Al-Fawāʾid - Ibn al-Qayyim - (الكتاب/158)

Al-FawāʾidIbn al-Qayyim

—detailing as well the fate of each group, the deeds of each, the allies of each, His abandonment of one and His granting of success to the other, and the very causes by which He favored these and forsook those. In His Book He, glorified be He, has laid bare the two matters, unveiled and expounded them with the utmost clarity, until inner vision beholds them as plainly as physical sight beholds light and darkness.

Thus, those who truly know Allah, His Book, and His religion have come to know—down to particulars—the path of the believers and, with the same precision, the path of the criminals. Both roads stand before them as distinctly as, to a traveler, the route that leads to his goal and the route that leads to ruin. Such people are the most knowledgeable of all creation, the most beneficial and sincere to humankind; they are the guiding signposts.

For this very reason the Companions outstripped everyone who would come after them until the Day of Resurrection. They had grown up amid misguidance, disbelief, polytheism, and the various tracks that end in destruction, and they knew those ways in detail. Then the Messenger came and led them out of those layers of darkness into the way of guidance, Allah’s straight path: from deepest darkness to perfect light, from shirk to tawḥīd (monotheism), from ignorance to knowledge, from error to right guidance, from injustice to justice, and from bewilderment and blindness to insight and clarity. They therefore grasped the magnitude of what they had gained and the magnitude of what they had left behind, for an opposite reveals the beauty of its counterpart and things are truly understood only by their opposites. Their desire and love for what they had entered grew, as did their aversion and hatred for what they had abandoned. Accordingly, they became the most ardent of people in loving tawḥīd, faith, and Islam, and the most vehement in detesting their opposites, all while possessing a detailed comprehension of the path.

As for those who came after the Companions, some were raised within Islam without knowing in detail its opposite, so certain particulars of the believers’ path became confused for them with a path—

مفصلةً، وعاقبة هؤلاء مفصلة وعاقبة هؤلاء مفصلة، وأعمال هؤلاء وأعمال هؤلاء، وأولياء هؤلاء وأولياء هؤلاء، وخذلانه لهؤلاء وتوفيقه لهؤلاء، والأسباب التي وفَّق بها هؤلاء والأسباب التي خَذَل بها هؤلاء، وجلَّى سبحانه الأمرين في كتابه وكشَفَهما وأوضحَهما وبينهما غاية البيان، حتى شاهدتْهما البصائرُ كمشاهدة الأبصار للضياء والظلام. فالعالمون بالله وكتابه ودينه عَرفوا سبيلَ المؤمنين معرفةً تفصيليةً وسبيلَ المجرمين معرفةً تفصيليةً، فاستبانتْ لهم السبيلانِ كما يستبين للسالك الطريقُ الموصلُ إلى مقصوده والطريقُ الموصلُ إلى الهلكة؛ فهؤلاء أعلم الخلق، وأنفعهم للناس، وأنصحهم لهم، وهم الأَدِلَّاءُ الهداةُ. وبذلك برَّزَ الصحابةُ على جميع من أتى بعدهم إلى يوم القيامة؛ فإنهم نشؤوا في سبيل الضلال والكفر والشرك والسُّبُل الموصلة إلى الهلاك، وعرفوها مفصلة، ثم جاءهم الرسولُ، فأخرجهم من تلك الظُّلُمات إلى سبيل الهُدى وصراط الله المستقيم، فخرجوا من الظُّلمة الشديدة إلى النور التامِّ، ومن الشرك إلى التوحيد، ومن الجهل إلى العلم، ومن الغيِّ إلى الرشاد، ومن الظُّلْم إلى العدل، ومن الحيرة والعمى إلى الهُدى والبصائر، فعرفوا مقدارَ ما نالوه وظفروا به ومقدارَ ما كانوا فيه؛ فإنَّ الضِّدَّ يُظهِرُ حُسْنَه الضِّدُّ، وإنما تتبينُ الأشياءُ بأضدادها، فازدادوا رغبةً ومحبة فيما انتقلوا إليه، ونفرةً وبُغضًا لما انتقلوا عنه، وكانوا أحبَّ الناس في التوحيد والإيمان والإسلام، وأبغضَ الناس في ضدِّه، عالمين بالسبيل على التفصيل. وأما من جاء بعد الصحابة؛ فمنهم من نشأ في الإسلام غيرَ عالمٍ تفصيلَ ضدِّه، فالتبس عليه بعضُ تفاصيل سبيل المؤمنين بسبيل