Benefits from the Explanation of Ibn Rajab's Treatise Kashf al-Kurba fi Wasf Hal Ahl al-Ghurba by Shaykh Dr. Khalid al-Muslih

Praise be to Allah who guided us to Islam and made us followers of His chosen Prophet, upon him be the best of blessings and peace. We bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, without partner, and we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. To proceed: the treatise of Imam Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Kashf al-Kurba fi Wasf Hal Ahl al-Ghurba (Removing the Distress in Describing the State of the Strangers), is one of the foundational works that shed light on the meanings of strangeness in religion, the qualities of the strangers, and their merit in reform and holding to the Sunnah. Shaykh Dr. Khalid al-Muslih, may Allah reward him with good, explained this treatise thoroughly, combining exposition with analysis, and his explanation came as an aid to understanding Ibn Rajab’s aims and showing their scholarly and legal value.

In this article we present a summary of Shaykh Dr. Khalid al-Muslih’s explanation of this valuable treatise, may Allah preserve him, taking care to omit the weak hadiths and the lines of poetry for the sake of brevity, and contenting ourselves with the authentic hadiths from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for in them is sufficiency. To highlight Ibn Rajab’s original texts, they have been marked in red, while the rest of the material is a summary of the words of Shaykh Khalid al-Muslih, may Allah preserve him. We advise the honored reader to return to the full explanation for more, for the summary is no substitute for the original. We have also benefited from the headings placed by Tal’at ibn Fu’ad al-Hulwani in the edition he edited, may Allah reward him with good.

Dr. Khalid al-Muslih, may Allah preserve him, said: al-kashf (removal) means removing, clarifying, and making plain; this is its linguistic sense, and what is meant here is removing and lifting. So kashf al-kurba means lifting and removing it. Al-kurba (distress) is used for hardship, trial, and a calamity weighing heavily on the soul; it is called kurba because it grips a person, binding him tight and squeezing him. The treatise was given this name because it removes a scholarly difficulty over whose definition, explanation, and clarification the scholars differed: the qualities of the people of strangeness.

Islam Began as Something Strange and Will Return to Being Strange

Ibn Rajab, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Muslim narrated in his Sahih from the hadith of Abu Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Islam began as something strange and will return to being strange as it began, so glad tidings (tuba) to the strangers”¹.

Imam Ahmad and Ibn Majah narrated it from the hadith of Ibn Mas’ud with an addition at its end, which is: It was said, “O Messenger of Allah, and who are the strangers?” He said: “Those plucked out (al-nuzza’)² from the tribes”³.

Abu Bakr al-Ajurri narrated it, and in his version: It was said, “And who are they, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “Those who are righteous when the people have become corrupt”⁴.

Someone else narrated it, and in his version he said: “Those who flee with their religion from the trials.”

Al-Tirmidhi narrated it from the hadith of Kathir ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Muzani, from his father, from his grandfather, from the Prophet ﷺ: “The religion began as something strange and will go back to being strange, so glad tidings to the strangers who set right what the people have corrupted of my Sunnah”⁵.

Al-Tabarani narrated it from the hadith of Jabir from the Prophet ﷺ, and in his hadith: It was said, “And who are they, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “Those who are righteous when the people are corrupt”⁶.

He also narrated it from the hadith of Sahl ibn Sa’d with similar wording⁷.

Imam Ahmad narrated it from the hadith of Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas from the Prophet ﷺ, and in his hadith: “So glad tidings on that day to the strangers when the people have become corrupt”⁸.

Imam Ahmad and al-Tabarani narrated from the hadith of ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Glad tidings to the strangers.” We said: “And who are the strangers?” He said: “A few people among many evil people; those who disobey them are more than those who obey them”⁹.

It is narrated from ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr, both as the Prophet’s words and as his own, in this hadith: It was said, “And who are the strangers?” He said: “Those who flee with their religion; Allah the Exalted will resurrect them with ‘Isa ibn Maryam, upon him be peace”¹⁰.

His saying “Islam began as something strange” means that before his mission people were in general misguidance, as the Prophet ﷺ said in the hadith of ‘Iyad ibn Himar, which Muslim narrated: “Allah looked at the people of the earth and detested them, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, except for some remnants of the People of the Book”¹¹.

The Transformation of Islam from Weakness to Strength

When the Prophet ﷺ was sent and called to Islam, at first no one responded to him except one after another from each tribe.

The one who responded to him was afraid of his clan and his tribe, harmed to the utmost degree and abused, while he bore it patiently for the sake of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.

The Muslims at that time were weak and oppressed, driven out in every direction, fleeing with their religion to distant lands, as when they emigrated to Abyssinia twice and then emigrated to Madinah. Some of them were tortured for the sake of Allah and some were killed, so those who entered Islam at that time were strangers.

Then Islam became manifest after the emigration to Madinah and grew mighty, and its people became fully dominant, and so the word of the Truth, Exalted and Majestic, was fulfilled: “It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion”¹². Islam prevailed over every religion, until the Peninsula was cleared of all worship other than that of Allah, exalted in His highness. Among the last things the Prophet ﷺ enjoined was: “Expel the polytheists from the Arabian Peninsula”¹³, and this was because of Islam’s dominance and strength, so that no rival to it would be accepted in the Arabian Peninsula.

After that the people entered the religion of Allah in multitudes, as the Exalted said: “When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest, and you see the people entering into the religion of Allah in multitudes”¹⁴.

And Allah perfected the religion for them and completed His favor upon them, “I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you”¹⁵.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ died while matters were so.

The people of Islam were at the height of uprightness in their religion, as in the hadith of ‘Imran ibn Husayn that the Prophet ﷺ said: “The best of people are my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow them”¹⁶, and they supported and aided one another, and they remained so in the time of Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both. Then the devil set his schemes to work against the Muslims, cast their hostility among themselves, and spread among them the trial of doubts and desires.

These two trials did not cease to increase little by little, until the devil’s scheme became firmly established and most of creation obeyed him: some of them entered into obedience to him through the trial of doubts, some through the trial of desires, and some combined the two; and all of this is among what the Prophet ﷺ foretold would happen.

The Two Trials: Doubts and Desires

These two trials are the source of every affliction and evil. There is no corruption or evil in the world except that its cause is either a doubt or a desire. Calling them “the trial of doubts” and “the trial of desires” is a matter of attributing a thing to its cause: they are the trial whose cause is doubt, and the trial whose cause is desire.

Doubts (al-shubuhat): plural of shubha. A shubha is a barrier that prevents one from seeing the truth; this is the definition of a doubt.

And desires (al-shahawat): plural of shahwa. A shahwa is the soul’s inclination to disobeying Allah or to contravening Allah’s command. Disobedience may be by abandoning an obligation or by violating a prohibition.

This is a summary of the corruption that occurs in people’s condition: either because of a doubt, which is what comes upon their hearts of things that prevent them from seeing and knowing the truth,

or because their souls overpower them and carry them to contravene the command of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.

Both lead to one result, which is leaving the Straight Path, but the cause of leaving differs: some leaving is due to lack of clarity, and some leaving is due to inability to stay firm and failure to continue upon guidance and act by it.

The devil does not care what he gains from a person, whether he gains a desire from him or gains a doubt from him, because his aim is to bar from the path of Allah; however this barring occurs, his intended aim is achieved. But in terms of degrees of danger between doubt and desire, doubt is more dangerous than desire, and both are dangerous. The genus of doubt is more dangerous; not every doubt is more dangerous than every desire, but the genus of doubts is more dangerous than the genus of desires, because in desires a person recognizes his own violation and may return, but in doubt he does not recognize the violation; rather he thinks he is upon the truth. For this reason, in weighing innovation against sin, innovation is more dangerous, because it is connected to doubts. Allah the Exalted said: “Then is one to whom the evil of his deed has been made attractive so he considers it good…”¹⁷. If he sees his deed as good, he will rarely desist or turn back from it.

