THE PRINCIPLE OF LOVE & DESIRE || The Believer Receives Greater Bliss & Enjoyment Than the Disbeliever

It is apparent from this that the believer is in a good situation and that his blessings and pleasure outweigh that of the disbeliever in this life and the next, even if the dunya is a prison to the believer and paradise to the disbeliever, because-from the believer's perspec- tive-the dunya is like a prison in comparison to Allah's blessings and generosity after death. The disbeliever, on the other hand, has nothing to look forward to after death except Allah's severe punish- ment, so for him, the dunya is like a paradise in comparison to what is to come.

The disbeliever possesses corrupt desires and is either capable or incapable of acting upon them. If he is incapable, then this will hinder his desires to the point that he will not be able to reconcile between the two, but if he is capable of fulfilling his desires, then he will over-indulge to the extreme until he is unable to stop.

This is why you find that those who oppress themselves go to great lengths, sinning and spreading corruption, seeking the next thing that will bring them some temporary fulfillment of their senses, but their hearts are never satisfied. This is how they behave in relation to their attempts to attain enjoyment and pleasure, but in terms of their fear of their enemies, they are the most frightened people from among mankind, and there is no life for someone possessed by their fears. The disbeliever who is incapable of achieving his desires lives in great torment. He is constantly regretful for the things that he is missing and the things that cause him harm.

If the believer is able to achieve his righteous desires and act upon his beneficial knowledge, then his heart is in a state of peace and tranquility due to his good acts, and he experiences peace and pleasure of the eye that cannot be described. Even the believer who is unable to act on his righteous intention and beneficial knowledge achieves a level of happiness that is indescribable.

This is all witnessed by personal experience, but many people make the mistake of witnessing the enjoyments obtained by sinners and partaking in these pleasures, without ever knowing the sweetness of the pleasures obtained by the people of piety, and most people are ignorant of this fact, as if they are deaf and dumb, and this ignorance is due to a lack of witnessing real iman and tasting its sweetness, with the addition of the ignorance of the mutakallimin (people of rhetoric) regarding knowledge of the realities of what Allah's commands possess of benefit and rectification, and also the benefit and rectification for the believing slave that His creation possesses. Hence, their ignorance incorporates what He informed us of concerning His creation and commands, and that which His slaves fail to perceive of the reality of iman and its sweetness, along with the oppression present in the souls preventing them from the greatness of Allah's blessings, generosity, and pleasure, and placing them in Allah's punishment and anger.

When people began to probe into the issues of qadr, why Allah created the creation, why He commands, and so on, without guidance from Allah, they split away from their religion and became factions.

One group argued that Allah only creates people who are beneficial to the creation, and that He also does not command something to happen unless it is beneficial, and that it is the slave who divests himself from the benefit and performs harmful acts against Allah's will and beyond His ability to prevent [it from] happening. By this statement, they intended to free Allah of any oppression or wrong- doing, and they describe Him with wisdom, justice, and goodness, but instead they negate His knowledge, ability, writing, creation, and will. Some from this group say, "Allah does not know or write what the slaves will do until they have done it."

Another group argues that Allah knows what the slave will do before he does it and He knows that they will disobey Him and do things that harm themselves. So the reason for notifying them of the creation and the command is for continuous, unadulterated benefit.

People say to them: "Whoever knows that their good intentions will not come to fruition but will still strive with all their ability to attain it, they are from among the most ignorant and foolish people." They negate a small amount of foolishness while affirming a greater foolishness, and they claim that He only predestines what He wills to happen to them, so they limit His power.

The people of affirmation respond by affirming His general power and ability, His will, His creation, and His eternally pre-existent knowledge. All of this is good and in accordance with the Sunnah and represents the completeness of imän in the qadr, i.e: belief in Allah's eternally pre-existent knowledge, His will, His creation, and His ability over all things; but they add to that some things that are not from the Sunnah.

