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Section
• The gulf between safeguarding rights in times of hardship and safeguarding them in times of ease is vast indeed.
• “My servant—truly My servant—is the one who remembers Me while confronting his adversary.” (1)
• “O you who believe, when you meet a host, stand firm and remember Allah often so that you may prosper (45).” [Al-Anfāl: 45]
• It is no wonder if a healthy, unencumbered man stands steadily in service; what is truly remarkable is the frail, sickly man, beset by tasks and shifting circumstances, whose heart nevertheless remains fixed in service, never failing to do what lies within his power.
Section
• Knowledge of Allah, exalted be He, is of two kinds:
- A knowledge of acknowledgment, shared by all people—the righteous and the wicked, the obedient and the disobedient.
- A knowledge that engenders modesty before Him, love for Him, attachment of the heart to Him, yearning to meet Him, awe of Him, turning back to Him, intimacy with Him, and fleeing from the creation to Him. This is the distinctive knowledge spoken of by the spiritual masters; their degrees therein are known only to the One who made Himself known to them and unveiled to their hearts of His knowledge what He has concealed from others. Each of them has alluded to this knowledge according to his own station and according to what has been disclosed to him of it,
(1) Reported by al-Tirmidhi, no. 3580, on the authority of 'Umara ibn Zuʿkara as a hadith qudsi. Al-Tirmidhi commented: "It is gharib (solitary); we know it only through this chain. Its isnad is not strong, and we have no record of any other hadith transmitted by 'Umara ibn Zuʿkara from the Prophet except this single report."
فصل
• بين رعاية الحقوق مع الضرّ ورعايتها مع العافية بونٌ بعيدٌ.
• "إن عبدي -كل عبدي- الذي يذكرني وهو ملاقٍ قِرنَه" (١).
• ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا لَقِيتُمْ فِئَةً فَاثْبُتُوا وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ (٤٥)﴾ [الأنفال: ٤٥].
• ليس العجب من صحيح فارغ واقفٍ مع الخدمة، إنما العجب من ضعيف سقيم تَعتَوِره الأشغال وتختلف عليه الأحوال وقلبه واقف في الخدمة غير متخلِّفٍ بما يقدر عليه.
فصل
• معرفة الله سبحانه نوعان:
الأول: معرفة إقرار، وهي التي اشترك فيها الناس؛ البر والفاجر، والمطيع والعاصي.
والثاني: معرفة تُوجب الحياءَ منه والمحبة له وتعلق القلب به والشوق إلى لقائه وخشيته والإنابة إليه والأنس به والفرار من الخلق إليه، وهذه هي المعرفة الخاصة الجارية على لسان القوم، وتفاوتُهم فيها لا يُحصيه إلا الذي عرفَهم بنفسه وكشفَ لقلوبهم من معرفته ما أخفاه عن سواهم، وكلٌّ أشار إلى هذه المعرفة بحسب مقامه وما كُشِفَ له منها،
(١) أخرجه الترمذي (٣٥٨٠) عن عمارة بن زعكرة في حديث قدسي، وقال: "غريب لا نعرفه إلا من هذا الوجه، ليس إسناده بالقوي، ولا نعرف لعمارة بن زعكرة عن النبي ﷺ إلا هذا الحديث الواحد".