As for the trial of doubts: it is narrated from the Prophet ﷺ through more than one route that his Ummah will split into more than seventy sects, the narrations differing in the number above seventy, and that all of those sects are in the Fire, all of them in the Fire because they contravened what the Prophet ﷺ was upon, except one sect, which is the one that is upon what he ﷺ and his Companions were upon¹⁸, as came in what al-Tirmidhi narrated from the hadith of ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the saved sect and said: “Whoever is upon the like of what I and my Companions are upon today”¹⁹. The hadith has some criticism in its chain, but it has come through routes that strengthen and support it and raise it to the level of acceptance; this is from one angle. From the angle of meaning, there is no problem with its soundness: there is no salvation except through what the Prophet ﷺ was upon, and many hadiths indicate this: “I have left among you that which, if you hold to it, you will never go astray after me: the two weighty things, one greater than the other: the Book of Allah, a rope extended from the heaven to the earth, and my family, the people of my household”²⁰, as in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad. This shows that salvation is attained by holding fast to the Book of Allah the Exalted and to his Sunnah and his practice ﷺ.

As for the trial of desires: in Sahih Muslim, from ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr, the Prophet ﷺ said: “How will you be when the treasures of Persia and Rome are opened to you; what kind of people will you be?” ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “We will say as Allah has commanded us.” He said: “Or other than that: you will compete with one another, then envy one another, then turn your backs on one another”²¹. Here he mentioned the sequence of affliction. It begins with competition, and competition is crowding toward a thing and racing to it. When they race and crowd, the result is that some outstrip others; when some outstrip others, mutual envy arises, some envying others. Envy is an affliction: when it creeps into the heart, either a person conceals it and seeks refuge in Allah the Exalted from it, and then it does not harm him, or he translates it into words or deeds, and if he translates it into words or deeds, among its results is turning one’s back. Turning one’s back (al-tadabur) is a metaphor for separation, because when two people turn their backs on each other they head in two different directions. Al-tadabur is a metaphor for separation and disagreement in the Ummah, and it is not only with bodies but also with actions, words, and harshness of hearts. Al-tadabur has many manifestations, and its opposite is the state the Prophet ﷺ described of drawing together, unity, and mutual affection. Mutual affection is the opposite of turning one’s back: “You see the believers in their mutual mercy, love, and affection like one body”²². Mutual affection is a kind of cohesion between the members of the Ummah, unlike turning one’s back, which is a kind of separation and disagreement.

In Sahih al-Bukhari, from ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf, the Prophet ﷺ said: “By Allah, it is not poverty that I fear for you, but I fear that the world will be spread out for you as it was spread out for those before you, and you will compete for it as they competed for it, and it will destroy you as it destroyed them”²³.

And in the two Sahihs, from the hadith of ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Amir, from ‘Umar, from the Prophet ﷺ, with this meaning as well.

The Prophet ﷺ feared these two trials for his Ummah, as in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad from Abu Barzah that the Prophet ﷺ said: “What I fear for you is only the desires of your stomachs and your private parts, and the misleading trials.” And in a narration: “and the misleading whims”²⁴. These are among the outward desires, but desires are not limited to these; they were mentioned as examples of the most prominent kinds of desires. Otherwise there is the desire for rank, position, loftiness, and rising above people; this is among the desires, but it is not connected with the stomach or the private parts. Stomachs and private parts were mentioned because they are where people are most commonly tried, not to restrict desires to these two; it is rather a matter of mentioning some examples of the desires the Messenger ﷺ feared for his Ummah. “The misleading trials” are the doubts, and “the misleading whims” means the misguidances arising from whim. Whim (al-hawa), like its name, makes its people fall (yahwi) and drops them into the pits of misguidance and the places of evil and corruption.

When most people entered into these two trials, or one of them, they became estranged from and hateful toward one another after having been brothers who loved one another and kept ties.

For the trial of desires engulfed most of creation: they were tempted by the world and its glitter, and it became the utmost of their aim; for it they seek, by it they are pleased, for it they are angered, for it they take allies, and over it they take enemies. Because of that they cut their ties of kinship, shed one another’s blood, and committed acts of disobedience to Allah on account of it!

As for the trial of doubts and misleading whims, because of it the people of the Qiblah split apart, and the reason for mentioning the Qiblah is that it is something the people of Islam have not differed over, whatever their schools and creeds; so it was a distinguishing mark of the people of Islam from others. When “the people of the Qiblah” is said without qualification, what is meant is the people of Islam, whatever their creed. The people of Islam were attributed to the Qiblah because of the saying of the Prophet ﷺ narrated by al-Bukhari and others from the hadith of Anas: “Whoever testifies that there is no god but Allah, faces our Qiblah, prays our prayer, and eats our slaughtered animals is the Muslim; he has what the Muslim has and owes what the Muslim owes”²⁵. The splitting of the people of the Qiblah means the splitting of those who pray, and they became factions, some of them declaring others disbelievers, and they became enemies, sects, and parties after having been brothers whose hearts were as the heart of one man. None of these sects was saved except the one saved sect, who are those mentioned in his ﷺ saying: “A group of my Ummah will remain manifest upon the truth; those who forsake them or oppose them will not harm them, until the command of Allah comes while they are upon that”²⁶.

Salvation in the Hereafter is the fruit of salvation in this world, which is salvation from desires, and from doubts, misguidances, and innovations. When they were saved by Allah’s grace in this world, their reward was salvation in the Hereafter. So the saved sect is described with this description for two reasons: for its being saved from desires, doubts, innovation, and misguidance in this world, and for its being saved from the Fire in the Hereafter. Being manifest implies loftiness and elevation, as the Exalted said: “It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion”²⁷. “Manifest while they are upon the truth” indicates their steadfastness and firm grip on the truth they believe. We ask Allah the Mighty, Lord of the Noble Throne, to make us among them and to cause us to die upon that.

They, at the end of time, are the strangers mentioned in these hadiths: those who are righteous when the people are corrupt, those who set right what the people have corrupted of the Sunnah, those who flee with their religion from the trials, and those plucked out from the tribes, because they have become few, so that in each tribe there is only one or two of them, and in some tribes there may be none of them at all, just as those who entered Islam at the beginning were. This is how the imams explained this hadith.

Islam Does Not Depart, but the People of the Sunnah Depart

Al-Awza’i said about his ﷺ saying: “Islam began as something strange and will return to being strange as it began”:

“Indeed, Islam does not depart, but the people of the Sunnah depart, until there remains of them in a land only one man.” For this meaning, praise of the Sunnah, describing it as strange, and describing its people as few are often found in the words of the Salaf.

Know that this strangeness is relative, meaning that it is not in every place and at every time. Strangeness is not applied to the whole world, in the sense that the truth never disappears; rather a group and a sect remain distinguished by the truth and acting upon it. They become manifest in one era and their strength grows, and they become few in another era and their authority weakens; but this religion remains manifest, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “A group of my Ummah will remain manifest upon the truth; those who forsake them or oppose them will not harm them, until the command of Allah comes while they are upon that”²⁸.

Islam is not lifted altogether, nor does its name disappear. Islam has not departed; its name remains, and it is manifest in terms of the great abundance of its followers. But the people of the Sunnah depart, and they are those who adhere to what the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions were upon in belief and practice. This is an important matter that many people overlook: that we adhere to what the Prophet ﷺ was upon in creed and practice. These are without doubt few, rarer than rare.

Then, after this explanation that Islam began as something strange, and after uncovering how it returned to being strange as it was at first, comes the discussion of the strangers mentioned in these hadiths and their qualities:

1- They are righteous when the people are corrupt.

2- They set right what the people have corrupted of the Sunnah.

3- They flee with their religion from the trials.

4- They are those plucked out (al-nuzza’) from the tribes. Al-nuzza’ is the plural of nazi’, which is what is cut off from a thing, extracted from others: plucked out from the tribes, so that in each tribe there is only one or two of them, and in some tribes there may be none of them at all, just as those who entered Islam at the beginning were.

These qualities are drawn from the sum of the narrations mentioned at the beginning of this blessed treatise.

Al-Hasan, may Allah the Exalted have mercy on him, used to say to his companions: “O people of the Sunnah, be gentle, may Allah have mercy on you, for you are among the fewest of people”. And this was in the best of generations: “The best of people are my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow them”²⁹, since al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on him, was one of the Successors (Tabi’un); he met some of the Companions, his hearing from some of them is established, and his hearing from some others is disputed. If, in the virtuous generations, they were of this size and this scarcity, then without doubt they are few in every time and place.

Yunus ibn ‘Ubayd said: “Nothing is stranger than the Sunnah, and stranger still is one who knows it.” It is also narrated that he said: “The one who, when the Sunnah is made known to him, recognizes it, has become a stranger, and stranger than him is one who knows it!”

From Sufyan al-Thawri, who said: “Treat the people of the Sunnah well, for they are strangers.”

