Tag: Lectures of Dr. Saleh as Saleh

Part 01 – Listen / Download (Time 46:09)

Part 02 – Listen / Download (Time 44:35)

Transcript

• Part 1 –

Alhamdulillah – all praise is due to Allah Who made the path to Him easy for those who really believed, the One Who made the path of guidance leading to His pleasure and He made the sign of following the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم as evidence. And alhamdulillah for His Decrees, the Universal and the Legislative ones. Alhamdulillah – for He deserves all the Praise. Wa ash-hadu al-laa ilaha ilAllah – and I bear witness that no god deserves worship except Allah, the True God, without a partner or an associate. And I bear witness that Muhammad ‘abduhu, al-Mustafa, (is) His chosen slave and Messenger and Prophet, the truthful one, who is inspired and sent as a mercy to mankind, an evidence against all those who rebel.

Allah subhana wa ta’aala, when He got Adam down to earth, He sent him down by a Decree, manifesting His perfect Attributes and Actions, so that Adam returns to his earlier, best conditions. He wanted, subhanahu wa ta’aala, to make Adam and his offspring taste from the toils of this life, and its worries and concerns, that which will make him magnify and make them magnify the value of entering the Abode of Bliss again, because the opposite is manifested by its opposite, and if they were to be raised in the Abode of Bliss, they wouldn’t have estimated its proper value.

He also, subhana wa ta’aala, wanted to command them and to test them and to try them, and Paradise is not the Abode for checking legal responsibility, so He sent them down to Earth. And in return, He compensated for that with the best of rewards, which would not have been possible to attain without His Commands and Legislations. And He subhanahu wa ta’aala wanted to make from them Prophets and Messengers and friends and martyrs, loving them and they love Him. So He left a free encounter between them and between His enemies, and tried them through that. And when they preferred that which leads to their Creator, and exerted themselves and their wealth in His Pleasure and in that which He loves, they attained from His Love and from His Pleasure and Nearness to Him, that which would not be possible to attain without all of this happening – sending them for the place of trials and checking.

He, subhana wa ta’aala, is qualified with the best Names: the Oft-Forgiving, the Most Merciful, the Oft-Pardoning, the Clement One, the One Who lifts in honor, and the One Who humiliates to disgrace, the One Who gives life and causes death, and it is  inevitable that the manifestations of these Names occur, and thus, His Hikmah, His Wisdom was to send Adam down and his offspring in an abode, manifesting upon them that, which is entailed by His Beautiful Names: forgiving whomever He wishes, having Mercy upon whomever He wishes, lifting in honor whomever He wishes, disgracing in humiliation whomever He wishes, lifting in might whomever He wishes, and avenging from whomever He wishes, giving and taking – all in accordance with His Wisdom, Knowledge and Justice.

He subhanahu wa ta’aala, is al-Malik, the King, and the King, He is the One Who commands and prohibits, the One Who commands and forbids, the One Who gives reward and the One Who punishes, the One Who honors and the One Who humiliates, so His Kingship entailed that Adam and his offspring be in an abode, upon them manifested the rulings of the King; then He takes them to an Abode, perfecting what His Decrees entail. He subhana wa ta’aala sent them , to an abode in which their belief in the Unseen is the beneficial belief, whereas the belief in the witnessed, it is such that everyone will believe on the Day of Resurrection, when, at that time, no soul will be availed except if it believed in the Unseen. So if they were created in the Abode of Bliss, they wouldn’t have attained the rank of believing in the Unseen, and the enjoyment and the honor cannot be attained without the belief in this Unseen. As a consequence of their belief in the Unseen, they will be in the Abode of enjoyment and honor.

