How to Stop Sinning by Ibn al-Qayyim Explained by al-Badr – Part Two: Love
May 30, 2024 § 1 Comment
“Imām Ibn al-Qayyim said, ‘No. 2. Loving Allaah ﷻ. So a person leaves sinning against Him out of love for Him, because ‘A lover obeys his beloved.’ And this is because the best [kind of] abstention is the type carried out by someone doing it out of love, just like the best [kind of] obedience is the type done out of love—for there lies a huge chasm between the abstention of a lover and his obedience and that of someone who does so out of fear of the punishment.’
Explaining the above, al-Badr said, ‘The second incentive: the love of Allaah ﷻ. As He said, ‘… but the ˹true˺ believers love Allah even more.’ [2:165]
So when a servant keeps his heart busy with Allaah’s Love it diverts him from falling into things that anger Him ﷻ, since acts of disobedience and sins cause a servant to miss out on his share and portion of Allaah’s Love for him in proportion to the sins and mistakes he falls into. And because true love of Allaah requires and demands obeying His Orders and keeping away from what angers Him, as He said, ‘Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “If you ˹sincerely˺ love Allaah, then follow me, Allaah will love you and forgive your sins.’ [3:31]
And that is why it was said:
You disobey the Lord while feigning his Love
How preposterous, [utterly] unprecedented an analogy
If your love were true you would have obeyed Him
For indeed a lover submits to his beloved.’”
Bawāʿith al-Khalāṣ minadh-Dhunūb, pp. 10-11.
Al-Badr Explaining Ibn al-Qayyim’s Words on How to Stop Sinning – Part One
May 27, 2024 § Leave a comment
Imām Ibn al-Qayyim ﵀ said, “Chapter: Strengthening One’s Incentives to [Practise] the Dīn is Done Through a Number of Ways.
To hold Allaah ﷻ in such veneration—knowing that He is watching and listening—that it stops you from sinning. And whoever’s heart bears witness to His Greatness will find that it will not [then] obey him in that [sin] at all.”
Explaining the above, Al-Badr said:
“The first incentive to leave sins: Venerating Allaah and regarding Him to be too Great.
And that is where a person witnesses Allaah’s Majesty and Greatness in his heart, as He said, “They have not shown Allaah His proper reverence—when on the Day of Judgment the ˹whole˺ earth will be in His Grip, and the heavens will be rolled up in His Right Hand. Glorified and Exalted is He above what they associate ˹with Him˺!” [39:67] and He said, “What is the matter with you that you are not in awe of the Majesty of Allaah? When He truly created you in stages ˹of development˺?” [71:13-14]
Explaining the āyah, Ibn ʿAbbās ﵁ said, “What is the matter with you that you do not exalt/glorify Him as He ought to be?”
Al-Qurṭubī ﵀ said about, “وقارا”, ‘i.e., stage after stage until creation was completed … so whoever did this and had the ability to do so deserves that you exalt and glorify Him.’
The effect that witnessing Allaah’s Majesty and Greatness in one’s heart has on a person can be seen in what happened to the noble Companion, Jubair ibn Muṭʿim ﵁, when he heard some of the verses that were talking about Allaah’s Greatness, that He is the Creator, the Provider, and the One who governs all creation—this all led him ﵁ to enter Islām. He said, ‘I heard the Prophet reciting [Sūrah] aṭ-Ṭūr in Maghrib, when he got to the verse that said, ‘Or were they created by nothing, or are they ˹their own˺ creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? In fact, they have no certainty. Or do they possess the treasuries of your Lord, or are they in control ˹of everything˺?’ [52:35-37] ‘It was as if my heart were about to take flight.’ [Bukhārī] And in another wording, ‘And that was when belief was first planted in my heart.’ [Bukhārī]
So when a person’s soul whispers to him to commit a sin he should use his heart to witness Allaah’s Greatness and Power and Might/Omnipotence, and that He is privy to all actions and statements. So when a servant feels or perceives that in his heart then it is inevitable that he will refrain from committing sins, with Allaah’s Help.
Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith al-Ḥāfī said, ‘If the people pondered over Allaah’s Greatness they wouldn’t disobey Him’”
Bawāʿith al-Khalāṣ minadh-Dhunūb, pp. 7-9.
Their Ṣalāh
May 26, 2024 § 1 Comment
“From ʿAlī ibn Abī Ḥamlah and al-Awzāʿī and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kuraib who said, ‘ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbās used to make a thousand prostrations a day.’”
Tahdhīb Kutub az-Zuhd al-Musnadah, no. 2178.
Ṭāwūs and His Companions
May 24, 2024 § 2 Comments
“From Ibn Abī Rawwād who said, ‘When Ṭāwūs and his companions would finish praying ʿAsr, they would turn to the qiblah and not speak to anyone and then they would humbly implore Allaah in duʿā.”
Az-Zuhd, 2209.
“Soon.”
May 23, 2024 § Leave a comment
“‘Saʿīd ibn Jubair would finish reciting the Qurʾān every two days …’ ‘He entered the Kaʿbah and finished the Qurʾān in one rak’ah …’ ‘He would cry until he became bleary-eyed …’ ‘Explaining The Most High’s Statement: ‘Nay! Man desires to continue committing sins.’ [75:5] he said, ‘He says, ‘Soon, I will repent.’’’”
Tahdhīb Kutub az-Zuhd al-Musnadah, Nos. 1622-23 and 1626.
Ibn Taymiyyah on Why the Heart was Created
May 22, 2024 § Leave a comment
بل القلب لم يخلق إلا لذكر الله فما سوى ذلك فليس موضعا له
The Shaikh of the Shaikhs of Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, Allaah have mercy on him, said, “The heart was only created to remember Allaah. Everything else has no place there.”
Risālatun fil-Qalb wa annahū Khuliqa li-Yuʿlama bihil-Ḥaqq wa Yustaʿmala fīmā Khuliqa lahū, p. 27.
The Level of Caution Ibn Baaz’s Teacher and the Mufti Before Him, Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm, Would Go to When Asked Questions, Unlike Today’s Juhhāl who Don’t Even Reach the Level of Students of Knowledge
May 20, 2024 § Leave a comment
Shaikh Ḥamad al-Farhūd said, “In 1958 in Jeddah I injured my leg and it got put in a cast, I couldn’t move so I used to perform tayammam [dry-ablution] and then pray not facing the qiblah. When I came to Riyad I asked the Shaikh [Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm] as to whether my prayer was valid or whether I should make it up. So he spent a few days looking into it and then never gave me a fatwā on the issue.”
Sīrah Samāḥatish-Shaikh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, point no. 15.
Al-Badr’s Book ‘Some of the Salaf’s Advice for the Youth.’ · Number 2 · Taking Knowledge from Senior Scholars
May 19, 2024 § Leave a comment
Al-Badr said:
“From Ḥammād ibn Zaid who said, ‘We visited Anas ibn Sīrīn when he was sick, so he said, ‘Young men, fear Allaah. Look carefully at who you are taking these ḥadīths from because they are from your religion.’’
This is a great will [and piece of advice], i.e., that the youth who is going ahead and seeking knowledge and learning ḥadīth should be learning at the hands of the trustworthy people of knowledge and those grounded in it, the people of insight and expertise, those senior in knowledge, he should not be taking knowledge from everyone, but from the people of the Sunnah whose expertise in it is established.
From Ibn Shawdhab who said, ‘One of Allaah’s Blessings on a young person is that when he begins to follow the Sunnah he gets together with a person of the Sunnah who carries him along on it.’
From ʿAmr ibn Qais al-Mulāʾī who said, ‘If you see a youth with Ahlus-Sunnah from the onset then have hope for him, and if you see him with the people of innovation then despair of him, for a young person will follow what he was first raised on.’
From ʿAmr ibn Qais who said, ‘The young person grows, if he favours sitting with the people of knowledge then he is on the verge of being saved, but if he inclines to other people then he is on the verge of being destroyed.’”
Min Waṣāys-Salaf lish-Shabāb, pp. 8-9.