What these imams meant by the Sunnah is the way of the Prophet ﷺ upon which he and his Companions were, free from doubts and desires.

Strangeness is in belief and it is in practice. That is why al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad used to say: “The people of the Sunnah are those who know that what enters their stomachs is lawful.” Many people do not look at the matter of conduct and practice and that it is among the things by which a person is judged as being of the people of the Sunnah or not, because the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever is upon the like of what I and my Companions are upon today”³⁰, and the Prophet ﷺ was upon creed and practice: “those who believe,” this is creed, “and do righteous deeds”³¹. Both matters must be combined, and by this a person attains salvation and safety, because eating what is lawful is among the greatest traits of the Sunnah upon which the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions were.

Then, in the usage of many later scholars among the people of hadith and others, “the Sunnah” came to mean what is free from doubts in beliefs specifically, in matters of faith in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and the Last Day, and likewise in matters of predestination and the virtues of the Companions. They composed works in this science and called them books of the Sunnah, and they singled out this science with the name “Sunnah” because its danger is great and the one who opposes it is on the brink of destruction!

The Complete Sunnah Is the Path Free from Doubts and Desires

As for the complete Sunnah, it is the path free from doubts and desires, as al-Hasan, Yunus ibn ‘Ubayd, Sufyan, al-Fudayl, and others said. For this reason its people are described as strangers at the end of time, because of their scarcity and strangeness in it; and for this reason it came in some narrations, as has preceded in explaining the strangers: “Righteous people, few among many evil people; those who disobey them are more than those who obey them.”

In this is an indication of their small number, the small number of those who respond to them and accept from them, and the great number of those who oppose them and disobey them. For this reason it came in several hadiths praising the one who holds fast to his religion at the end of time, that he is like one gripping a burning coal, and that the one who acts among them has the reward of fifty of those before them, because they do not find helpers in good³².

An Important Caution: True Strangeness and Claimed Strangeness

Consider, may Allah protect you, that these qualities are not by themselves the reason they are described as strangers. These qualities may be present: a person may be in a place where many do not obey him, those who respond to him are few, and those who oppose him are many, yet this is not true strangeness. Consider that man who came to the Prophet ﷺ with his head shaved and the mark of prostration between his eyes, saying: “O Muhammad, fear Allah and be just”³³. He was a stranger in the time of the Companions, and so he came with something no one before him had come with: commanding the Prophet ﷺ to be just. So we should not take these qualities and apply them to ourselves without looking at the soundness of what we call to. The problem at times is not people’s rejection of what we call to; the problem at times is that what we call to is not correct, or that what we call to is not presented in a suitable and correct manner. Hence it is not permissible for us to persist in error on the pretext that we are strangers. Those who set off bombs in the lands of the Muslims and kill them see themselves as strangers, those who disobey them more than those who obey them, and as people who set things right; that is, they apply these descriptions to their own state. But the issue is not whether the descriptions fit a person’s state; the issue is whether what the person has is correct or not. Does what he calls to agree with what the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions were upon or not? A person may come calling to misguidance while having these descriptions the Prophet ﷺ mentioned, and that does not enter him into his ﷺ saying: “So glad tidings to the strangers.” This is a problem we draw attention to, because for some people the matter becomes confused, and they think that people’s rejection of what they call to is a commendation of them: “glad tidings to the strangers.” Should we not review what we call to, whether it is correct or not? Should we not review whether our way of presenting the truth is correct or not? These matters must be examined. Then, if what we have is truth as clear as the sun, plain and explicit, with no confusion or ambiguity in it, and we have taken every suitable means to convey the truth, and it is rejected after that, then rejoice: glad tidings to the strangers; it does not harm you that people do not obey you. That is why one must look at the content a person calls to, at the creed, conduct, and method he carries, so that he may be worthy of these qualities the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in his saying: “So glad tidings to the strangers.”

The Categories of the People of Strangeness

These strangers are of two kinds: the first is one who sets himself right when the people are corrupt, and the second is one who sets right what the people have corrupted of the Sunnah, and this is the higher of the two kinds and the better of them.

The first state is setting oneself right, and this is by rectifying the inward and the outward: that a person brings what he can and is able of rectifying his heart and making his deeds upright, “those who have said, ‘Our Lord is Allah,’ and then remained upright”³⁴. “Our Lord is Allah”: they said it with their hearts and with the soundness of their beliefs; and “remained upright”: upon the Shari’ah as much as they were able. This is a person’s rectification of himself: that he rectifies his heart and rectifies his deeds as far as he can.

Rectifying deeds is by performing what he is able of the obligations, and what he can of the duties, and leaving what Allah the Exalted has forbidden him according to his capacity, because of the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: “When I forbid you something, avoid it, and when I command you to do something, do of it what you are able”³⁵.

The second state is that he sets right what the people have corrupted of the Sunnah: he strives to set right what the people have corrupted of the Shari’ah of the Prophet ﷺ. Corruption here is not necessarily corruption in belief; rather it is corruption in belief and in practice. So he sets right what people have corrupted in creeds, and he also sets right what people have corrupted in deeds.

In the Musnad of Imam Ahmad³⁶, from ‘Ubadah ibn al-Samit, that he said to one of his companions: “If your life is prolonged, you may well see a man who has recited the Qur’an upon the tongue of Muhammad ﷺ, repeated it and begun it again, made lawful what it makes lawful and unlawful what it makes unlawful, and stopped at its stations, yet he will have no more standing among you than a dead donkey.”

Similar to it is the saying of Ibn Mas’ud: “A time will come upon the people in which the believer will be more abased than a slave woman”³⁷.

The believer is abased at the end of time only because of his strangeness among the people of corruption, the people of doubts and desires: all of them hate him and harm him because his way differs from their way, his aim from their aim, and because of his distance from what they are upon. But this does not mean contradicting what the Prophet ﷺ foretold: “A group of my Ummah will remain manifest upon the truth”³⁸, and being manifest implies strength, might, and elevation. This abasement is in relation to the acceptance of what they say, not in relation to the person’s state and the manifestness of his word. There is a difference between this and that: they are two descriptions of two different states, not of two different matters with regard to their holding to the truth and upholding it, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “A group of my Ummah will remain manifest upon the truth.” As for this abasement that the reports describe in the state of the people of faith and of the people of strangeness, it is in what they brought not being accepted, and people not turning toward the guidance and truth they brought and acted upon.

When Dawud al-Ta’i died, Ibn al-Sammak said: “Dawud looked with his heart at what lay ahead of him, and the sight of his heart dimmed the sight of the eyes; it was as though he did not look at what you look at, and as though you do not look at what he looks at. So you wonder at him, and he wonders at you. He felt estranged from you because he was alive amid the dead.” He means that he penetrated with his sight beyond looking at this world and its state to the Hereafter and the bliss and punishment in it. This is the looking that benefits a person, purifies deeds, rectifies the heart, and sets one’s state upright: that a person penetrates with his sight from his present hour to his abode in the Hereafter. Consequently he works for an abode he is heading toward, unconcerned with what befalls him in this world. This is what Ibn al-Sammak meant in his words about Dawud: “For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts”³⁹. The heart has an eye; this eye sees and perceives, and according to the strength of its sight and perception, so much does it grasp of the truth, and so is the deed set upright. We ask Allah to grant us and you seeing hearts.

Ibn al-Mubarak narrated from al-Fudayl from al-Hasan that he mentioned the rich man living in luxury who has authority, who takes wealth and claims there is no punishment in it, and he mentioned the misguided innovator who went out with his sword against the Muslims and applied what Allah revealed about the disbelievers to the Muslims.

Then he said: “Your Sunnah, by the One besides whom there is no god, lies between the two: between the extremist and the negligent, the one living in luxury and the ignorant. So be patient upon it, for the people of the Sunnah were the fewest of people: those who did not go along with the people of luxury in their luxury, nor with the people of innovation in their whims, and they were patient upon their Sunnah until they came to their Lord. So be like that, if Allah wills.”

Then he said: “By Allah, if a man encountered these evils, with this one saying, ‘Come to me,’ and he says, ‘I want nothing but the Sunnah of Muhammad ﷺ,’ seeking it and asking about it, this man is being offered a great reward. So be like that, if Allah the Exalted wills.”

