This is in addition to the help he receives from Allah and the special way in which Allah is with him. Thus, when a man complained to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he treated his relatives kindly while they mistreated him, he said, “You will continue to have a helper from Allah as long as you remain like this.”
He also enjoys people’s praise in this life, and they all take his side against his adversary. Anyone who hears that he treats another person kindly while that person mistreats him finds his heart, affection, and resolve siding with the benefactor against the wrongdoer. This is a natural disposition that Allah has instilled in His servants. Through his kindness, he has thus recruited an army whose members he does not know and who do not know him, yet they ask him for neither land grants nor rations.
Moreover, one of two things must happen between him and his enemy or envier. Either he wins him over through kindness, making him his devoted servant, so that he submits to him, humbles himself before him, and comes to regard him as one of the dearest people to him; or, if the enemy persists in mistreating him, he breaks his heart and brings about his utter ruin. For his kindness makes the enemy taste many times more anguish than his retaliation would inflict. Whoever has tried this knows it very well. Allah alone grants success and assistance. All good is in His hands; there is no god besides Him. We ask Him, by His grace and generosity, to enable us and our brothers to practise this.
In short, this approach brings the servant more than a hundred benefits, both immediate and lasting. We shall mention them elsewhere, if Allah Most High wills.
The tenth means encompasses all the others and is the foundation upon which they depend: upholding Allah’s oneness in its purest form, moving in thought beyond the causes to the One who brings them about—the Almighty, the All-Wise—and knowing that these instruments are like the movements of the winds. They are in the hands of the One who moves them, originates them, and creates them; they can neither harm nor benefit except by His permission. It is He who makes His servant better through them, and He alone, without anyone else, turns them away from him. Allah Most High says:
10: 107 “And if Allah should touch you with adversity, there is no remover of it except Him; and if He intends good for you, then there is no repeller of His bounty.”
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both), “Know that if the entire nation gathered together to benefit you in any way, they would benefit you only with something Allah had already decreed for you; and if they gathered together to