Al-Fawāʾid - Ibn al-Qayyim - (الكتاب/225)

Al-FawāʾidIbn al-Qayyim

all the while witnessing His favor, bounty, and facilitation, apologizing to Him for it, and feeling ashamed before Him for not having given the deed its due.

By contrast, the ignorant person acts for the sake of his own portion and desire, keeps his eye on himself, considers the deed a favor he has bestowed upon his Lord, and is perfectly satisfied with it. The one path is of one hue, the other of a completely different hue.

Section
Reaching the hoped-for goal hinges on abandoning habitual customs and cutting off hindrances [and attachments].

Habitual customs are the love of ease and relaxation, together with the conventions and formalities to which people have grown accustomed and which they have elevated to the rank of divinely sanctioned law—indeed, in their sight these customs are greater than the Sharia itself. They denounce anyone who departs from or opposes them far more harshly than they denounce one who violates the plain Sharia; they may even brand him an unbeliever, an innovator, or one astray, or boycott and punish him for contravening those conventions. For their sake they have allowed the Sunnah to wither, setting those customs up as rivals to the Messenger, showing loyalty and hostility on their basis: whatever conforms to them is deemed good, and whatever opposes them is deemed evil.

These conventions and formalities have taken hold of every class of humanity—kings and governors, jurists, Sufis, the poor, devoted worshippers, and ordinary people alike. The young are reared upon them, the old have grown up with them, and they have been regarded as sunnahs; indeed, in the eyes of their adherents they are more important than the sunnahs themselves. Whoever remains confined to them is imprisoned, and whoever binds himself to them is cut off. The calamity has become all-embracing, and because of it the Sunnah and the Book have been forsaken. Whoever seeks help through those customs is, in Allah’s sight, forsaken; and whoever follows them in place of the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger is, in Allah’s sight, unacceptable.

This constitutes the greatest veil and the most formidable barrier between the servant and breaking through to Allah and His Messenger.

معتذرًا منه إليه، مستحييًا منه إذ لم يُوفِّه حقَّهُ. والجاهل يعمل العمل لحظِّه وهواهُ، ناظرًا فيه إلى نفسه، يمُنُّ به على ربِّه، راضيًا بعمله. فهذا لونٌ وذاك لونٌ آخرُ. فصل الوصول إلى المطلوب موقوف على هَجْر العوائد وقطع العوائق [والعلائق]: فالعوائدُ: السكونُ إلى الدَّعَةِ والراحة وما أَلِفهُ الناس واعتادوهُ من الرسوم والأوضاع، التي جعلوها بمنزلة الشرع المتَّبع، بل هي عندهم أعظم من الشرع؛ فإنهم ينكرون على من خرج عنها وخالفها ما لا ينكرون على من خالف صريح الشرع، وربما كفّروه أو بدّعوه وضلَّلوه أو هجروه وعاقبوه لمخالفة تلك الرسوم، وأماتوا لها السُّنن، ونصبوها أندادًا للرسول يُوالون عليها ويُعادون؛ فالمعروفُ عندهم ما وافقها والمنكر ما خالفها. وهذه الأوضاعُ والرسومُ قد استولتْ على طوائف بني آدم من الملوك والولاة والفقهاء والصوفيَّة والفقراء والمطوِّعين والعامة؛ فرُبِّي فيها الصغير، ونشأ عليها الكبير، واتُّخِذت سننًا، بل هي أعظم عند أصحابها من السنن، الواقفُ معها محبوسٌ، والمتقيِّدُ بها منقطعٌ، عمَّ بها المُصابُ، وهُجِر لأجلها السنة والكتاب، من استنصر بها فهو عند الله مخذولٌ، ومن اقتَدى بها دون كتاب الله وسنَّةِ رسوله فهو عند الله غيرُ مقبول. وهذا أعظم الحُجُب والموانع بين العبد وبين النفوذ إلى الله ورسوله.