The reason for Allah’s promise of reward in this situation, and Allah knows best, is the strength of the pressures that lead to deviation from the Straight Path. Whoever faces the trial and is patient upon it attains reward and recompense exceeding that of one who was not exposed to such a trial. Patience in hardship and enduring its effects raises a person’s rank with Allah.

For example, a Muslim is rewarded for refraining from fornication in compliance with the command of Allah the Exalted, who says: “And do not approach unlawful sexual intercourse. Indeed, it is ever an immorality and is evil as a way”⁴⁰. But a person who was exposed to direct temptation, for whom the means of falling into fornication were readily available, and to whom it was said, “Come, you” (hayta laka), and who refrained out of fear of Allah, has a reward greater than the reward of one who was not tested with this trial. Both are rewarded, for compliance with the prohibition and resolve upon obedience, and the first has an increase in his reward for his patience and steadfastness in the face of temptation.

For this reason, the hadith about the seven whom Allah will shade in His shade on the Day when there is no shade but His mentions among them a man who was called by a woman of position and beauty, and he said: “I fear Allah”⁴¹. This example shows that one surrounded by incentives to fall into wrongdoing, who remains patient against them, has a greater reward than one who did not face these incentives.

From this standpoint, the reason for the multiplication of the rewards of the later members of the Ummah in some hadiths becomes clear, such as the hadith that mentions their reward reaching “like the reward of fifty of the Companions”⁴². That is because of the abundance of trials and incentives surrounding them, which push them to depart from the truth, whether in beliefs, conduct, deeds, or words. Nevertheless, this multiplication of reward cannot be evidence that the later ones are superior in rank to the earlier ones among the Companions, who were with the Prophet ﷺ, fought alongside him, and supported the religion at its beginnings, may Allah be pleased with them all.

The Classification of the Bearers of Knowledge

Of this meaning is what Abu Nu’aym and others narrated from Kumayl ibn Ziyad from ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: “People are three: a lordly scholar (‘alim rabbani), a learner on a path of salvation, and riffraff (hamaj ra’a’), followers of every crier, who lean with every shout; they have not sought light from the light of knowledge, nor have they taken refuge in a firm support.”

Then he mentioned words on the virtue of knowledge, until he said: “Here there is abundant knowledge, and he pointed with his hand to his chest, if only I could find bearers for it. Rather, I find a quick taker (laqin)⁴³ who is not trustworthy with it⁴⁴, using the instrument of religion for the world, and seeking to prevail (mustazhir)⁴⁵ by Allah’s favors over His servants and by His proofs over His allies; or one who submits to the bearers of truth but has no insight into its recesses, in whose heart doubt is kindled at the first appearance of a doubt; no, neither this nor that; or one greedy for pleasure, easily led by desire; or one infatuated with amassing and hoarding. These are not among the guardians of the religion in anything; the closest likeness to them is grazing cattle. Thus knowledge dies with the death of its bearers. O Allah, yes indeed: the earth is never devoid of one who upholds Allah’s proof, either manifest and well known or fearful and obscure, so that the proofs and clear signs of Allah are not nullified. And how many are they, and where are they? By Allah, they are the fewest in number and the greatest in rank with Allah. Through them Allah preserves His proofs and clear signs until they entrust them to their peers and plant them in the hearts of those like them. Knowledge has brought them suddenly upon the reality of insight; they have touched the spirit of certainty; they have found easy what the luxurious found rugged; they have found intimacy in what the ignorant found desolate; and they have accompanied this world with bodies whose spirits are attached to the highest station. Those are the vicegerents of Allah in His earth and the callers to His religion. Ah… ah, how I long to see them! Go now, if you wish!”⁴⁶.

As for the classification of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, it is a general classification of people’s conditions; this may not hold in all conditions, and it may hold in one condition and not another: a lordly scholar, a learner on a path of salvation, and riffraff, followers of every crier. So they are three.

The first rank, a lordly scholar: this is in the highest of stations and ranks.

The second rank, a learner on a path of salvation: salvation and safety are hoped for him as long as he is occupied with learning.

The third rank, riffraff, followers of every crier: they lean with every shout; they have not sought light from the light of knowledge, nor have they taken refuge in a firm support.

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, says in describing those who received and took knowledge in his time: “Here there is abundant knowledge,” pointing to the knowledge his chest contained, which he received from the Prophet ﷺ. He was among the most knowledgeable of people about the Prophet ﷺ after Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthman, may Allah be pleased with them all. He was among the righteous scholars of the Companions and among the people of perception and insight; from his tender years he grew up in the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so it is no wonder that he said what he said. This is not self-praise, so it does not fall under the saying of Allah the Exalted: “So do not claim yourselves to be pure”⁴⁷. Rather, this is a statement of what a person carries, to urge people to take it, as Yusuf, upon him be peace, said to the king: “Appoint me over the storehouses of the land. Indeed, I will be a knowing guardian”⁴⁸. This is not the forbidden self-praise. The forbidden self-praise is that by which one seeks loftiness, honor, and elevation. As for the commendation that shows the truth, clarifies it, and points to it, this is among what is sought, and it may be obligatory at times when the truth cannot be established without that statement.

He, may Allah be pleased with him, says: “Rather, I find a quick taker who is not trustworthy,” meaning he did not find bearers who satisfied him, may Allah be pleased with him. “Rather, I find a quick taker who is not trustworthy with it, using the instrument of religion for the world.” Before we apply this to people, we must apply it to ourselves. We always concern ourselves with others before concerning ourselves with ourselves. Each one of us should apply these words to himself: are these traits present in him? Is he a quick taker who is not trustworthy? Does he use the instrument of religion for the world, earning by it and attaining by it honor in this world?

‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, says: “or one who submits to the bearers of truth.” This is a second category who is not occupied with knowledge; he submits and follows the people of knowledge. This is the meaning of his saying “one who submits to the bearers of truth,” but without insight; he has no insight, meaning he submits without reflection, thought, contemplation, or insight in what he does and leaves. “Has no insight into its recesses, in whose heart doubt is kindled at the first appearance of a doubt”: there is no firm grounding; it is merely imitation that has no meaning.

“No, neither this nor that”: meaning neither this one is praiseworthy nor that one is praiseworthy.

“Or one greedy for pleasure, easily led by desire”: meaning there is one who is safe from what preceded, but is occupied with the desires of his self. “Easily led by desire”: whenever a flash of desire appears to him, he is led to it. “Or one infatuated with amassing and hoarding. These are not among the guardians of the religion in anything; the closest likeness to them is grazing cattle. Thus knowledge dies with the death of its bearers.”

“O Allah, yes indeed”: “yes indeed” (bala) is to turn away from the preceding words: “the earth is never devoid of one who upholds Allah’s proof.” Meaning that these words he mentioned earlier, may Allah be pleased with him, in describing the state of the transmitters of knowledge do not mean that there are none who are people of insight and who enter into the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: “A group of my Ummah will remain manifest upon the truth; those who oppose them or forsake them will not harm them, until the command of Allah comes”⁴⁹.

The Categories of Those Who Uphold the Proof

The one who upholds the proof is of two kinds: “either manifest and well known or fearful and obscure, so that the proofs and clear signs of Allah are not nullified.” Meaning these are preserved and remain, so that the proofs and clear signs of Allah are not nullified. How would the proofs and clear signs of Allah be nullified? Because if the trustworthy bearers of the Shari’ah died, the text would remain, but the text is preserved only by its bearers, whose chests contain it and whose hearts understand it. So the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its guardian”⁵⁰, contains glad tidings for this Ummah that Allah will preserve among the people of knowledge those through whom knowledge is preserved.

The Preservation of the Qur’an Is the Preservation of Two Things

The preservation of its words: this has continued. That is why the words and letters of the Qur’an are still not differed over among the Muslims since ‘Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, compiled it and the Companions agreed upon that. To this day the Qur’an’s wording is agreed upon among the Muslims; they do not drop a single letter from it. If you went to the farthest reaches of the world in the east or the farthest reaches in the west and recited “All praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds * The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful”⁵¹, and dropped “Sovereign of the Day of Recompense,” the young would correct you before the old. This is part of the preservation of its words. But there is also another preservation without which the preservation of the Book is not complete, and that is the preservation of its meanings.

