blessings upon him, and because of the servant’s need for Him for these blessings. Yet when they worship Him, love Him and rely upon Him on this basis, they enter into the first aspect. A parallel in this world is someone afflicted by a great calamity, severe poverty or unsettling fear, who begins to supplicate to Allah and implore Him until Allah grants him such pleasure in intimate prayer to Him that it becomes dearer to him than the need he originally sought to fulfil. Initially, however, he had not known this pleasure so as to seek it and long for it.
The Quran is full of references to the servants’ need for Allah rather than anyone else, to His blessings upon them, and to the various forms of bliss and pleasure He has promised them in the Hereafter. No created being possesses any of this. This aspect therefore establishes reliance upon Allah, gratitude to Him and love for Him on account of His kindness.
The fourth aspect:
The servant’s attachment to anything other than Allah harms him if he takes from it more than he needs to worship Allah. If he consumes food and drink beyond his needs, it harms and destroys him; the same applies to marital relations and clothing. If he loves something completely, to the point of intimate attachment, he will inevitably grow weary of it or part with it.
A transmitted report states:
“Love whatever you wish, for you will surely part with it. Do whatever you wish, for you will surely encounter it. Be however you wish, for as you act, so you shall be repaid.”
Know that whoever loves something for other than Allah’s sake will inevitably be harmed by what he loves, and it will become a cause of his torment. Thus, those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend it in Allah’s way will have their treasure take the form of a bald-headed serpent on the Day of Resurrection. It will seize its owner by the jaw, saying:
“I am your treasure. I am your wealth.”
Similar examples occur in hadith. Allah will say on the Day of Resurrection:
“O son of Adam, is it not just of Me to give each of you over to whatever he attached himself to in this world?”
And the basis of such attachment