Imaam Ibn Qudaamah Al-Maqdisee (rahimahullaah) said:
Know that the basis of (love) of prestige is the love of widespread fame and glory (for oneself). This is a great danger and in obscurity there is safety. The people of goodness do not have an intention for (seeking) fame -neither do they turn their attention towards it nor towards the means to it; rather if it comes to them from Allaah (The Most High), they guard themselves against it and they used to prefer obscurity, as it has been reported about Ibn Mas’ood (radiyallaahu-anhu) that he came out of his house and a group of people followed him, so he noticed them and said: ‘’Why are you following me? By Allaah had you known what is locked (behind) my door, then no two men amongst you would follow me.” And in another wording (of this report he said): ‘’Go back, for indeed it is humiliation for the follower and a trial for the followed.” [Mukhtasar Minhaaj Al-Qaasideen: Page 222]
Imaam Ibn Qudaamah Al-Maqdisee (rahimahullah) said:
Know that envy is a great disease of the hearts and the diseases of the hearts are not cured except with knowledge and action. The beneficial knowledge for curing envy is to know that in reality envy is harmful to you in (your) Religious and worldly affairs, and the envied one is neither harmed in his Religious nor worldly affairs; rather he is benefitted by it. Blessings do not cease from the person you envy. And even if you were not a believer in the resurrection, this (envy) would still have necessitated a realization–if you are sensible–to be mindful of envy due to the pain it contains in the heart alongside (having) no benefit. So how about when you know of its punishment in the afterlife.
And the clarification of our statement: “Indeed the envied one is neither harmed in his Religious nor worldly affairs, rather he is benefitted by it in his Religious and worldly affairs;”is because the blessings Allaah has decreed for him will continue until the end of the lifespan and there is no harm upon him in the hereafter (due to being envied) because he has not committed any sin in that; rather he is benefitted by it because he is someone receiving oppression from you, especially if the envy comes out through speech and action.
As for the benefit in the worldly life (i.e. the benefits of being envied), it is that the most important goal of the creation (i.e. the envious ones amongst mankind and Jinn) is (to witness) the grief of an enemy and there is no punishment greater than the envy you find yourself in. If you contemplate on what we have mentioned, you will know that you are indeed an enemy to yourself– a friend of your enemy (within yourself). Your likeness is nothing other than that of a person, who threw a stone at his enemy to kill him, but he could not harm him and the stone bounced back on his right eye and plucked it out. So his anger increased and he again threw a stone harder than the first one, but it bounced back on his other eye and plucked it out. So his rage increased and he threw a third stone, but it bounced back on his head and broke it, whilst his enemy is safe and laughing at him. This is a knowledge base cure (for envy). If a person reflects upon this, the inferno of envy will be extinguished from his heart.
As for beneficial action (to help cure envy), then it is to make binding upon oneself to destroy what envy commands one to do. So if it arouses him towards hatred and defamation of the one envied, then he should make it binding upon himself to praise and extol him. If it makes him arrogant, then he should make it binding upon himself to be humble towards him (i.e. the one envied); and if it makes him block favours from reaching him, then he should make it binding upon himself to increase in giving him favours. And there were a group of the Salaf who whenever it reached them that a person backbit them, they would give him (i.e. the back bitter) a gift.
These are very beneficial remedies for envy….
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[For further details, see ‘Mukhtasar Minhaajil Qaasideen’ page: 200-201 with the Takhreej of Imaam Albaanee (rahimahullah). Abridged and slightly paraphrased]
Sulaymaan Bin Yasaar (rahimahullaah) reported that a people were on a journey, so they said when they were about to depart:
سُـبْحانَ الَّذي سَخَّـرَ لَنا هذا وَما كُنّا لَهُ مُقْـرِنين
وَإِنّا إِلى رَبِّنـا لَمُنْقَـلِبون
Glory to Him who has subjected this to us, and we could never have it (by our efforts). And verily, to Our Lord we indeed are to return]
A man amongst the people who had a sturdy she-camel said: As for me, I indeed reached the night due to this sturdy she-camel, so it (threw) him and broke his neck. [Source: Al-Uqoobaat’ by Ibn Abee Dunyah’ page 316]
Shaikh Rabee Bin Haadi (may Allaah preserve him) said:
(You) find the likes of this dishonesty today; there is that one who approaches two disputing parties-one group upon truth and the other upon falsehood, so he misguides all of them and does not give greater weight to the truth. He manifests a new doctrine which he considers to be the balance path, whilst it is falsehood and sophistry in and of itself. This category of people is a dangerous trend and their foundation is lying and deception.