And Allah subhana wa ta’aala created Adam from a hold: He held a Hand-full from all earth, and the earth has the good and wicked, the easy and difficult, the honorable and the wretched and the mean. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, ‘Allah created Adam from a hold of a Hand-full from all earth, and so the children of Adam came like the earth. From them is the white and the black and the red and the yellow, and between them, and the easy and the difficult, and the wicked and the good.’ And this hadith is of authentic narration. So He knew subhana wa ta’aala, that in the loins of Adam, there are those who are not fit to be in His Abode, so He brought them down to an abode to extract from them the good and the wicked from their loins, then He distinguished them separately in two Abodes, making the good the ones deserving His Nearness in His Abode of Paradise, and as to the wicked to be the inhabitants of the Abode fitting the evil and wicked ones. That’s why Allah said, ‘In order that Allah may distinguish the wicked disbelievers from the good believers and put the wicked, one on another, heap them together and cast them into Hell; those, it is they who are the losers.’ And when He subhana wa ta’aala knew that amongst his offspring, Adam’s offspring, there are those who are not fit for Allah’s Closeness and Nearness, He threw them down to an abode from which He extracted those and (will) send them to the abode that fits them. Perfect Wisdom and penetrating Will, and this is the Taqdeer of al-Aziz al-Aleem, this is the Decree of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing.

And when He said to His angels – ‘And remember when your Lord said to the angels: ‘Verily I am going to place mankind, generations after generations, on earth’, they said, ‘Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and shed blood, while we glorify You with praises and thanks?’, He answered them, ‘I know that which you don’t know.’ Then He made His Knowledge manifested to His slaves and to His angels, in that which He made, on earth, from the special of His creation and His Messengers and His Prophets and His friends, and from those who draw near(ness) to Him, exerting themselves and their lives for His Love and for His Pleasure and content, while struggling against their lusts and their desires, leaving that which is beloved to them in order to draw nearer to Him, abandoning their lusts for His Pleasure, exerting their blood and themselves in His love and praising Him day and night, worshiping Him while facing the impediments of desire and lusts, and the self and the enemy, while you, the angels, worship Me without any impediment opposing you, and without any lust overwhelming you, and without an enemy facing you; your worship of Me is just like your breath. Furthermore, I want to make manifest that which is hidden from you in relation to My enemy and his war against Me and his arrogance, taking the path against My Pleasure. This and that were hidden in the father of mankind and the father of Jinn. So He brought them both down, making manifest that Knowledge which was known only to Him subhanahu wa ta’aala, and making manifest His Wisdom, and His Decree was perfected and executed, and then it became clear to the angels, that Knowledge which Allah kept from them and which they knew not.

And since He subhana wa ta’aala loves the patient ones, and loves the good-doers, and those who fight in His Cause in ranks solidified, and those who turn to Him in repentance, and those who purify themselves in His Pleasure, and those who love gratitude – and His Love is the utmost of honor – then accordingly, His Hikmah, His Wisdom, is to put Adam and his offspring in an abode to bring forth these qualities, through which they can attain the highest of His honors from His Love. And thus, their sending down to the earth is from the greatest favors upon them. ‘But Allah choses for His Mercy whom He wills, and Allah is the Owner of great Bounty.‘

And He subhanahu wa ta’aala wanted to have from Adam’s offspring an offspring who will receive His Help and Love and they love Him. His Love of them is their greatest objective and perfection, and this would not be manifest except by agreeing to His Pleasure and following His Command, and relinquishing the wills of the self and its desires, so He brought them down to an abode, commanding them therein and forbidding them from what He forbade them, so they carried on His Commands and kept away from His Prohibitions, attaining through that their love of Him, so He gave them His Love. And this is from His Perfect Wisdom and Perfect Mercy.

