Al-Fawāʾid - Ibn al-Qayyim - (الكتاب/236)

Al-FawāʾidIbn al-Qayyim

For Allah—glorified is He, the perfectly truthful and utterly faithful—has declared that He deals with people only according to what they earn and recompenses them for their deeds. No doer of good need fear any injustice or diminution, any curtailment or undue burden. He never lets a righteous deed go to waste; He does not neglect even the weight of an atom, nor wrong it: “If there is but a single good deed, He multiplies it and grants from His own presence a magnificent reward (40)” [al-Nisāʾ 4:40]. Even if that deed is no more than a grain of mustard-seed, He will repay it and will never let it be lost.

He requites an evil act only with its like, yet He erases it through repentance, remorse, seeking forgiveness, good deeds, and the trials that befall a person. A single good deed, by contrast, is rewarded tenfold, and He multiplies it up to seven hundred times—indeed, to many times beyond that.

He is the One who rectifies the corrupt, turns the hearts of the heedless back to Him, accepts the repentance of sinners, guides the lost, rescues the doomed, teaches the ignorant, enlightens the bewildered, reminds the heedless, and shelters the straying.

Whenever He inflicts punishment, He does so only after the servant has persisted in brazen rebellion, while Allah has summoned him time and again to return, to acknowledge His Lordship and His rightful due. Only when all hope of the servant’s response and recognition of His oneness is exhausted does He seize him for a portion of his disbelief and defiance, so that the servant finds no excuse but himself and admits that Allah has not wronged him; rather, he has wronged his own soul.

Thus Allah says about the inhabitants of the Fire: “They will confess their sin—so away with the people of the Blaze! (11)” [al-Mulk 67:11]. Concerning those He destroyed in this world, He says that when they beheld His signs and felt His punishment, they cried, “Woe to us! We were indeed wrongdoers (14),” and “That cry of theirs did not cease until We made them like a harvested field, extinguished (15)” [al-Anbiyāʾ 21:14-15]. Likewise, when the owners of the garden that He ruined saw it, they said, “Glory be to our Lord! We were indeed wrongdoers (29)” [al-Qalam 68:29].

فالله سبحانه أخبر -وهو الصادق الوفيُّ- أنه إنما يُعامل الناسَ بكسبهم، ويُجازيهم بأعمالهم، ولا يَخاف المحسنُ لديه ظلمًا ولا هَضْمًا، ولا يخاف بخسًا ولا رَهَقًا، ولا يُضيّع عملَ محسن أبدًا، ولا يُضيّع على العبد مثقالَ ذرة ولا يَظلمها ﴿وَإِنْ تَكُ حَسَنَةً يُضَاعِفْهَا وَيُؤْتِ مِنْ لَدُنْهُ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا (٤٠)﴾ [النساء: ٤٠]، وإن كان مثقال حبة من خردل جازاه بها ولا يُضيعها عليه، وأنه يجزي بالسيئة مثلها ويُحبِطها بالتوبة والندم والاستغفار والحسنات والمصائب، ويَجزي بالحسنة عشرَ أمثالها ويُضاعفها إلى سبع مئة ضعفٍ إلى أضعاف كثيرة، وهو الذي أصلح الفاسدين، وأقبل بقلوب المعرضين، وتاب على المذنبين، وهَدى الضالين، وأنقذ الهالكين، وعلَّم الجاهلين، وبصَّر المتحيرين، وذكّر الغافلين، وآوى الشاردين، وإذا أوقع عقابًا أوقعه بعد شدة التمرد والعتوّ عليه ودعوة العبد إلى الرجوع إليه والإقرار بربوبيته وحقه مرة بعد مرة، حتى إذا أيِسَ من استجابته والإقرار بربوبيته ووحدانيته؛ أخذه ببعض كفره وعتوه وتمرده؛ بحيث يَعذِرُ العبدُ من نفسه ويعترف بأنه سبحانه لم يظلمه وأنه هو الظالم لنفسه. كما قال تعالى عن أهل النار: ﴿فَاعْتَرَفُوا بِذَنْبِهِمْ فَسُحْقًا لِأَصْحَابِ السَّعِيرِ (١١)﴾ [الملك: ١١]. وقال عمن أهلكهم في الدنيا: إنهم لما رأوا آياته وأحسوا بعذابه قالوا: ﴿يَاوَيلَنَا إِنَّا كُنَّا ظَالِمِينَ (١٤) فَمَا زَالتْ تِلْكَ دَعْوَاهُمْ حَتَّى جَعَلْنَاهُمْ حَصِيدًا خَامِدِينَ (١٥)﴾ [الأنبياء: ١٤ - ١٥]. وقال أصحاب الجنة التي أفسدها عليهم لما رأوها قالوا: ﴿سُبْحَانَ رَبِّنَا إِنَّا كُنَّا ظَالِمِينَ (٢٩)﴾ [القلم: ٢٩].