We discussed part 2 of saying 2 last week. The commentary for it is listed below.
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Amir al-Mu’minīn
(alayhis-salām) said:
“Whoever covers (clothes) one’s self
with greed, has degraded oneself; and one who discloses one’s difficulties, is
satisfied with abasement and one who grants one’s tongue authority over
oneself, has devalued oneself”
Why should one who discloses one’s
difficulties be satisfied with abasement? Is this form of disclosure always on
a par with complaining to other than Allah? Is complaining about x, y and z to
Allah alone a form of negative disclosure?Inshallah these are some of the
questions we hope to shed more light upon this week.
First of all, the Arabic word for
difficulties is ضُرّ (ḍurr) which in contrast to ḍarr (difficulties in
the absolute sense – bodily or non-bodily) means difficulties of one’s body (and
maybe it can mean difficulties of the soul). Now is disclosing such
difficulties always bad? Not necessarily! It depends on a number of parameters
the most important of which include: (i) to whom are you disclosing your
difficulties? and (ii) are you regarded as complaining?
When defining patience, Ibn Arabi writes
in chapter 124 of his ‘al-Fūtūḥāt al-Makkīyyah’:
“In
33:57, it states “verily those who (constantly) harm/torment Allah and His
Messenger are distanced by Allah in
the world and the Hereafter...”; here, in this verse, Allah is warning these people of their ultimate fate due to their
committing harm and so Allah is Ṣabūr (the all-Patient) in relation to
such people’s harm and abuse. Even
though He is requesting His servants not to harm Him, He is still Ṣabūr [i.e. Allah is eternally all-Patient
with respect to all wrongdoings etc. but He is still requesting people not to harm Him and His
Messenger; this latter request does not go against His patience because even were people to sin etc. Allah
does not complain in the sense that we do; we complain out of a deficiency whereas Allah has no
defect; Allah’s request not to harm Him is based on His guidance over us; He loves His servants!]; in the same
manner, when a servant requests Allah to solve his difficulties, this servant is still deemed patient.
This is what happened with Prophet Job (Ayyūb)
when he had requested in 21:83 “Indeed
distress has befallen me, and You are the most merciful of the merciful” and Allah praised him in saying “Indeed We found him to be patient” even
though Prophet Ayyūb had made a request (he was still deemed patient).”
[square brackets added by me].
Explanatory Notes: (before continuing
with Ibn Arabi’s passage, a few words may be of help)
Don’t
say Allah is free of defect whereas we request because and out of deficiency;
for us who are not mukhlas yes
this is correct; but even for us, our complaining to Allah alone does not deny
us the right to be called
patient; nevertheless this patience will not be a complete manifestation of
Allah’s attribute of Ṣabūr. That’s
concerning us though! With Prophet Ayyub, he was infallible. He was a complete manifestation of this attribute of Allah’s. We
cannot attribute any sin, mistake or second best option to the Prophets. One should not jump to
conclusions by the apparent prima facie meanings of the verses of the Quran. Note that the Quran’s essential,
divine and infinite message has been revealed and has been brought to us in a very limited and verbal form, so
that we at least understand a minimum and then
work ourselves to attain to the esoteric dimensions. Some verses when taken at
face value and without a
proper base of textual and rational ma’rifah can lead one to the wrong
conclusions. Prophets were Prophets
and as Prophets, complete manifestations of Allah’s attributes. This is a
lengthy debate and outside
the scope of this maxim’s commentary; inshallah we shall cover this topic one
day. The reason I brought it up was
because with Prophet Ayyub’s request from Allah, this request was not made out of any deficiency from
his part; after all, he had the capacity to be patient over these burdens but nevertheless requested a solution to it
from Allah as a result of his love to guide people. It makes no difference to him on a personal level
whether he persists with the bodily illness or copes with/tolerates the people’s needs with a healthy body, but
the crux of the matter is that Prophet Ayyūb was merciful, loving, affectionate and cared so much for the
people that his request was made so that the people be guided by means of him. This is what religion is all
about. The Holy Messenger of Islam’s slogan was الحب اساسي (al-ḥubbu asāsī: Disclosing love is my basis of action).
So, in the same way that whether you
harm or sin against Allah or not, Allah still makes a request because He is the
most merciful of the merciful
and no matter what you do He is Ṣabūr (even though He makes a request), the
same applies to Prophet Ayyūb
too i.e. no matter what the burden is that he is encountering, he bears it and
is ṣabūr but he
still makes a request; why? because he is loving in relation to the people’s
guidance. Now, with your permission,
let’s go one step further. Let’s go to Karbala and what happened there with
Imam al-Husayn (alayhis-salām). He
knew of his fate from before. He knew of his martyrdom from before. He was patient no matter what. But
he too made requests! Not to Allah but to the people in the same way that Allah requested people not to harm Him
and His Messenger. Imam al-Husayn’s requests include: if you harm us, at least do not harm this 6-month infant;
when Shimr was making his final blow to end the
Imam’s life, the Imam said: “Oh Shimr, I request you to repent; it’s not too
late! I shall guarantee you
your shafa’ah” Allahu Akbar! Why all these requests? because the Imam
loved everyone and cared for
everyone and desired for everyone’s guidance. Ponder carefully over this! So
what’s all this cursing (la’nah)
that we do in different duas and ziyarats! These la’nats that we make
have their origins in love and mercy.