The preservation of its meanings: this comes only through the preservation of its bearers, who understand and know the secrets and wisdom it contains. This is what the Imam and Caliph ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, pointed to when he said: “O Allah, yes indeed: the earth is never devoid of one who upholds Allah’s proof, either manifest and well known or fearful and obscure, so that the proofs and clear signs of Allah are not nullified. And how many are they, and where are they? By Allah, they are the fewest in number and the greatest in rank with Allah. Through them Allah preserves His proofs and clear signs until they entrust them to their peers.” “This knowledge will be carried from every succeeding generation (khalaf),” that is, from every layer of the layers of the Ummah, “This knowledge will be carried from every succeeding generation by its trustworthy ones”⁵², meaning the best of those in that age. That is why the scholars are the best of the people of the age in every layer of time. What is correct in the hadith is: “This knowledge will be carried from every succeeding generation by its trustworthy ones,” meaning the best of those in it and the finest of its people.

This is what ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, pointed to when he said: “By Allah, they are the fewest in number and the greatest in rank with Allah. Through them Allah preserves His proofs and clear signs until they entrust them to their peers and plant them in the hearts of those like them. Knowledge has brought them suddenly upon the reality of insight.” “Brought them suddenly” (hajama) means it made them land upon and brought them into “the reality of insight.” Insight (al-basira) is perceiving the realities of what Allah the Exalted and His Messenger ﷺ have informed of. Insight is a light that Allah casts into the heart, by which a person sees the path that leads to Allah without blur or crookedness. We ask Allah to make us and you people of insight.

“They have touched the spirit of certainty; they have found easy what the luxurious found rugged.” The luxurious are the people of this world who were excessive in taking from it. Opposite them are those who “have found intimacy in what the ignorant found desolate,” and the ignorant are the people of doubts. “And they have accompanied this world with bodies whose spirits are attached to the highest station,” meaning the Hereafter: they are in this world, but their hearts reach through to what is with Allah. “Those are the vicegerents of Allah in His earth and the callers to His religion.” We ask Allah to make us among them and to favor us with walking their path.

So the Commander of the Believers, may Allah be pleased with him, divided the bearers of knowledge into three categories:

A category who are the people of doubts: those among the bearers of knowledge who have no insight⁵³; doubt is kindled in his heart at the first appearance of a doubt, the doubt seizes him, he falls into bewilderment and uncertainty, and from that he goes out into innovations and misguidance.

And a category who are the people of desires, and their portion is of two kinds:

The first: one who seeks the world through knowledge itself, making knowledge an instrument for gaining the world.

The second: one whose concern is amassing the world, storing it up, and hoarding it. None of these are among the guardians of the religion; they are only like cattle. For this reason Allah the Exalted likened those who were entrusted with the Torah and then did not carry it to a donkey carrying volumes of books, and He likened the evil scholar who detached himself from the signs of Allah, clung to the earth, and followed his whim to a dog; and the dog and the donkey are the basest of animals and the most astray from the way.

The third category of the bearers of knowledge: they are its people, its bearers, its guardians, and those who uphold the proofs and clear signs of Allah. He mentioned that they are the fewest in number and the greatest in rank with Allah, an indication of the scarcity of this category and its strangeness among the bearers of knowledge.

Al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah be pleased with him, divided the bearers of the Qur’an into something close to this classification that ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, made of the bearers of knowledge.

A person should present himself to these categories to see which of them he belongs to, for this is the benefit of such readings and such studies: that a person look at the deficiency he has so as to complete it, and at the good he has so as to increase it.

The remedy for doubt is knowledge: “So ask the people of the message if you do not know”⁵⁴; for doubt fades away and disappears with knowledge, by asking and seeking.

“And a category who are the people of desires,” and he divided them into two kinds, saying: “and their portion is of two kinds: the first: one who seeks the world through knowledge itself, making knowledge an instrument for gaining the world.” This is one who earns by his knowledge and wants wealth through knowledge. This does not mean that everyone who takes something for his knowledge is of this kind. There is a difference between one who learns and occupies himself with knowledge and then takes something for it that helps him toward truth and guidance (this one falls under the saying of the Prophet ﷺ narrated in the Sahih from the hadith of Ibn ‘Abbas: “The most deserving thing for which you take a wage is the Book of Allah”⁵⁵) and the one who has made the world his concern and religion a means of gaining it.

So these people’s concern is the world, not knowledge; their concern is the world, which they earn through religion and take by means of religion. This is the place of blame.

“The second: one whose concern is amassing the world, storing it up, and hoarding it. None of these are among the guardians of the religion; they are only like cattle.” The one who seeks the world through the text of knowledge makes the world his station, aim, and goal, which he earns through knowledge. “One whose concern is amassing the world, storing it up, and hoarding it”: he did not make religion a means of gaining the world, but the world took hold of his heart, until his concern became accumulating enjoyments, lights, and all the ornaments and pleasures in this world. Love of the world blinded his heart, but he did not make religion a means of gaining the world. There is a difference between the two kinds, but both are among the people of desires.

“The third category of the bearers of knowledge: they are its people, its bearers, its guardians, and those who uphold the proofs and clear signs of Allah. He mentioned that they are the fewest in number and the greatest in rank with Allah, an indication of the scarcity of this category and its strangeness among the bearers of knowledge.”

The Kinds of Reciters of the Qur’an

Al-Hasan said: The reciters of the Qur’an are of three kinds: “A kind who took it as merchandise and eat by it; a kind who established its letters but neglected its limits, used it to lord it over the people of their lands, and relied on it to seek office; this type is the majority of the bearers of the Qur’an, may Allah not increase them; and a type who went to the medicine of the Qur’an and placed it upon the disease of their hearts, so they stayed still with it in their prayer niches, bowed with it in their hooded cloaks, felt fear inwardly, and wore grief as a garment. Those are the ones through whom Allah sends down the rain and gives victory over the enemies. By Allah, this type among the bearers of the Qur’an is rarer than red sulfur among the reciters of the Qur’an.”

So he informed that this category, the reciters of the Qur’an who made it a medicine for their hearts so that it stirred fear and grief in them, is rarer than red sulfur among the reciters of the Qur’an.

And the Commander of the Believers ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, described this category of the bearers of knowledge with qualities, among them that knowledge brought them suddenly upon the reality of insight.

Then Ibn Rajab, may Allah have mercy on him, mentioned, close to the classification of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, what al-Hasan al-Basri mentioned, may Allah have mercy on him; he was a man of eloquence, knowledge, and devotion, and his words, may Allah have mercy on him, have a light resembling the words of the prophets and the Companions.

Al-Hasan said: The reciters of the Qur’an are of three kinds: “A kind who took it as merchandise and eat by it,” meaning they earn by it and use it as a means of gaining more of the world.

“And a kind who established its letters but neglected its limits, used it to lord it over the people of their lands, and relied on it to seek office,” meaning these people’s trial is not in wealth but in standing.

The first kind’s trial is in wealth: he made the Qur’an a place of earning. The second made the Qur’an a means of seeking loftiness, elevation, and authority over people. Ibn Rajab says: “This type is the majority of the bearers of the Qur’an, may Allah not increase them.”

The third kind, and it is the noblest of them, he said: “and a type who went to the medicine of the Qur’an and placed it upon the disease of their hearts.” Allah the Exalted says: “O mankind, there has come to you instruction from your Lord and healing for what is in the breasts”⁵⁶. That is why the Qur’an is a medicine for hearts, since it heals them of their diseases and ills, their worries, their sorrows, and their filth. Whoever wants to treat his heart, let him hold to the Mighty Qur’an. Keeping up the recitation of the Qur’an and reflecting on it is among the greatest means by which hearts are treated. We ask Allah to heal our hearts with His remembrance.

“So they stayed still (rakadu) with it in their prayer niches,” meaning they became tranquil; stillness (al-rukud) here means tranquility, and it is the serenity the companion of the Qur’an gains, which carries him to obedience and worship. “Bowed with it in their hooded cloaks, felt fear inwardly, and wore grief as a garment,” meaning the effect of fear of the Hereafter, fear of Allah, Exalted and Majestic, appeared on them. Grief here does not mean the distress that the devil casts into the hearts of the believers; it is the grief that means fear, awe, and readiness for the Hereafter. “Those are the ones through whom Allah sends down the rain and gives victory over the enemies. By Allah, this type among the bearers of the Qur’an is rarer than red sulfur,” meaning rarer than rare. Red sulfur is a proverb for something whose existence is scarce and rare.

He says: “So he informed that this category, the reciters of the Qur’an who made it a medicine for their hearts so that it stirred fear and grief in them,” and that they are few.

