Points of Benefit: Ibn Qayyim

Points of Benefit
Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyyah

from al-Fawaa'id of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Faid ur-Rahmaan fee al-Fawaa'id il-Hisaan no. 1 p. 30-32
Abridged by Sh. Husain al-Awaayishah

* How can anyone who has common sense trade Paradise and what is in it for the pleasure of one hour?

* When you fear the creation, you feel repelled by it and run away from it, but when you fear the Creator, you feel close to Him and run towards Him.

* If knowledge without action were of benefit, why did Allaah condemn the scholars of the People of the Book? And if action without sincerity were of benefit, why did He condemn the hypocrites?

* Repel the thought, for if you don't, it becomes an idea. So repel the idea, for if you don't it will become a desire. So fight against that (desire), for if you don't, it will become a determination and a passion. And if you don't repel that, it will become an action. And if you don't replace it with its opposite, it will become a constant habit. So at that point, it will be difficult for you to change it.

* When a decreed matter occurs to Allaah's 'abd (slave), which he dislikes, then he should have six perspectives about it

- First: The Perspective of Tawheed:

And that Allaah is the One who decreed it and willed it and created it. And whatever Allaah wills comes to pass, and whatever He doesn't will doesn't come to pass

- Second: The Perspective of Fairness:

And that He ruled this event to occur in the past and that there is fairness in His Divine ordainment.

- Third: The Perspective of Mercy:

And that the person's mercy with regard to this thing that was decreed supercedes his anger and vengeance

- Fourth: The Perspective of Wisdom:

And that it was Allaah's infinite Wisdom that brought that about. He did not decree it in vain nor did He divinely execute it for no purpose

- Fifth: The Perspective of Praise:

And that to Allaah belongs the complete and entire praise for that thing that was decreed from every angle of it.

- Sixth: The Perspective of Worship to Allaah ('Ubudiyyah):

And that he is a pure worshipper of Allaah from every standpoint. His Master's Rulings and Decrees occur to him by virtue of his being Allaah's possession and slave. So Allaah administers him under His decreed rulings just as He administers him under His religious rulings. So it (i.e. the decreed event) becomes a place for these rulings to occur to him.

* Little success (from Allaah), bad views, unawareness of the truth, corruption of the heart, laziness in making dhikr, wasting time, distaste for the creation, estrangement between the servant and his Lord, the prevention of the supplication from being answered, hardening of the heart, the termination of blessing from ones provision and lifespan, the prevention of knowledge, being covered in debasement, humiliation at the hands of the enemy, constricting of the chest, prolonged grief and sorrow, a wretchedlife of poverty, and a gloomy state of being are all produced from sins and neglecting to remember Allaah just as crops are produced from water and burning from fire. And the opposites of these things are produced from obedience to Allaah.

* If your mind would free itself from the governorship of your desires, the state would return back to it.

* You have entered into the abode of desires, so you have put your life at stake.

* It was once to said to one devout worshipper of Allaah: "Until when will you continue to exhaust your soul?" So he responded: "It is its relaxation that I seek."

* The women of this world were made beautiful to those who can see in order to test which of them prefers them over the women of the Hereafter. So whoever knows the extent of differences, he will choose what deserves to be chosen.

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