He subhana wa ta’aala, when He created His creation in states and conditions and many forms, part of His Decree is that He made Adam and his offspring excel over many of His creation; He made their ‘ubudiyyah to Him, their slavery in worship of Him, the best of their ranks. It is affirmed that Allah subhana wa ta’aala sent Jibril to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم , giving him the choice to choose between to be a king-Prophet, or a slave-Prophet. He looked at Jibril as if consulting him. Jibril indicated to him, ‘Be humble’, so he said, ‘Rather I choose to be a slave-Prophet.’ And this hadith is reported by Ahmad and others and its chain is sahih, is correct. And Allah mentioned him, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم , as a slave in the highest mentioning of ranks, in the rank of ‘Isra, of Ascension to Heaven; He called him a slave worshiper, and in the rank of da’wah and in the rank of challenges, He called him ‘abd, slave. In the rank of Isra’, He subhana wa ta’aala described him and mentioned him, ‘Glorified be He (Allah) Who took His slave, Muhammad…‘ – He didn’t say, His Messenger Muhammad, He didn’t say His Prophet Muhammad – ‘for a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque’, the Sacred Haram, ‘to the farthest mosque’ in Jerusalem, in al-Quds, denoting that he attained this rank of ‘ubudiyyah, of slavery to Allah, and this is at the highest and most perfect station a person can reach.

And in the station of da’wah, in Surah al-Jinn, ‘(It has been revealed to me that) When the slave of Allah (Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم )‘ – He didn’t call him His Messenger, He didn’t call him His Prophet here –  ‘stood up invoking (his Lord Allah) in prayer to Him they (the Jinns) just made round him a dense crowd as if sticking one over the other (in order to listen to the Prophet’s recitation).‘ At this da’wah station, He called him, the slave.

And in the station of challenge also He called him a slave, as in Surah al-Baqarah 2:23, ‘And if you (Arab pagans, Jews, and Christians) are in doubt concerning that which We have sent down (i.e. the Qur’an) to Our slave (Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم), then produce a Surah (chapter) of the like thereof and call your witnesses (supporters and helpers) besides Allah, if you are truthful.’ A station of challenge. And in the sahihain, al-Bukhari and Muslim, in the hadith of intercession and when the Prophets direct people to go to whom? To go to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم; listen to Jesus peace be upon him, to ‘Isa ‘alayhi salaam, saying to them, ‘Go to Muhammad, a slave whom Allah subhana wa ta’aala forgave him his past and future sins’, indicating that he صلى الله عليه وسلم attained this greatest and most perfect station, and this is the station of ‘ubudiyyah to Allah, slavery to Allah.

And if this ‘ubudiyyah to Allah has this level, then His Wisdom entailed that Allah made Adam and his offspring reside in an abode to work for this rank through their obedience to Him and through drawing nearer to Him in that which He loves and abandoning and relinquishing their familiarities, what they prefer, for His Sake, and this therefore, is from His perfect Bounty and Favor upon them.

He subhana wa ta’aala wanted His slaves, whom He bestowed upon them from His Bounty, wanted them to appreciate the Bounty so that they become more loving of Him and more perfect in their gratitude, and more in their enjoyment of what He gave them, so He subhana wa ta’aala made them see what He does to His enemies and what He prepared for them of punishments and all sorts of painful torments. This would not have been, without having them on earth and testing and trialing them, giving success to whom He wishes, as Mercy and Favor from Him, and humiliation to whom He wishes, entailed by His Wisdom and Justice, and He is All-knowing and All-Wise. Each of them received what they received because to him – either one – is the proper place: one receiving the Mercy and the Bounty and fitting for it, and the other not fit for that, and therefore dealt with His Justice. And there is no doubt when the believer sees his enemy and the enemy of the One he loves, and Who is most beloved to him, Allah, seeing him going through the punishments, while he is enjoying the Mercy and the Bliss of Allah, then his pleasure increases and his enjoyment intensifies. And the Favors will be perfected.