The Fruit of Knowledge Is Knowing Allah the Exalted, Fearing Him, and Being in Awe of Him

Then he began to comment on what ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, mentioned in describing the bearers of the Book who are its people and uphold it. He says, may Allah have mercy on him:

The meaning of this is that knowledge guided them to the greatest aim, which is knowing Allah; so they feared Him and loved Him, until that made easy for them everything that was hard for others.

Those who stopped with this world and its glitter, were deluded by it, and whose hearts did not touch the knowledge of Allah, His greatness, and His majesty did not reach what they reached. So they found easy what the luxurious found rugged; for the luxurious person immersed in the desires, adornment, and pleasures of the world finds it hard to leave its pleasures and desires, because he has no substitute for the world’s pleasures if he leaves them, so he cannot bear to leave them.

These people have in their hearts the greater substitute in what they have reached of the delight of knowing Allah, loving Him, and revering Him, as al-Hasan used to say: “The beloved of Allah are those who inherited the good life and tasted its bliss through what they reached of intimate converse with their Beloved, and through what they found of the delight of His love in their hearts…”, among words in this meaning too long to mention here.

These people found intimacy in what the ignorant found desolate only because those ignorant of Allah feel desolate at leaving the world and its desires, since they know nothing else, so it is their intimacy. These people feel desolate at that and find intimacy with Allah and His remembrance, knowing Him, loving Him, and reciting His Book; and those ignorant of Allah feel desolate at that and find no intimacy in it.

This comment is of the utmost importance for showing the fruit of knowledge. The fruit of knowledge is knowing Allah the Exalted; the fruit of knowledge is the perfection of knowledge of Allah, exalted in His highness. That is why he says, may Allah have mercy on him, in explaining the words of Imam ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him: “among them that knowledge brought them suddenly upon the reality of insight,” upon its utmost, its core, and its essence.

“The meaning of this is that knowledge guided them to the greatest aim,” which everyone who seeks knowledge and occupies himself with it should keep present in his mind: knowing Allah the Exalted. Knowing Allah the Exalted is the root of the sciences; knowing Allah the Exalted is the wellspring of good things; knowing Allah the Exalted is the happiness of this world and salvation in the Hereafter. That is why the first of the sciences that Allah the Exalted commanded His Messenger with was His saying, Exalted and Majestic: “So know that there is no deity except Allah and ask forgiveness for your sin”⁵⁷. The highest thing a believer must strive in, and spend his effort and energy to attain, is knowledge of Allah the Exalted, because through knowledge of Allah the Exalted the servant attains every happiness. That is why the Prophet ﷺ was the happiest of people and the most devoted in worship, because he was the most knowledgeable of creation about his Lord ﷺ. He informed of this, saying: “The most God-fearing of you and the most knowledgeable of you about Allah is I”⁵⁸. Then he mentioned the fruit, saying: “By Allah, I am the most God-fearing of you toward Allah and the most in awe of Him”⁵⁹. Knowledge of Allah the Exalted is the root of all understanding, the root of good things; from it issues all righteousness and good. That is why those whom Imam ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, described, “knowledge brought them suddenly upon the reality of insight,” came to know the perfections that belong to the Lord. They came to know the Lord they worship, for whom they pray, for whom they give zakah, for whom they fast, and for whose sake they perform Hajj. They knew that, and this was the utmost of knowledge, which enabled them to realize the utmost of servitude, outward and inward.

This is unlike one who worships while ignorant of the worth of his Lord, Exalted and Majestic; however hard he strives in outward deeds, the heart remains empty of the delight of servitude. That is why the Prophet ﷺ says, as in the two Sahihs from the hadith of Anas: “Three things: whoever has them finds the sweetness of faith”⁶⁰, its delight, which makes every other delight unnecessary. That is why the delight of obedience is never equaled by any of the delights of this world. So for those whose knowledge of Allah is complete and who delight in knowing Him, all pleasures are as nothing.

This is what Imam al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on him, pointed to when he said: “If kings and the sons of kings knew what we are in, they would fight us for it with swords”⁶¹, meaning they would wage war on us over it and fight for it with swords. The source and cause of this happiness is knowledge of Allah the Exalted. According to the amount of knowledge of Allah a person has, and of knowledge of the perfections that belong to Him, so much happiness will he have, and so much will he realize servitude. So we must strive to come to know Allah the Exalted. Whoever wants to come to know Allah the Exalted should turn to the Qur’an and to what has come from the best of creation ﷺ; through that he will know the perfections that belong to Allah, Exalted and Majestic, and then good things will come.

Fear only arises from veneration and reverence. He said: “so they feared Him and loved Him.” When they feared Him and loved Him, everything became light for them, even their own souls became light for them. That is why they offer them in the path of His good pleasure, and if His pleasure can only be attained by sacrificing their souls, they sacrifice their souls for Allah, exalted in His highness. That is why he says: “until that made easy for them everything that was hard for others.” Hence you see one of them for whom performing the prayer is as heavy as if it were a mountain on his shoulders, while you find another who cannot sleep at ease, awaiting the time of prayer with longing and joy, his heart attached to it, waiting for one prayer after another. What made this one heavy-footed and that one full of longing and joy? The reason is that the second grasped something tremendous and understood a deep secret that made him see his rest and tranquility in prayer. So what seemed hard for the first became easy for him, and what was difficult became simple, because he knows the goal he strives toward and is certain of the reward awaiting him. That is why al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on him, says in commenting on the saying of the Exalted describing the servants of the Most Merciful: “Their sides part from [their] beds; they supplicate their Lord in fear and aspiration”⁶². “Part” means they draw away: the sides draw away from the beds. Why? Seeking to be alone with Allah the Exalted and to converse with Him intimately. These people’s sides do not settle; when they sleep, you find their sleep is the sleep of the anxious, who fears that something will pass him by. This is their state, but not in dealing with creation nor in attaining a worldly matter; it is in their intimate converse with Allah the Exalted. That is why al-Hasan says: “For some matter,” meaning there is a particular thing, “the people kept their night awake”⁶³. They kept it awake because they tasted a delight that others do not find. This delight is the secret of the people of obedience turning eagerly to their obedience, and it is the secret of their patience and endurance in bearing hardships to attain obedience to Allah the Exalted. It is among Allah the Exalted’s favors to the servant that He shows him the result of his deed in this world before the Hereafter: “He has tasted the flavor of faith who is pleased with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, and with Muhammad as Messenger”⁶⁴. So those for whom everything that was hard for others was made easy, this is the fruit of their knowledge of Allah. When they knew the perfections that belong to Him, and knew that this world and the Hereafter are in His hand, and that He gives and withholds, their hearts were utterly attached to Him, watching for Him and seeking His pleasure, because if He is pleased, everything becomes easy, and if He is angry with the servant, there is no success for him either in his world or in his Hereafter.

Be in This World as Though You Were a Stranger or a Wayfarer

Among their qualities with which the Commander of the Believers ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, described them is that they accompanied this world with bodies whose spirits are attached to the highest gaze⁶⁵. This is an indication that they did not take it as a homeland, nor were they content with it as a residence or dwelling; they took it only as a passage and did not make it a place of settlement.

All the Books and messengers enjoined this. Allah the Exalted informed in His Book of the believer of Pharaoh’s family that he said to his people in admonishing them: “O my people, this worldly life is only [temporary] enjoyment, and indeed, the Hereafter, that is the home of [permanent] settlement” (Ghafir 40:39).

The Prophet ﷺ said to Ibn ‘Umar: “Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a wayfarer; for it is as if you are with the world and were never in it, and with the Hereafter and never left it”⁶⁶… And in a narration: “and count yourself among the people of the graves.”

Among the counsels narrated from the Messiah, upon him be peace, is that he said to his companions: “Cross over it, and do not build it up.”

And from him, upon him be peace, that he said: “Who is it that builds a house on the waves of the sea?! That is the world, so do not take it as a place of settlement.”

This is the secret of the Prophet ﷺ joining the two kinds of pleasures. He says: “Of your world, women and perfume have been made beloved to me, and the delight of my eye has been placed in prayer”⁶⁷. The Prophet ﷺ did not neglect enjoyment of this world, nor did he make the world something to be turned away from entirely. Rather he said: “Of your world, women and perfume have been made beloved to me,” and this is a natural matter that souls desire and hearts incline to. But where is the true, lasting, firm pleasure that is the utmost of settledness and calm? He says ﷺ: “and the delight of my eye has been placed in prayer.” The delight (qurra) of the eye is its calm, its joy, its tranquility; nothing is described as delighting one’s eye unless he has attained his aim to its utmost and its end.

