplation, rather than throw myself into the various sensual pleasures which attract most souls on this earth, and rather than amass unnecessary wealth. I have gathered together all my observations into this book in the hope that the Almighty may allow it to benefit whichever of His servants He wishes who has access to [is capable of understanding] my book, in the matters over which I have slaved, devoting all my efforts to them and reflecting at length upon them. I hope that it will be well received, and I present it with good intentions and blessings [with a good heart].
This book will benefit a person more than financial treasures and the possession of property, if he meditates upon it, and if Allah enables him to make good use of it. As for myself, my hope in this enterprise is to win the greatest reward from Allah, since my intention is to help His servants, to remedy whatever is corrupt in their character, and to heal the sickness of their souls. I beseech the assistance of Allah [Almighty, we wish only for God, the best of defenders].
Section dealing with the Treatment to be given to Souls, and the Reform of Vicious Characters.
3. The pleasure which a prudent man has from his own good sense, a scholar from his knowledge, a wise man from his wisdom, the pleasure of anyone who works hard in ways pleasing to Almighty God, is greater than the pleasure which a gourmet has from his food, a drinking man from his tipple, a lover from the act of love, a conqueror from his conquest, a reveller from his amusements [the player from his game] or a commander from giving orders. The proof of this is that the wise man, the prudent man, the scholar,' the practising Muslim and all those that we have mentioned are capable of enjoying these pleasures as much as the man who indulges in them. They have the same feelings, desires as those who hasten to satisfy them. But they have deliberately refrained and turned away from them, preferring to seek after moral excellence. None can judge these two [kinds of pleasure] except someone who has known both, not someone who has known one and not the other.
4. [As things happen one after the other] If you look deeply into worldly matters you will become melancholy and will end by reflecting upon the ephemeral nature of everything here below, and the fact that truth lies only in striving for the hereafter, since every ambition to which you might cling will end in tears; either the goal is snatched from you, or you have to give the attempt up before you reach it. One of these two endings is inevitable except in the search for God the Almighty and Powerful. Then the result is always joy, both immediate and eternal. The immediate joy is because you stop worrying about the things which usually worry people; this leads to an increase in the respect paid to you by friends and enemies alike. The eternal joy is the joy of Paradise.
5. I have tried to find one goal which everyone would agree to be excellent and worthy of being striven after. I have found one only: to be free from anxiety. When I reflected upon it, I realized that not only do all agree in valuing it and desiring it, but I also perceived that, despite their many different passions and aspirations and preoccupations and desires, they never make the slightest gesture unless it is to dispel anxiety, they never utter a single word unless it is designed to drive anxiety far away. One man loses his way, another comes close to going wrong, finally another is successful - but he is a rare man, and. success is rare, [O, all-knowing God].
Dispelling anxiety is a goal upon which all nations agree from the time when the Almighty created the world until the day when this world will pass away and be followed by the Day of Judgment - and their actions are directed to this goal alone. In the case of every other objective there will always be some people who do not desire it.
For example, some people are not religious and do not take eternity into account.
There are some who by nature and inclination prefer obscurity to fame [the obscurity of satisfied passion].
There are some people of evil nature who are not striving for good, for peace [loyalty] or for justice.
There are some who have no interest in amassing a fortune, preferring abstinence to ownership; this was the case with many of the Prophets. God's peace be upon them - and those who followed their example, ascetics and philosophers. There are some who by nature dislike sensual pleasures and scorn those who seek after them, such as those men we have just mentioned, and who prefer to lose a fortune rather than gain one. Some prefer ignorance to knowledge, in fact most of the people that you see in the street are like this. These are the objectives of people who have no other aim in life. Nobody in the whole world, from the time of its creation until its end, would deliberately choose anxiety, and would not desire to drive it far away.