And He subhana wa ta’aala created us – created them to worship Him, this is the objective sought: Allah says what means, ‘I have created Jinn and mankind for the sole purpose of worshiping Me Alone,’ and it is known the perfected ‘ubudiyyah requested from the creation would not occur in the Abode of Bliss and other living, rather it occurs in the abode of trials and tests. As to the Abode of Bliss, that’s an Abode of enjoyment and favors, it is not an Abode for testing and trials and legal checking of responsibility. So it is from the Favor of Allah upon Adam and his offspring that He made them examine and see what their enemy did to them and to their father, so they are to be prepared and take guard. And if it is said, ‘It would have been possible that He may not try them with their enemy’, then it is to be said, ‘It preceded that Allah subhana wa ta’aala created Adam and his offspring in a form which entails their mixing with the enemy and to be tried by him, and if He would have wished, He would have created them like the angels: intellect without desire. So in this case, the enemy would not have a way to them. But had they been created on this nature, there would have been creation other than the creation of the children of Adam. The children of Adam had been formulated on intellect and desire, and that’s why they have to face the enemy.’

And since man’s happiness is in Allah’s Love, and since the true love can be attained when the beloved is given precedence and preference over everything else from the desires of the self, and since this requires hardship in obedience and to attain His Pleasure, in this way, the love really settles and its affirmation becomes known through such struggles. As such then, His Hikmah, His Wisdom, Allah’s Wisdom entailed bringing them to this abode which is engulfed with desires and what the self loves, in order for them to attain His Love and giving Him preference and precedence over everything else. And that’s why they can bear the difficulties and (have) patience against temptations and misguidance. Through that, the authority of love intensifies and its tree in the heart grows and its fruits on the limbs sprout, because the true love is the one which is affirmed despite the impediments, and the other love which is conditional upon pleasure, good health, is not affirmed when it is faced by impediments and oppositions, because the thing which is dependent upon a conditional thing, will not exist when the condition is not existing. And anyone who loves you for a certain objective, he will turn away from you when his objective is over. And there is a difference between the one who worships Allah in all of his conditions, happiness, prosperity, distress, adversity, testing and trials, from the one who worships Him only in conditions of prosperity and happiness.

And since to Allah belongs all the perfect Praise, then, the manifestation of the causes which He is to (be) praise(d) for them, this is entailed by the fact that He is the Praised One, and that it is binding to His Praise. How is that? Because the causes are of two types: a bounty and a justice, and He is praised in all of that. Therefore, it is inevitable that the causes of justice be manifested so that the perfect Praise is attained, which He deserves. In the same manner, that He subhana wa ta’aala is praised for His Favors and Bounties and Rewards, He is praised for His Justice and Avenge and Punishment, because all of that originates from His Might and Wisdom. And that’s why He subhana wa ta’aala pointed to this so many times, as in Surah ash-Shu’ara, where He mentions at the end of each story from the stories of the Messengers and their nations, He mentions the following verse, in (Chapter) 26, meaning, ‘Verily! In this’ – what happened to the Messengers in their confrontation with their nations and the punishment that came to their nations when they rejected – ‘is indeed a sign (or a proof), yet most of them are not believers. And verily, your Lord! He is truly the All-Mighty, the Most Merciful.’ So here, He tells us that this is coming from His Might, which comprises His Perfect Ability, and from His Wisdom, which comprises His Perfect Knowledge and putting things in their fitting places. So, He put His Favor and safety to His Messengers and their followers, and put His Anger and Revenge and destruction on their enemies, each in its proper place, because of His two Attributes: ‘Izza wa Hikmah – Might and Wisdom. And that’s why He subhana wa ta’aala, after He tells us about His Decree between the people of happiness and people of wretchedness and the destiny of each of them to their respective abodes, which do not fit except them, and which his wisdom cannot entail except that, He said, (in Chapter) 39:75, which means, ‘And you will see the angels surrounding the Throne, exalting [Allah] with praise of their Lord. And it will be judged between them in truth, and it will be said, “[All] praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds, the Lord of all that exists.”’