When the Prophet ﷺ saw something of this world that pleased him, he would say: “Here I am (labbayk); indeed, the true life is the life of the Hereafter”⁶⁸, to turn the soul from inclining toward or attaching itself to these appearances and ornaments. However delightful they may be, they do not equal anything of the bliss and pleasures in the Hereafter.

The strangeness that the Prophet ﷺ commanded in his saying, “Be in this world as though you were a stranger,” means your state is like that of the stranger arriving at a place he is not familiar with, in which he does not dwell or settle, because he has no share in the goods that are in it. This is how a person should be in this world: like the stranger, not turning to anything other than his goal, aim, and objective, which is reaching his destination. This is how a person should be on his journey in this world. We did not come to this world to settle in it; we came to it only to build it up with obedience and excellence, to seize from it what Allah the Exalted makes easy of the kinds of righteousness, obedience, and doing good, with which we provision ourselves for the greatest meeting, the meeting with the Lord of the worlds: “And take provisions, but indeed, the best provision is fear of Allah”⁶⁹. So this should be the concern, and everything else among other matters is only marginal, only surplus concern, not part of the core concern or the core of what a person attends to.

The believer in this world is like a stranger passing through a town he is not settled in, longing for his own land, his concern being to return to it and to provision himself with what will bring him along his way to his homeland. He does not compete with the settled people of that town in their honor, nor is he distressed by the humiliation that befalls him among them, because he is not a resident, and soon he will depart.

Gloom and Dejection Are Not Among the Qualities of the Believers

Al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad said: “The believer in this world is concerned and grieved; his concern is the repair (maramma) of his provisions (jahaz)”. Maramma means repairing, restoring, and preparing his provisions with which he equips himself on his journey. Al-jahaz here is what he equips himself with for the meeting with his Lord; the utmost of what he cares about is readying and preparing what will help him reach his goal. His saying “concerned” means that he carries a concern; and “grieved”: what is meant by grief here is that he has turned away from everything that would distract him. Grief here does not mean gloom and dejection, for gloom and dejection are not among the qualities of the believers. Rather, Allah the Exalted expands breasts through obedience and excellence: “So is one whose breast Allah has expanded to [accept] Islam and he is upon [a] light from his Lord [like one whose heart rejects it]? Then woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of Allah”⁷⁰. And the other verse: “So whoever Allah wants to guide, He expands his breast to [contain] Islam; and whoever He wants to misguide, He makes his breast tight and constricted as though he were climbing into the sky”⁷¹. The Qur’an and guidance are among the greatest delights of hearts and their happiness. Allah the Exalted says: “Indeed, the righteous will be in pleasure”⁷², and they are in bliss in this world before the Hereafter. A group of scholars, among them Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, said: “In this world there is a paradise; whoever does not enter it will not enter the Paradise of the Hereafter”⁷³.

The paradise of this world is that overflowing happiness the believers live when they taste the delight of obedience and excellence, harmony with worship, and turning to Allah the Exalted with tranquil hearts. It is a delight that surpasses all the delights of this world; nothing equals or matches it. Whoever strives in obedience despite the hardship that may surround it, keeps away from disobedience despite the glitter and pleasure it may appear to have, and then is patient and steadfast upon that, Allah the Exalted compensates him in his heart with a bliss beyond description and a tranquility whose extent cannot be grasped. This bliss of the heart is loftier and deeper than any comfort a person may find in leaving obedience or any passing enjoyment he may obtain by committing disobedience.

That is why Allah the Exalted says in His Book: “Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts”⁷⁴. Letting the gaze roam among pleasures is something souls incline to, and some people, when a sight passes them by and they feel that something of these forbidden pleasures has escaped them, feel that they have lost something, so you find them seeking to make up for what they lost.

Whereas if he sees what is forbidden to him and turns his gaze away, or looking at what is forbidden to him is made easy for him and he lowers his gaze, he attains in his heart many times the delight he would attain by looking at what Allah has forbidden. That is why Allah the Exalted says: “That is purer for them.” Look at the result of lowering the gaze. Allah the Exalted says “That,” meaning lowering the gaze and guarding the private parts, “is purer for them”: purer for their hearts and cleaner for them. And the purity here does not only mean that it stays upright in obedience; rather it is more delightful, more gladdening, more blissful, more joyful, sweeter, and better for his heart than attaining the forbidden things he desires, because these forbidden things are arrows that strike his heart.

That is why the Prophet ﷺ said: “Trials are presented to hearts like a reed mat, stick by stick; any heart that absorbs them gets a black spot on it”⁷⁵. A white garment on which a black spot is placed will certainly be affected by it, then a second, then a third, until it turns black, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “until they become two hearts: one white like a smooth stone,” white in color, and like the smooth stone in strength, “and the other dark and dusky like an overturned jug, recognizing no good and rejecting no evil.”

Al-Hasan said: “The believer in this world is like a stranger: he is not distressed by its humiliation and does not compete for its honor; he has his affair and the people have theirs”. This is the state of the stranger: he is not distressed by its humiliation, because soon he will depart; and he does not compete for its honor, because its honor, however high and lofty it rises, is bound to vanish, unlike the honor and humiliation of the Hereafter, for that is an honor that does not end and a humiliation that is not lifted. We ask Allah to honor us and you with obedience to Him.

In reality, the believer in this world is a stranger because his father was in the abode of permanence and then left it, so his concern is to return to his first dwelling; he forever yearns for his homeland from which he was expelled⁷⁶, as it is said: love of the homeland is part of faith⁷⁷. This passage explains why the feeling of strangeness is an innate feeling: man on this earth is a newcomer, not native; his presence on this earth is incidental. Allah the Exalted created Adam and settled him in His Garden. The scholars differ over the garden in which Adam dwelt: was it the Garden of Eternity, or another garden that Allah the Exalted created, Allah knowing best about it? There are two opinions, and most scholars hold that it was the Garden of Eternity, and that his entering it was an entry of trial and testing, since Allah the Exalted forbade him to eat from the tree; he left it when he contravened the command of Allah the Exalted and obeyed his enemy. So his coming to this world is a coming of trial, and then he will end up either at his first abode or in punishment and Hellfire; we ask Allah for safety and well-being. This is in the Hereafter, for people will be divided into these two groups: “A party will be in Paradise and a party in the Blaze”⁷⁸.

The Categories of the Believers in the Attachment of the Heart

The believers in this regard are of categories: among them is one whose heart is attached to Paradise, and among them is one whose heart is attached to his Creator, and these are the knowers (al-‘arifun). Perhaps the Commander of the Believers ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, was pointing only to this category; for the knowers’ bodies are in this world and their hearts are with the Master. That is, the believers are not in one state in their gaze and the attachment of their hearts to the Hereafter and to the highest gaze. The highest gaze, we said, is either toward Paradise and what Allah has prepared for His allies, or toward Allah, exalted in His highness. Among them is one whose heart is attached to Paradise, which is what Allah the Exalted has prepared for His allies and His party; and among them is one whose heart is attached to his Creator, and these are the knowers: this one’s heart is attached to looking at Allah, awaiting that bliss and hoping for that meeting. And his saying “the Commander of the Believers ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, was pointing only to this category” means those whose hearts are attached to Allah the Exalted: for the knowers’ bodies are in this world and their hearts are with the Master, their hearts are with the Master in concern, gaze, expectation, thought, hope, and the like.

It came in Sahih al-Bukhari from the hadith of Sharik ibn Abi Namir, from ‘Ata’, from Abu Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “Whoever shows enmity to a friend (wali) of Mine, I have declared war on him. My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with voluntary deeds until I love him. When I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. If he asks Me, I will surely give him, and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely grant him refuge. I do not hesitate in anything I do as I hesitate over the soul of the believer: he hates death, and I hate to displease him.”⁷⁹ This shows Allah the Exalted’s guardianship of His allies; that is the one to whom help comes, and we ask Allah the Exalted to make us and you among the people of help.

The Kinds of Strangeness: Outward and Inward

The people of this affair are the strangers, and their strangeness is the rarest strangeness, for strangeness, according to the people of the spiritual path, is of two kinds: outward and inward.