Some scholars believe that the concept of la’n has been misrepresented
in our religion. There are many
concepts in our religion that have slightly mutated and have taken a different
outlook. This is just one example.
Inshallah we shall speak more about this in a more appropriate time. No one is against expressing la’nah (after
all, its essential: ziyarats like ziyarat al-Ashura is essential for one’s spiritual wayfaring; however it
must be tasted rather than just read or chanted) but make sure you understand this important article of faith, in its
entirety, before expressing it (the more you understand it whilst expressing it, the more you will elevate).
End of Explanatory Note
Ibn Arabi continues:
“Patience
(ṣabr) is the process of withholding one’s soul from (a) complaining to
other than Allah and (b) finding
peace and repose in other than Allah. I have made it clear to you that Allah
has requested His servants to eliminate
their harm that harms Him even though He has the power to put an end to and not create that harm which emanates
from them. Now focus on the secrets underlying this patience. Verily this is one of the greatest and best
secrets. In one tradition, it states: “no-one is more patient than Allah before harm and abuse”
What are these secrets? Ibn Arabi has
not, as far as my limited reading of this book goes, explicitly shed light on
these secrets. Maybe (although I doubt it) it is this: the importance of
patience is when you have the capacity to eliminate the burden but you do not
in the name of manifesting Allah’s attribute of Ṣabūr. This patience has
degrees to it. Sometimes you are like Bilal and you are forced to forbear and
be patient before the torture etc. However sometimes you see, in history, Amir
al-Mu’minīn (alayhis-salām) being patient when Lady Faṭimah (alayhā-salām) is
being attacked; here, the Imam had the power and capacity to easily defeat the
enemy but there was a greater objective at stake. He knew of this objective
because of his faith in Allah. We can also acquire this knowledge from Allah
and thus know when to be and not to be patient. In any case, now acknowledge
Allah’s patience before us wretched creatures. He is all-Powerful etc. but see
how His patience works.
Going
back to the first part in Ibn Arabi’s passage, the pivotal point is where Allah
deems and praises His Prophet Ayyūb as one who is patient even though he did
complain; the point is however that this form of complaining was made to Allah
alone and if this is realised it becomes a praiseworthy form of complaint. Why?
because it was made to Allah alone, acknowledging and appreciating that He is
the sole independent source of self-sufficiency and that all affairs return to
Him. It’s a complaining whose output is nothing but Allah-ness and the colour
of Allah; after all, it’s a specific focus and attention one is directing to
Him alone.
Is
disclosing to other than Allah always bad? This depends on one’s inner states
of mind and heart when actually disclosing one’s difficulties. It also depends
on the person to whom you are disclosing. Assuming one’s disclosure has no
colour of complaint and is complaint-free i.e. one is merely stating facts,
this need not be always negative; however this too is negative at times e.g. it
may be futile or void and thus a waste of time; it may sadden your friends; it
may make your enemies happy by disclosing it; but it may be of benefit too e.g.
increasing people’s awareness of something so that they do not fall into the
same trap as you. One must therefore sometimes have to weigh the pros and cons
and see which is more detrimental or which one is more on a par with salvation.
One’s intention here too is essential. Sometimes, however, one is disclosing
one’s difficulties to others in a ‘complaining’ manner and this is where one’s
soul has the capacity to be most contaminated. Why? because whilst complaining,
what happens usually is that one is forgetting that Allah is the
self-sufficient sole independent cause. This forgetting is the source of one’s
spiritual downfall. However even this last complaining scenario has exceptions
i.e. when it is done to one who is truly a mu’min i.e. one who is a
manifestation of Allah’s attribute al-Mu’min. Why is this, an exception?
because believers, in this sense, are appended to Allah. It’s as if you are
complaining to Him. Think about it whilst recalling the tradition where Prophet
Jesus (alayhis-salām) advised his followers to be friends with those who remind
you and make you recall Allah. Our Infallible Imams were perfect manifestations
of the divine attribute al-Mu’min.
Summary:
Disclosing one’s difficulties is usually
on a par with the negative form of disclosure i.e. complaining to other than
Allah. One who does this is acting Allah-lessly; one who acts Allah-lessly is
distancing oneself from becoming more and more Allah-like by not incorporating
His attributes (such as al-Ṣabūr) within one’s soul and that’s why the Imam
states that by disclosing one’s difficulties, one is in effect satisfied with
abasement. The more distanced from Allah your behaviour and actions are, the
more you are driving your soul towards abasement and to a level which is
degrading to you as a human being that has a super-angelic potential. Our
potential is that of our ancestor Adam’s (see 2:31) – we are potential ‘divine
khalifahs’!
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