On this one we stop, and we continue this subject inshaaAllah tomorrow, and this is based on Imam Ibn Qayyim’s rahimahullah discussions on the Wisdoms of Allah subhana wa ta’aala and His creation, and this is from his book – based upon such discussion which he had in his book, ‘Miftahu Daarus-Sa’aadah’ – ‘The Key to the Door of Happiness’.

We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’aala to have mercy on Imam Ibn Qayyim rahimahullah and to make us from the people of the Abode of Happiness, al-Jannah.

Wa salAllahu ‘ala Muhammadin  wa ‘ala aalihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. [end of part 1]

• Part 2 –

Bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim. All praise is due to Allah, the Most High, the Originator and Creator of the heavens and the earth. He decrees what He wills, and He does what He wills. He subhanahu wa ta’aala brought Adam to earth, put him and his offspring in an abode, commanding them and forbidding them, in order to bring forth from them those that He loves and they love Him. His Love of them is their utmost objective for perfection and the most of nobility they can attain, and such objectives, noble and high, cannot be achieved except in complying with what pleases Allah and following His Decrees and Commands, and abandoning the self and its lusts. His Wisdom subhanahu wa ta’aala made them excel over eachother in order those upon whom He bestowed the Mercy give gratitude to Him and for them to know that they were given this favor and this honor, and were they all to be equal in the favor and safety, then no one having favor would really estimate its value and would not exert at all thanks as it should be exerted, because he would see of the others the same as his condition, all equal in favorability. But from the main causes for extracting the shukr, the gratitude, is, that those who receive Allah’s na’mah and favor, sees his condition in an opposite condition to others, not forgetting that there is nothing that Allah loves most from the slaves more than his humility and humbleness and submissiveness before His Hands subhana wa ta’aala, and poverty to Him, and this is not achievable in the abode of endless Bliss, where there is perfect Bliss and there is no accountability and no legal responsibility. The causes that will bring forth the humility and humbleness from man to Allah, for them to be in the Abode of endless Bliss, is not perceivable, because this would be mixing together two opposites. And that’s why they are here, in order to bring it forth here on earth, and to prove themselves.

And He subhana wa ta’aala, to Him belongs the Commandment and Creation, and the Commandment is His Legal Ways with which He sends His Messengers and brought down His Books, and the Jannah is not Daarut-takleef, an abode for legal checking of responsibility. It is an Abode of Na’eem, Pleasure and Bliss. So, His Hikmah, subhana wa ta’aala, His Wisdom, entails extracting Adam and his offspring to this abode here, upon them, the rulings and the decrees to be applicable, in order to manifest from them what is entailed by His Commands. Since we know that His Action subhana wa ta’aala is from what is entailed by His Perfect Names and Attributes, similarly, His Amr and Sharra’, His Command and His Legal Ways and what they produce from reward and punishment, all of this is from what is entailed by His Names and Attributes. And Allah directed to this meaning in many parts of His Book; listen to what He said in Surah al-Qiyaamah verse 36, (which means), ‘Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]?‘ – functionless, without being commanded nor forbidden, nor to be punished or rewarded. And, you know, this is obviously in opposition to the perfection of Allah’s Wisdom and His Ruboobiyyah, His Lordship, and His Might, wa ‘Izzati. And His Wisdom does not fit to have such a neglected creation. And that’s why He subhana wa ta’aala, in this Statement, look at it carefully: ‘Does man think that he will be left neglected?‘ – this is denunciation for anyone who claims this to be the case. Similarly, when He said in Surah al-Mu’minoon 23 verse 115, (which means), ‘Did you think that We had created you in play (without any purpose), and that you would not be brought back to Us?‘ It’s not befitting His Wisdom. Next verse: ‘So Exalted be Allah, the True King, La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), the Lord of the Supreme Throne!’ He glorifies Himself, declared it above any imperfection in this respect, because this is in opposition to what is entailed by His Names and Attributes, subhana wa ta’aala. Many are the verses like this in the Qur’an.

