March 25th 2018

Lesson 10: The One who loves a thing/person besides Allah becomes imprisoned and tortured by it

  • Brief recap of previous lesson:
    • Ibn Al-Qayyim says from among the means of bringing about relaxation of the Chest is Inaaba (turning to Allah in repentance) and to love Allah with all your heart;
    • Different forms of Love, which is permissible and which is impermissible?
  • Love for Allah expands the chest in spite of the difficulties one may face in life
    • Look at the example of the life of Ibn Taymiyyah, see Lesson 5
    • Look at the statement of Shaikh Muqbil, see Lesson 9
  • Ibn Qayyim says a person in whose heart the love of Allah has settled, then such a person’s chest becomes tight only when he sees the people who are idle, lazy and heedless in returning to Allah, those who do not relish in his Worship become an eye sore and mixing with them troubles him as though he has been struck by a fever.
    • Everyone makes mistakes, the type of heedless people mentioned here are those who do not turn in repentance to Allah
    • Why do such righteous people feel like this? because they realise it is not possible to guide everyone and so their heart becomes uneasy
    • For that reason you will find that prison was a form of seclusion for the likes of Shaykh ul Islam Ibn-Taymiyyah
  • Ibn Qayyim says from the greatest causes of suffocation of the chest is to turn away from Allah and the heart being attached to someone/something other than him, and being heedless of his remembrance
    • Whoever loves something besides Allah in a manner only befitting Allah (or in an impermissible form), then his heart will be agonised by it, his heart will be imprisoned by it and as a result of this no one will be in a more bitter and ill-tempered state than him
  • Shaikh Muhammad Amaan Al-Jaami  says Ibn Qayyim mentions a disease in order to describe the cure
  • Turning away from Allah could lead to apostasy
    • Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Abdulwahhaab mentions that among the nullifiers of a person’s Islam is him/her turning away from the religion (NOTE: there are different levels of turning away, not all of them lead to Apostasy)
    • The proof for the above is the verse : “And who does more wrong than he who is reminded of the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) of his Lord, then he turns aside therefrom? Verily, We shall exact retribution from the Mujrimun (criminals, disbelievers, polytheists, sinners, etc.).” [Surah Sajdah (The Prostration) verse 22]
    • Turning away from the religion of Allah to the extent that someone does not raise his head to study it may form  a basis for apostasy
  • Shaikh Muhammad Amaan Al-Jaami  says the one who becomes infatuated with his Imam (e.g. sufi “pir”), to such an extent that this love carries humility and debasement, then this is Shirk (associating partners to Allah, Polytheism) as only Allah deserves to be loves in this way
    • Shirk is the greatest sin of all in Islam
    • This is because Shirk decreases and makes imperfect the love of Allah
    • A person who does Shirk such as this, but claims to have eemaan, then this is merely superficial eemaan
  • Ibn Qayyim says that the one who loves someone/something, at the expense of being obedient to Allah, and turns away from Allah, then he will be tortured by it, grief and sorrow will eat away at his/her soul.
    • Note, this is not the natural love that is mean here e.g. loving one’s child etc
    • What is intended is love which goes above and beyond natural inclination to such an extent that the person obeys
    • The person will be tortured in three different stages
      • When they are in pursuit of that thing/someone (e.g. a person, or money etc), their heart is restless and does not experience joy
      • When they finally obtain that thing, then he/she heart obsesses and agonizes over how to keep hold of it, being fearful of losing it
      • The final pain, that one day that desired thing/person will leave him/her, either while they are still alive, or at their deathbed.
    • In the grave, such a person will realise that they will never regain that desired thing/person
    • He loses the aid of Allah
  • Ibn Qayyim says again that love is of two types:
    • One form is the love that is paradise on earth, the nourishment, life and cure of the soul, indeed this is loving Allah with all of one’s heart
    • The second form is the torture of the soul, the sadness of the spirit, the imprisonment of the heart and the tightness of the chest. Indeed this is to love others besides Allah, with love that belongs only to him.