It is reported in the Sunnah that Allah does what He wills and rules as He pleases, and He is not asked about what He does; rather, they are the ones whose actions are asked about. He commands the slaves to be obedient to Him, while He guides whom He wills and misguides whom He wills, just as He, the Most High, said:

They also claim that Allah does not create the creation out of wisdom or His mercy for them; rather [they say] it is possible that He created them to harm all of them, and they see this to be wisdom. They do not negate for Allah the kinds of oppression that He negates for Himself, since He states that He only punishes or rewards mankind in accordance to their actions, and whoever performs righteous deeds and is a believer will never fear oppression or harm.

They claim that anything that could be written as someone's destiny could not be oppression, even punishment of the prophets and messengers, honoring the disbelievers and hypocrites, and so on. Hence, the oppressions that Allah negates for Himself are not deemed as oppressive by this group. Allah, the Most High, said:

They understand this verse to mean: "Allah does not will what is not possible for His slaves." They also claim that Allah commands His slaves with something that may not be a benefit to them; in fact, He may command them with something which, if the slave was to perform it, would be harmful for him, but if he does not do it, then he would be punished for that. Hence, the slave would be stuck between two hardships: the hardship that results from obedi- ence and the hardship that results from disobedience. If this was the case, then the commands would be harmful for His slaves, not a benefit.

They say that He commands with what He wishes, and they deny that there are 'ilal (reasons, just causes) within the rulings of the shari'ah that justify the rulings. These 'ilal are based on attaining benefit and repelling harms. Some of their group reject all of the ilal of the shari'ah rulings, while some say that the 'ilal are just signs and indications towards the wisdom behind the rulings, because they are suitable and appropriate for it. In addition to this, they believe it possible that a slave could derive no reward or benefit from performing an obligation in the religion, but if the shari'ah brings a promise, then they believe that the slave is promised a reward, but most likely they believe that reward to only be in the Hereafter. Therefore, the performance of obligations could possibly not be of current benefit to the slave (according to the view of this group), and he will not receive any immediate blessings or pleasure; in fact, it could be harmful for him.

The belief that obedience to Allah and His Messenger could possibly be of no benefit and not beget any blessing, pleasure, or tranquility, and could actually lead to hardship, harm, pain, and suffering, could be the greatest cause for people to avoid perform- ing Allah and His Messenger's commands, and if the person was weak in their belief pertaining to the promises and threats given by Allah, then this could be a cause for someone to leave the religion. Even if his belief in Allah's promise is strong, then his motivation to perform the obligations could be confused between this punish- ment and that punishment, and if he believes that Allah's promise is only for the Hereafter, then he will believe that there is no benefit or rectification in the dunya except for those who disbelieve, spread corruption, or are disobedient.

1) The first is that the person tends towards the side of obedi- ence, in which case he believes that for his whole life he will not experience any benefit or pleasure, but rather he will experience punishment, pain, suffering, and harm, and this is something that no one could bear patiently.

2) The second outcome is that the person tends toward disobedience sometimes or most of the time and then intends to make tawbah (repentance) shortly before death.

There is no doubt that even though the person who follows the first way is correct, the person who follows this second way of think- ing is more intelligent and logical (given this situation) than the person who is obedient to Allah for his whole life, because by doing this he saves himself from the punishment that the obedient person experiences in the dunya, and then by making tawbah he removes the punishment from himself and Allah replaces his bad deeds with good deeds. In the Hereafter, his reward may even be greater than that of the person who strove to be obedient his whole life, and even if his reward is less, his superiority over him is just the superiority between the people of differing levels in Jannah. This is the choice that most people would make in the face of enduring punishment, misery, and tribulation for a lifetime, because no one could bear that patiently. Enduring torture for 60 or 70 years without benefit or pleasure is something that goes against the natural disposition of people.

This group makes the slaves with Allah at the level of the employer and the employee, as if Allah employed them for the length of their time in the dunya to work on something that will not benefit them and their Lord will not compensate them until after death. This compares Allah to an incapable and ignorant person, which is obligatory to free Allah from; Glorified is He and High above that which the oppressors say about Him.