Add to this the fact that Allah subhana wa ta’aala loves from His slaves many things to be done, but these cannot be done without the causes that lead to them, and then cannot be done except in this Daar, in this abode of tests and trials. For He subhana wa ta’aala loves the patient and the persevering, and He loves those who give gratitude, and He loves those who fight in His Way, and He loves those who often repent, and loves those who are pure and purify, and there is no doubt that the manifestation of these beloved things, without their causes, is not perceivable. Impossible! And Allah subhana wa ta’aala loves taubah from His slaves, and He is so pleased with it. Allah is more pleased with the repentance of His slave than a man who encamps at a place where his life is jeopardized but he has his riding animal carrying his food and water. He then rests his head and sleeps for a short while and wakes to find his riding animal gone. He starts looking for it and suffers from severe heat and thirst or what Allah wished him to suffer from. He then says, ‘I will go back to my place.’ He returns and sleeps again and then, getting up, he raises his head to find his riding animal beside him, as in Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol 8, 320. What is meant here is that this Pleasure of Allah is in response to the taubah from the slave, to the repentance from the slave, and therefore repentance and sin are inter-related and they are causes which draws the Pleasure of Allah. Because it is impossible for what is entailed to occur without that which entails it. So this Pleasure is due to the taubah, which is related to the sin, and it is impossible for this to occur in the Abode of Bliss, because there is no sin in the Abode of Bliss. And since this Pleasure to Allah is so beloved than its non-existence, then His Love necessitated to create its causes, which would lead to it, and which are beloved to Him. And that’s why man is in this abode of trials and tests and sins and repentance, with all these causes that would lead to that which is beloved to Allah and therefore for His Pleasure.

Furthermore, Allah made Paradise an Abode of Reward, and divided it into ranks, people dwelling in different ranks according to their deeds. And on this condition Allah created it, because of the Wisdom entailed by His Names and Attributes. Paradise are levels on top of levels, and between each two levels is as that which is between the heavens and the earth, as came in the hadith reported by al-Bukhari, from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, ‘Paradise is 100 levels, between each two levels is that which is between the heavens and the earth (from a distance).’ And the Wisdom of Allah subhana wa ta’aala necessitates the habitation of these levels, and that it will be established, and differences between levels of people in these different ranks in accordance with their deeds, as therefore entailed by His Wisdom subhana wa ta’aala. And it is, as more than one of the Righteous Predecessors has mentioned, they are saved from the Fire of Hell by the Forgiveness and Pardoning of Allah, and they will enter Paradise by His Favor and Bounty and Forgiveness, and they will be divided into the ranks and levels and abodes within Paradise in accordance with their deeds. So the entrance and admittance to the Paradise originally is by the Bounty and Favor and Forgiveness of Allah and His Mercy, and this is what explains the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, ‘None of you will enter Paradise by his deeds.‘ They said, ‘Nor even you, O Messenger of Allah?’ he said, ‘Even me.’ What he intended here صلى الله عليه وسلم, is the forbiddance to or negating the origin of admittance, and this is related to the Mercy and Bounty of Allah and His Forgiveness; and what is negated is the kind of trade, i.e. our works for Jannah. Because there is no comparison between man’s righteous deeds, even though they are beloved to Allah, and what Allah gives him from the Favors. Our deeds cannot stand to equate the Favors of Allah subhana wa ta’aala in no way. In fact, they will fall short in comparison with the least of His Favors upon us. And had it not (been) therefore for the Mercy of Allah upon His slaves, He wouldn’t have admitted them to Paradise. Because the deeds of man, even if they are so much, they on their own are not or do not necessitate the entrance to Paradise. What is intended therefore, is that His Wisdom, subhana wa ta’aala, necessitated the creation of Paradise on different levels, and to populate them with Adam and his offspring, in these levels, in accordance with their deeds, and this by itself entailed sending them to this abode of action and striving, where they are going to be different in terms of their deeds.

