Al-Fawāʾid - Ibn al-Qayyim - (الكتاب/176)

Al-FawāʾidIbn al-Qayyim

The poet said (1):
“I gave you a firm command, yet you disobeyed me.”

The very purpose for which the messengers were sent is that the Sender be obeyed, and that cannot be achieved except by carrying out His commands. Refraining from what He has forbidden is simply a completion and corollary of fulfilling those commands. Hence, if someone were to avoid the prohibitions yet fail to do what he has been ordered, he would not be regarded as obedient but as disobedient. By contrast, if he performs the prescribed duties while also committing the prohibitions, then although he is certainly sinful on account of the latter, he remains obedient for fulfilling the former. As for the one who neglects the command altogether, he cannot be deemed obedient merely because he keeps away from the prohibitions.

Tenth point: Complying with the command is servitude, a means of drawing near to Allah, and an act of service; it is the very worship for which the creation was brought into being, as He, exalted is He, says, “I did not create jinn and mankind except to worship Me” (Al-Dhāriyāt 51:56). He thus informs us that He created them solely for worship, and likewise sent to them His messengers and revealed His scriptures so that they might worship Him. Worship, then, is the end for which they were created; they were not created merely to refrain from acts, for such sheer abstention is a non-entity that contains no perfection in itself, whereas fulfilling the commanded duties is a positive reality that is sought in its own right.

This becomes clearer in the eleventh point: what the prohibition seeks is the non-occurrence of the act—pure absence—whereas what the command seeks is the actual performance of an act—a concrete existence. The object of the command is bringing something into being, while the object of the prohibition is non-existence, which contains no perfection unless it is accompanied by some positive reality. For non-being, considered purely as such, carries neither excellence nor benefit unless it is tied to an actual, positive good, and that—

(1) The opening hemistich of a verse by al-Hudayn b. al-Mundhir, quoted in al-Marzuqi, Sharh al-Hamasa, vol. 2, p. 814; the complete line is: “So you awoke stripped of the governorship, full of remorse.”

وقال الشاعرُ (١): أمرْتُك أمرًا حازمًا فعصيْتَني والمقصودُ من إرسال الرُّسُل طاعةُ المرسل، ولا تحصلُ إلا بامتثال أوامره، واجتنابُ المناهي من تمام امتثال الأوامر ولوازمه، ولهذا لو اجتنبَ المناهي ولم يفعل ما أُمر به لم يكن مطيعًا وكان عاصيًا؛ بخلاف ما لو أتى بالمأمورات وارتكب المناهي؛ فإنه وإن عُدَّ عاصيًا مذنبًا؛ فإنه مطيعٌ بامتثال الأمر عاصٍ بارتكاب النهي؛ بخلاف تارك الأمر؛ فإنه لا يُعَدُّ مطيعًا باجتناب المنهيَّات خاصةً. الوجه العاشر: أنَّ امتثال الأمر عبوديةٌ وتقرُّبٌ وخدمةٌ، وتلك العبادة التي خُلق لأجلها الخلقُ؛ كما قال تعالى: ﴿وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنْسَ إلا لِيَعْبُدُونِ (٥٦)﴾ [الذاريات: ٥٦]، فأخبر سبحانه أنه إنما خلقهم للعبادة، وكذلك إنما أرسل إليهم رسله وأنزل عليهم كتبهُ ليعبدوه؛ فالعبادة هي الغايةُ التي خُلِقوا لها، ولم يُخلَقوا لمجرَّد الترك؛ فإنه أمرٌ عدميٌّ لا كمال فيه من حيثُ هو عدمٌ؛ بخلاف امتثال المأمور؛ فإنه أمرٌ وجوديٌّ مطلوبُ الحصول. وهذا يتبيَّنُ بالوجه الحادي عشر: وهو أن المطلوب بالنهي عدم الفعل، وهو أمرٌ عدميٌّ، والمطلوبُ بالأمر إيجادُ فعل، وهو أمرٌ وجوديٌّ، فمتعلقُ الأمر الإيجاد، ومتعلق النهي الإعدام أو العدم، وهو أمرٌ لا كمال فيه؛ إلَّا إذا تضمَّن أمرًا وجوديًّا؛ فإنَّ العدم -من حيثُ هو عدمٌ- لا كمال فيه ولا مصلحةَ؛ إلَّا إذا تضمَّن أمرًا وجوديًّا مطلقًا، وذلك

(١) صدر بيت للحضين بن المنذر في شرح الحماسة للمرزوقي (٢/ ٨١٤) وتمامه: فأصبحتَ مسلوب الإمارة نادما.