The outward: the strangeness of the righteous among the corrupt, the strangeness of the truthful among the people of showing off and hypocrisy, the strangeness of the scholars among the people of ignorance and bad character, the strangeness of the scholars of the Hereafter among the scholars of this world who have been stripped of awe and dread, and the strangeness of the renunciants among those who desire what runs out and does not last.

As for the inward strangeness, it is the strangeness of aspiration (himma), which is the strangeness of the knowers among all creation, even the scholars, the worshippers, and the renunciants; for those stop with their knowledge, their worship, and their renunciation, while these stop with the One they worship, not turning their hearts away from Him.

Abu Sulayman al-Darani used to say in describing them: “Their aspiration is other than the aspiration of people, their desire for the Hereafter is other than the desire of people, and their supplication is other than the supplication of people.” He was asked about the best of deeds, and he wept and said: “That He looks into your heart and does not see you wanting anything of this world or the Hereafter other than Him.”

Yahya ibn Mu’adh said: “The renunciant is the stranger of this world, and the knower is the stranger of the Hereafter.” He indicates that the renunciant is a stranger among the people of this world, and the knower is a stranger among the people of the Hereafter: the worshippers and the renunciants do not know him; only one like him, whose aspiration is like his aspiration, knows him. Perhaps all these strangenesses, or many of them, or some of them, come together for the knower, and then do not ask about his strangeness; for the knowers are apparent to the people of this world and of the Hereafter.

Yahya ibn Mu’adh said: “The worshipper is well known, and the knower is concealed.” And perhaps the knower’s state is hidden even from himself, because of the hiddenness of his condition and his poor opinion of himself. Ibrahim ibn Adham said: “I do not see this matter except in a man who does not know it of himself and whom people do not know.”

Strangeness has categories, degrees, and ranks; it is not of one level, but varies according to the variation in people’s conditions. That is why he said, may Allah have mercy on him: strangeness, according to the people of the spiritual path, is of two kinds, outward and inward. Outward, meaning people witness it with their eyes; and inward, which relates to the deeds and states of the hearts. This is a matter whose reality cannot be grasped in the variation among people; the variation in it is immense. This variation between people’s hearts in realizing servitude is matched by what follows from it of recompense and reward: as far apart as heaven and earth in merit and preponderance. The inward strangeness is the strangeness of the deeds of the hearts, and these people stop with the One they worship. This knowledge is a high, great station; it is the utmost of knowledge and its end, meaning it is the purpose of all understanding and sciences: that a person see things as they really are, and that the film, barriers, and murkiness that prevent him from seeing be cleared from his eye.

When Abu Sulayman al-Darani was asked about the best of deeds, he wept and said: That Allah, Exalted and Majestic, looks into your heart and does not see you wanting anything of this world or the Hereafter other than Him. This is the rank of sincerity of which Allah the Exalted said: “Indeed, We chose them for an exclusive quality: remembrance of the home [of the Hereafter]. And indeed they are, to Us, among the chosen and outstanding”⁸⁰. We ask Allah to make us reach these stations.

This is the meaning of the words of Ibrahim ibn Adham: “I do not see this matter,” meaning reaching the station of complete knowledge of Allah the Exalted, “except in a man who does not know it of himself,” meaning that looking at his own deeds has melted away in his heart, and he no longer sees his deeds as anything, nor sees for himself any standing or rank; “and whom people do not know”: he is hidden from them, his deeds do not appear to them; rather he conceals them from them as he conceals his bad deeds from them. When one reflects on this, he says: “O Lord, Your pardon,” and “We ask You, O Lord, to keep us safe from showing off.” Our eagerness to hide our deeds, when there is no benefit in showing them, should be like our eagerness to hide our bad deeds. If we reach this station, we will have reached a great station of sincerity to Allah, Exalted and Majestic. We ask Allah to grant us true knowledge of Him and great sincerity to Him.

In the hadith of Sa’d from the Prophet ﷺ: “Allah loves the servant who is hidden and God-fearing”⁸¹.

In the hadith of Mu’adh from the Prophet ﷺ: “Allah loves among His servants the hidden, the God-fearing, who when present are not recognized and when absent are not missed. Those are the imams of guidance and the lamps of knowledge”⁸².

From ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: “Glad tidings to every servant who did not know people and whom people did not know, but whom Allah knew with His good pleasure. Those are the lamps of guidance; every dark trial is cleared away from them.”

Ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “Be new of heart and worn of garment, lamps in the darkness; hidden from the people of the earth and known among the people of heaven.”

These are the most select of the people of strangeness. Whoever of them appears to people is among them with his body, while his heart is attached to the highest gaze.

His saying “whoever of them appears” means whoever is compelled to appear in order to achieve a benefit and attain a lawful interest; this appearance does not distract him from his heart being attached to Allah the Exalted. He awaits neither benefit nor harm from people. How true is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ to the Bedouin man who came and said to him: “O Muhammad, give me, for my praise adorns and my blame disgraces,” meaning if I praise, my praise flies to the horizons, and if I blame, my blame disgraces the one I blame. What did the Prophet ﷺ say to him? He said: “That is Allah”⁸³, meaning the One whose praise adorns and whose blame disgraces is Allah; as for creation, their praise does not adorn and their blame does not disgrace.

Most of them are not strong enough to mix with creation, so they flee to solitude to find intimacy with their Beloved; that is why most of them prolonged their seclusion. “One of them was asked: Do you not feel lonely? He said: How can I feel lonely when He says: I am the companion of whoever remembers Me.” Another said: “Does anyone feel lonely with Allah?” And from one of them: “Whoever feels lonely in his solitude, that is because of the little intimacy he has with his Lord.”

Yahya ibn Mu’adh often kept to seclusion and solitude, and his brother reproached him, saying to him: If you are one of the people, you cannot do without people. Yahya said: If you are one of the people, you cannot do without Allah. It was said to him: If you abandon creation, with whom will you live? He said: With the One for whose sake I abandoned them.

Ibn Ghazwan was reproached for his solitude, and he said: “I have found the rest of my heart in sitting with the One who has what I need.”

Because of their strangeness from people, some of them were perhaps accused of madness, because their state was so far from the states of people, as was said of Uways.

Uways al-Qarani, about whom the Prophet ﷺ said: “He will come to you among the reinforcements of the people of Yemen,” and he said to ‘Umar: if you meet him, ask him to seek forgiveness for you. When he came to him, ‘Umar recognized him and said: I will write for you to the governor of Kufa, since he was heading to Kufa. He said: Being among the common dust of people is more beloved to me. So he is pointing to him, may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him; he is the best of the Successors; the Prophet ﷺ said of him: “the best of the Successors.” And what was the deed the Prophet ﷺ mentioned? He had a mother to whom he was dutiful; this was his deed by which he reached that lofty station. We ask Allah of His bounty.

Abu Muslim al-Khawlani was constantly devoted to remembrance; his tongue never slackened. A man said to those sitting with him: Is your companion mad? Abu Muslim said: O son of my brother! Rather, this is the cure for madness. Meaning, the cure for madness is the remembrance of Allah, as Allah, Blessed and Exalted, said: “Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured”⁸⁴.

Al-Hasan said in describing them: “When the ignorant one looks at them, he thinks them sick, but there is no sickness in the people.”

And he says: “They have been mixed up, and indeed a tremendous matter has mixed with the people. Far from it! By Allah, they are busy, away from your world.”

It is established from him ﷺ that he was asked about ihsan (excellence), and he said: “That you worship Allah as though you see Him, and if you do not see Him, He sees you”⁸⁵.

And may Allah send blessings upon our master Muhammad, his family, and his Companions, and grant them peace; and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

In concluding this summary, we ask Allah the Exalted to grant us success in walking in the footsteps of the strangers who are righteous when the people are corrupt, who revive what has been effaced of the landmarks of the Sunnah, and who stand firm upon the truth despite the strangeness of the religion and the scarcity of helpers. We also ask Him to reward Imam Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali with the best of rewards for his blessed efforts in supporting the Sunnah and explaining its meanings, and to grant abundant reward to our shaykh, Dr. Khalid al-Muslih, for his valuable explanation, which has benefited students of knowledge and Muslims in general.

This brief work is only an attempt to bring things closer; the original explanation of Shaykh Khalid al-Muslih remains the reference for anyone who wishes to go further. We ask Allah to make this work purely for His Noble Face, and to make it beneficial; and praise be to Allah, by whose favor good deeds are completed.