Al-Tafsīr al-Qayyim - Ibn al-Qayyim - (73)

Al-Tafsīr al-QayyimIbn al-Qayyim

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With this understood, people fall into four groups with regard to these two foundations: worship and seeking help.

The noblest and best are those who worship Allah and seek His help in doing so. Worshipping Allah is their ultimate aim, and they ask Him to help them worship Him and enable them to do so. Hence, among the best things one can ask of the Lord, blessed and exalted be He, is help in attaining His pleasure. This is what the Prophet ﷺ taught his beloved Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal «1».

He said, “O Mu‘ādh, by Allah, I love you. So do not forget to say at the end of every prayer: ‘O Allah, help me to remember You, thank You, and worship You well.’” «2»

The most beneficial supplication, then, is to ask for help in attaining His pleasure, and the finest gift is His granting this request. All transmitted supplications revolve around this, around warding off whatever opposes it, and around bringing it to completion and facilitating its means. Reflect on them.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah sanctify his soul—said: “I reflected on the most beneficial supplication and found it to be asking for help in attaining His pleasure. Then I saw it in al-Fātihah: ‘You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help.’”

Opposite them is the second group: those who turn away from worshipping Him and seeking His help. They neither worship Him nor seek His help. If one of them does ask Him and seek His help, it is for his own interests and desires, not to attain his Lord’s pleasure or fulfil what is due to Him. For everyone in the heavens and the earth asks of Him, glorified is He: His allies and His enemies alike ask Him, and He provides for both. The most hateful of His creatures to Him is His enemy Iblīs. Yet even he asked Him for something, and He granted it to him and let him enjoy it; but since it was not an aid

(1) He is Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal, the foremost of scholars and the most knowledgeable of the Muslim community concerning the lawful and unlawful. It is reported that scholars will come beneath his banner on the Day of Resurrection. The Prophet ﷺ said to him, “I love you, O Mu‘ādh.” He was among the distinguished Companions and their jurists. He built the mosque of al-Janad in Yemen, though it is also said that it was built after his time. He died a martyr in the plague of ‘Amwās in 18 AH, aged thirty-six or thirty-eight. (See Shadharāt al-Dhahab.) (2) Reported by al-Hākim in al-Mustadrak, 1:273 and 3:273. [.....]

فصل إذا عرف هذا: فالناس في هذين الأصلين وهما العبادة والاستعانة أربعة أقسام. أجلها وأفضلها: أهل العبادة والاستعانة بالله عليها، فعبادة الله غاية مرادهم وطلبهم منه أن يعينهم عليها ويوفقهم للقيام بها، ولهذا كان من أفضل ما يسأل الربّ ﵎ الإعانة على مرضاته، وهو الذي علمه النبي ﷺ لحبّه معاذ بن جبل «١» . فقال «يا معاذ، والله إني لأحبك، فلا تنس أن تقول في دبر كل صلاة: اللهم أعني على ذكرك وشكرك وحسن عبادتك» «٢» . فأنفع الدعاء طلب العون على مرضاته، وأفضل المواهب: إسعافه بهذا المطلوب وجميع الأدعية المأثورة مدارها على هذا، وعلى دفع ما يضاده، وعلى تكميله وتيسير أسبابه. فتأملها. وقال شيخ الإسلام ابن تيمية قدس الله روحه: تأملت أنفع الدعاء: فإذا هو سؤال العون على مرضاته، ثم رأيته في الفاتحة في «إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ» . ومقابل هؤلاء: القسم الثاني: وهم المعرضون عن عبادته والاستعانة به فلا عبادة ولا استعانة بل إن سأله أحدهم واستعان به فعلى حظوظه وشهواته، لا على مرضاة ربه وحقوقه، فإنه سبحانه يسأله من في السموات والأرض: يسأله أولياؤه وأعداؤه ويمدّ هؤلاء وهؤلاء، وأبغض خلقه: عدوه إبليس ومع هذا فسأله حاجة فأعطاه إياها، ومتعه بها، ولكن لما لم تكن عونا

(١) هو سلطان العلماء وأعلم الأمة بالحلال والحرام معاذ بن جبل، ورد أن العلماء تأتي تحت رايته يوم القيامة ، وقال له النبي ﷺ: «إني أحبك يا معاذ» وكان من فضلاء الصحابة وفقهائهم، وهو الذي بني مسجد الجند بالمين وقيل بني بعده، استشهد في طاعون عمداس سنة ثماني عشرة عن ست أو ثمان وثلاثين سنة. (انظر شذرات الذهب) . (٢) أخرجه الحاكم في المستدرك ١/ ٢٧٣ و ٣/ ٢٧٣. [.....]