by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
While thousands of Muslims are
killed all over the world, and while tens of thousands are imprisoned and
tortured for calling to the path of Allah and for enjoining the good and
forbidding the evil, most Muslims remain remarkably silent and have no worry
except for the material things of life. Their hearts have been filled with the
love of this life and the forgetfulness of the Hereafter.
Allah says in the Qur'an: "You
will indeed find them, of all people, most greedy of life, even more than those
who do not believe in Resurrection. Each one of them wishes he could be given a
life of a thousand years. But the grant of such life will not save him even a
little from due punishment. For Allah sees well all that they do" (Al
Baqarah, 2:96). Many Muslims today have become so much attached to their life
that their desire is to dwell among their family, house, money and commerce.
They have forgotten that matters of the Hereafter should come before matters of
this life and that we must strive to follow the orders of Allah, not just those
we find easy and convenient to follow. Some Muslims today claim that it is
better to perform extra prayers and extra fasting rather than enjoin the good
and forbid the evil or defend the lives of weak Muslims. Such people would even
blame the Muslims who strive to perform these obligations.
This is what Ibn al-Qayyim had to
say about such people: ''The Shaitan has misled most people by beautifying for
them the performance of certain voluntary acts of worship such as voluntary
prayers and voluntary fasting while neglecting other obligatory acts of worship
such as enjoining the good and eradicating the evil, to the extent that they do
not even make the intention of performing them whenever they are able to. Such
people are considered by the scholars to be on the bottom of the scale of
religion: For the essence of our religion is to perform what Allah ordered us
to do. The one who does not perform his obligations is actually worse than the
one who performs sins. Anyone having some knowledge about the revelation of
Allah, the guidance of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, and the life
of the companions would conclude that those who are pointed at today as the
most pious people are in fact the least pious. Indeed, what kind of piety is
there in a person who witnesses Allah's sanctities being violated, his religion
abandoned, the Sunnah of His Messenger shunned, and yet remains still with a
cold heart and a shut mouth' Such a person is like a dumb Shaitan!
In the same
way the one who talks falsehood is a speaking Shaitan. Isn't the misfortune of
Islam due only to those who whenever their life and food are secure, would not
care about what happens to the religion? The best among them would offer a
sorry face. But if they were challenged in one of the things their heart is
attached to like their money, they would spare no efforts to get it back. These
people, besides deserving the anger of Allah, are afflicted with the greatest
calamity without even knowing it: They have a dead heart. Indeed the more alive
a person's heart is, the stronger its anger for the sake of Allah and the more
complete his support to Islam and Muslims."
(A'alaam al-Muwaqqi'een,
volume 2, page 176).
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