6. When I had arrived at this great piece of wisdom, when I had discovered this amazing secret, when Allah the Almighty had opened the eyes of my mind [spirit] to see this great treasure, I began to search for the way which would truly enable me to dispel anxiety, that precious goal desired by every kind of person, whether ignorant or scholarly, good or evil. I found it in one place alone, in the action of turning towards God the Almighty and powerful, in pious works performed with an eye to eternity.
7. Thus the only reason that someone chases after riches is to dispel the anguish of poverty. The only reason that someone seeks fame is to dispel the anxiety of seeing someone else outdo him. The only reason that someone chases after pleasures is to dispel the anxiety of missing them. The only reason that someone chases after knowledge is to dispel the anxiety of being ignorant about something.
People enjoy listening to other people's conversation and gossip only because it dispels the anxiety of being alone and isolated. People eat, drink, make love, wear clothes, play games, build a shelter, mount a horse, go for a walk, only in order to avoid the reverse of all these actions and every other kind of anxiety.
8. In all the actions listed here, anyone who pauses to reflect will see that anxieties will inevitably occur, such as problems which arise in the course of the action, the impossibility of performing the impossible, the fleeting nature of any achievements, and the inability to enjoy something because of some difficulty. There are also bad consequences which arise from every success: fear of one's rival, attacks by the jealous, theft by the covetous, loss to an enemy, not to mention criticism, sin and such things. On the other hand, I have found that actions performed with an eye on eternity are free from every kind of fault, free from every stain, and a true means of dispelling anxiety. I have found that the man who is striving for eternity may be sorely tested by bad fortune on his way but does not worry; on the contrary, he is glad, because the trial to which he is subjected gives rise to hope, which aids him in his endeavour and sets him the more firmly on the path towards his true desire. I have found that, when he finds his way blocked by an obstacle, he does not worry, because it is not his fault, and he did not choose the actions that he will have to answer for. I have seen such a man be glad, when others have wished evil upon him, and be glad when he has undergone some trial, and be glad when he has suffered on his chosen path, and be glad, always [living] in a permanent state of joy while others are permanently the opposite. You should therefore understand that there is only one objective to strive for, it is to dispel anxiety; and only one path leads to this, and that is the service of the most high God. Everything else is misguided and absurd.
9. Do not use your energy except for a cause more noble than yourself. Such a cause cannot be found except in Almighty God Himself: to preach the truth, to defend womanhood, to repel humiliation which your creator has not imposed upon you, to help the oppressed. Anyone who uses his energy for the sake of the vanities of the world is like someone who exchanges gemstones for gravel.
10. There is no nobility in anyone who lacks faith.
11. The wise man knows that the only fitting price for his soul is a place in Paradise.
12. Satan sets his traps, under the cover of finding fault with hypocrisy. It can happen that someone refrains from doing a good deed for fear of being thought a hypocrite. [If Satan whispers such an idea in your ear, take no notice; that will frustrate him.]
http://islaam.com/images/px/pixel_ltblue.gif
Related Items Articles
• Dispraise of Hawaa (http://www.gawab.com/cgi-bin/gawabcli?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fislaam.com%2FArticl e.aspx%3Fid%3D1) by Imam Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah
• Analysis of Piety (http://www.gawab.com/cgi-bin/gawabcli?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fislaam.com%2FArticl e.aspx%3Fid%3D145) by Shaykh Ahmed Fareed
Audio Lectures
• Sweetness of Faith (http://www.gawab.com/cgi-bin/gawabcli?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fislaam.com%2FLectur e.aspx%3Fid%3D68) by Ali Al-Timimi
• At-Taqwaa (http://www.gawab.com/cgi-bin/gawabcli?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fislaam.com%2FLectur e.aspx%3Fid%3D122) by Yahya Adel Ibrahim
All From This Author
• <A href="http://www.gawab.com/cgi-bin/gawabcli?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fislaam.com%2FSchola r.asp%3Fid%3D58" target=_blank>Imam Ibn Hazm (http://www.gawab.com/cgi-bin/gawabcli?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fislaam.com%2FSchola r.aspx%3Fid%3D58)