He created Adam and his offspring generations after generations, as Allah spoke about this in Surah al-Baqarah, Chapter 2 verse 30, (which means), ‘And (remember) when your Lord said to the angels: “Verily, I am going to place (mankind) generations after generations on earth.’ And as He subhana wa ta’aala said also in Surah al-An’am 165, (which means), ‘And it is He Who has made you generations coming after generations, replacing each other on the earth.’ And Allah said in Surah al-A’raf, Chapter 7 :129, (which means), ‘It may be that your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you successors on the earth, so that He may see how you act?‘ So Allah intended to remove Adam and his offspring from this succession on earth to inherit him the Abode of Bliss, and He subhana wa ta’aala knew  in His Foreknowledge that Adam and his offspring are weak and that they may hasten to that which is minimal and prefer it for that of the long-run in the Hereafter. Allah He knew, He created him, He knew his nature, so His Wisdom, subhana wa ta’aala, entailed admitting him to Paradise in the first place to recognize and to see its Bliss which he saw it really, in order what? In order what? So that he yearned to it, he longs to it and becomes more keen to return to it and becomes more intense in seeking it. Because loving something, requesting it, yearning, longing to it, is entailed by its examination, is entailed by examining it. Once it’s examined, once it is seen, then the attachment, the longing. So anyone who examines that which is good and sweet, he will be motivated intensely to attain, for when the self tastes, it longs to the thing. And that’s why, when the slave tastes the sweetness of iman, of faith, and it intermingles with his heart, it becomes established, and nothing will affect it. In Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, from the hadith of Abu Hurairah, illustrating this point, ‘Allah asks the angels, saying to them, ‘What are my slaves asking Me?’ The angels respond, ‘They ask You Paradise.’ ‘Did they see it?’ They say, ‘No.’ He says, ‘How about if they saw it?’ ‘Had they seen it, they would be more intensely requesting it and seeking it.’ So His Wisdom subhana wa ta’aala necessitated that He showed their father Paradise and made him dwell in it. Then He related to his offspring, his, Adam’s story therein, so they all became as if they saw it with their father. And those who had been created for it, responded and hastened to it, not looking for the early gains in this life, rather, they prepare themselves for it and looked at it that it was taken away from him by his enemy: shaytan. And therefore he looks at it as his first Abode, longing for it, always yearning to it, to his Abode, to his first home. And he rahimahullah put the following poem, illustrating this point:

‘And come for the Jannaat of bliss,
it is your first home and therein is your camps,
but we are the captives of the enemy,
so do you see we return to our homes and be saved.’

So the secrets of all these angles is that Allah subhana wa ta’aala in His Fore-decree and in His Wisdom, is that the sought objectives cannot be attained without it’s causes, causes which Allah made them means to attain these goals, and from these goals is the highest in bliss and most magnificent in bliss, and therefore it cannot be attained except in causes which He had set leading to it. And imagine the lower objective that we encounter, if they cannot be attained except by their respective causes, though weak and disconnected many times, like gaining the food, looking for food, looking for drink, looking for clothing, looking to have children, wealth, prestige, in this life; so how it could be under your delusion that the attainment of the most highest objectives and the most noble, would be without causes leading to it, and that these causes cannot be except in this life, in this abode of striving and cultivation. So therefore, consequently, habitating Adam and his children in this land, on this earth, and creating for them the means for them to utilize, to reach that greatest objective of bliss, is from His Perfect Bounty and Favor upon them.

Not to forget, the other secret is that He subhana wa ta’aala made the Message and Prophethood and love and speaking to whomever He spoke to and slavery to make from the most noble of His creation, so He put them in an abode extracting from them Prophets, sending them the Messengers, taking from them beloved to Him, speaking to Musa directly and taking from them martyrs and slaves and friends and specials who love Him and He loves them, and therefore, sending them to this abode is from the perfection of His Wisdom, from His Bounty, Favors and goodness.