When it is the case that addressing the (people) through exhortations is mostly (directed at) the common people, the ignorant story tellers found a way of reaching their goals. Then their bidah did not cease until the affair reached alarming proportions. So they brought about evil (affairs with regards to their) deeds, statements and goals.
know-may may Allaah (The Mot High) grant you success-that it is obligatory upon everyone (i.e. the scholars who criticise or commend narrators of hadeeth) to know the distinction between the authentic chains of transmission and the faulty ones, and the (trustworthiness, precision etc) of the narrators of (the authentic chains) as opposed to those who have been charged (with weakness, forgetfulness, fabrication etc in their narrations), so that nothing is transmitted from these narrations except that which whose narrator is sound and blameless in his narrations, and to avoid that which is from those who have been charged with (weakness, forgetfulness, fabrication etc) and the obstinate ones amongst Ahlul Bidah. [Muqaddimah Saheeh Muslim: page 61]
As for those who came after the Sahaabah (i.e. us), among them is that one who was brought up in Islaam but knows not what is in opposition to it. Therefore, some of the details of the path of the believers and that of the criminals became confusing to him, for indeed confusion occurs due to the weakness of one’s knowledge regarding either paths or one of them, as Umar Ibnul Khattaab (radiyallaahu-anhu) said:
”The ties of Islaam will be demolished one after the other when a people brought up in Islaam know not what Jaahiliyyah (Pre-Islamic Ignorance) is.”
This (statement indicates) Umar’s excellent knowledge. And if you do not know what pre-Islamic ignorance and its rulings are, then it is all that is in opposition to what the Messenger came with-all (affairs) that are in opposition to the Messenger is tantamount to ignorance.
And there is that one who is neither acquainted with the path of the criminals nor has it been made clear to him, or he has doubts and thus thinks that some of their ways are from the ways of the believers. This has occurred in this Ummah in many affairs pertaining to Aqeedah, Knowledge and Action from the path of the criminals, the disbelievers and the enemies of the Messengers, (which) was brought into the path of the believers by the one who does not know the (detailed distinction between) the path of believers and the path of the criminals, so he calls to (this path of the criminals); excommunicates the one who opposes him and declares lawful that which Allaah and His Messenger made unlawful, just as what has occurred with many of the people of bidah, such as the Jahmiyyah, the Qadariyyah, the Khawaarij, the Rawaafid and their likes, among those who initiated an innovation, called to it and excommunicated those who opposed it.
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[Source: Al-Fawaa’d pages 167-180; abridged and slightly paraphrased]
Aa’isha (radiyallaahu-anhaa) narrated that the Prophet (sallal-laahu-alayhi-wasallam) used to invoke Allaah in the salaah (before the tasleem) saying:
O Allaah, I seek refuge with You from the punishment of the grave and from the trial and affliction of Maseeh Ad-Dajjaal and from trial and affliction of life and death. O Allaah, I seek refuge with You from sins and from being in debt. Somebody said to him, ‘’why do you so frequently seek refuge with Allaah from being in debt?’’ The Prophet (sallal-laahu-alayhi-wasallam) replied: ”A person in debt tells lies whenever he speaks, and breaks promises whenever he makes (them) [See Arabic Text in Bukhaari, Hadeeth Number: 832]
Imaam Ibnul Qayyim (rahimahullaah) said:
The Prophet (sallal-laahu-alayhi-wasallam) combined between (seeking Allaah’s refuge) from sins and debt because sins necessitate loss in the afterlife and debt necessitates loss in the worldly life. [Al-Fawaa-id: page: 97]
The slave does not embark upon what he has been forbidden except through two ways. Firstly: (either) harbouring evil thoughts about his Lord that if he were to obey Allaah and preferred Him, He (Glorified Be He) will not grant him what is better from the lawful (things).
Secondly: (or) he acknowledges (that Allaah will grant him something better than the forbidden thing he pursues) and that whoever leaves something for Allaah’s sake, He (Glorified Be He) will replace it with something better; but lusts overcomes his patience and desires (overcomes) his intellect. The first affair is due to weakness in knowledge and the second a weakness in intellect and insight.
Abu Moosaa Muhammad Ibnul Muthannaa (rahimahullaah) said:
We used to read to a blind Shaikh, so when the (innovated) speech about the Qur’aan being created occurred in Baghdad the Shaikh said: ”If the Qur’aan is not created, then may the Qur’aan be wiped off my heart (i.e. from my memory).” He (Abu Moosaa) said: When we heard this speech of his, we abandoned him and turned away from him. After some time period we met him and said to him: ”O such and such, what did the Qur’aan do?” He said: ”Nothing of it remains in my chest (i.e. in my memory).” We said: ”Not even قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ?” He said: ”Not evenقُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ except when I hear it being recited by someone else.”
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Source:
باب ذكر اللفظية، ومن زعم أن هذا القرآن حكاية للقرآن الذي في اللوح المحفوظ كذبوا…/ من شرح الشريعة للآجري-رحمه الله