And from the secrets is that He manifested for His creation what is entailed by His Names, subhana wa ta’aala, and also He made Himself known to His creation by His Actions, His Names and His Attributes as well, and in that which He put forth amongst them from His friends and from His enemies, and gave them help against them and humiliating them, the enemies, responding to those who responded to Him, fulfilling their needs, making them turn in all sorts of good and evil, in all of this making it known to them that He is their Lord and He is their King, and that He is Allah, la ilaha illa hu – none has the right to be worshiped but He, and that He is the One, All-Knowing, All-Wise, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, the True God, and anything besides Him or to the exclusion of Him is baatil/false. And thus, the evidences for His Rububiyyah, for His Lordship, and His Tawheed on the earth is compounded and His slaves knew Him and attested to His Tawheed, and the losers rejected Him and committed shirk, unjustly and arrogantly.

Anyone who, therefore, ponders His Signs witnessed on earth and His Signs heard on this earth and His Signs seen, and their effects, would come to know His perfect Wisdom in habitating Adam and his offspring in this abode for an appointed term. Because verily Allah had created Jannah, Paradise, for Adam and his offspring, and He made the angels therein servants for Adam and his offspring, however, His Wisdom necessitated that He created for them an abode from where they take provisions to the other One which He created for them, and that they will not attain it except with these provisions, as Allah subhana wa ta’aala said about this abode in Surah an-Nahl 16:7, – this is the example of moving on this earth from one place to the other, then how about the movement from this life to the Next one? – (which means), ‘And they carry your loads to a land that you could not reach except with great trouble to yourselves. Truly, your Lord is full of Kindness, Most Merciful.’ So if this is applicable to moving from one place to the other in this life, that it requires some great trouble, then what about the case of moving from this life to the Abode in the Hereafter? And Allah subhana wa ta’aala said also with the same meaning in Surah al-Baqarah, (which means), ‘And take a provision (with you) for the journey, but the best provision is At-Taqwa (piety, righteousness, etc.). So fear Me, O men of understanding!’

So the deceived ones sold their houses for the cheapest and most degradable price, and the successful ones sold themselves and their wealth and put it a price for Paradise, and so they won, and they won the great reward. Allah subhanahu wa ta’aala said in Surah at-Taubah 9:111, (which means), ‘Verily, Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their properties; for the price that theirs shall be the Paradise.’ Nasallaahu min fadhlih –  Nasallaahu min fadhlih.

So Allah did not expel Adam from it, except that He intends to return him to it in the most perfect way. It is as if, ‘O Adam, don’t be worried about My Saying to you, ‘Get out of it’ because it is for you that I created. I am the One Free of want concerning it, Paradise, and regarding everything else, and I am the One Who is Most Generous, Most Noble, and I don’t enjoy there anything, because I am the One Who feeds, but fed not (am not fed), and I am the Rich, Free from all want. Rather, come down to the abode of seeding, and if you spread the seed and the produce stands up firm and it becomes a harvest, then afterwards come, I will give you in full, return, that which you need most; one single seed for 10, to 700 folds, much more amplified reward, because I am Most Perfect in Knowledge concerning your benefit than yourself, and I am the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.’

We ask Allah subhana wa ta’aala to make us from those who plant the seeds and take care of it; we ask Him subhana wa ta’aala to amplify the reward in Paradise, in seeing His Face, inni huwa ‘ala kulli shayin qadeer, walhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen, wa la ilaha ilAllaha al-‘Aliyyul-Qadeer, wa Allahumma salli ‘ala Muhammadin wa ‘ala aali wa sahbih wa sallam, and may Allah’s Mercy be upon Iman Ibn Qayyim rahimahullah, wa salAllahu ‘ala nabiyyina Muhammadin wa akhira da’wana alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen.

Transcribed (with minor additions in italic) by Sister Umm Abdalrahman