The Humility of Shaikh Ibn Baaz’s Teacher and the Mufti Before him, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm
May 18, 2024 § Leave a comment
وكان إذا أثنى عليه أحد أو مدحه يقاطعه بقوله: اللهُ يَتُوْبُ عَلَيْنَا، اللهُ يَعْفُو عَنَّا
“When someone would praise or compliment him he would cut him off by saying, ‘May Allaah turn in Mercy to us, may Allaah pardon us.’”
Sīrah Samāḥatish-Shaikh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, p. 23.
Ibn Baaz’s Teacher’s Humility, Shaikh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Compare it to Today’s Juhhāl who Don’t Mind Having Titles They Don’t Deserve Before Their Names
May 17, 2024 § Leave a comment
The Muftī of Saudi Arabia before Ibn Baaz was Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, may Allaah have mercy on them both. Shaikh Ḥamad al-Farhūd said about him:
“I accompanied him for more than eighteen years and never once did I hear him refer to himself as ‘Shaikh’ or ‘Mufti,’ … when he would mention his [own] name he would mention it without any titles, except for one time only. And that was when he hosted a dignitary from the Gulf who was a good man. So he wanted me to call the hotel so that he [could speak to them and] make a reservation for the guest [from the Gulf]. When he spoke to the receptionist, who was Egyptian [and he asked for his name], he told him, ‘Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm,’ but he never recognised him. So he said, ‘Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl ash-Shaikh,’ but he still didn’t recognise him. So he repeated it a number of times but with the same result. So then he said, ‘The Mufti [of Saudi Arabia].’ Then when he ended the call he said, ‘May Allaah grant him guidance, he forced me to say that word [i.e., Mufti’].’”
Sīrah Samāḥatish-Shaikh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, p. 23.
Al-Badr’s Book ‘Some of the Salaf’s Advice for the Youth.’ · Number 1 · Seeing Righteous Role-models
May 16, 2024 § Leave a comment
Shaikh ʿAbdur-Razzāq al-Badr said, “From Abul-Aḥwaṣ who said, ‘Abū Isḥāq [whose name is] ʿAmr as-Subaiʿī said:
‘Young men, take advantage [of your youth]: hardly a night will pass by me without me reciting a thousand āyahs. And I read Sūrah al-Baqarah in one rakʿah and I fast the sacred months [Ashurul-Ḥurum] and the three days of every month and Mondays and Thursdays.’ Then he recited, ‘And proclaim the blessings of your Lord.’ [93:11] [Reported by al-Ḥākim in his al-Mustadrak, no. 3947]
When he said he recites one thousand āyahs a day he meant approximately not exactly that number, meaning that he would finish reading the Qurʾān every week. Finishing the Qurʾān every week was the way of the majority of the Salaf.
When ʿAmr bin Maymūn would meet one of his brothers he would say, ‘Last night Allaah blessed me by allowing me to pray such and such a number of Ṣalāh. And He blessed me by allowing me to do such and such good deeds.’
After mentioning the two previous narrations in al-Mustadrak, Abū ʿAbdullah al-Ḥākim said, ‘So may Allaah have mercy on ʿAmr bin ʿUbaidillaah as-Subaiʿi and ʿAmr bin Maymūn al-Awdī because they pointed out things that would encourage the youth to worship.’
The two narrations also emphasise leading by example, because the youth are in need of [seeing people of] such rank so that they [themselves] become active and so that complying [with the truth] becomes easier for them.
But the teacher should draw [their] attention to having pure intentions so that they don’t fall into showing-off and have their deeds nullified.”
Min Waṣāys-Salaf lish-Shabāb, pp. 6-7, [post title, ’Seeing Righteous Role-models,’ is not from the book].
Ibn al-Qayyim on Dying as a Muslim
May 12, 2024 § Leave a comment
Ibn al-Qayyim said, “Dying upon Islaam is the most sublime goal of the servant.”
Al-Fawāʾid, p. 292.
“People Will Come Across a Time When …”
May 8, 2024 § Leave a comment
Hudhaifah bin al-Yamān, Allaah be pleased with him, said, “People will come across a time when the only people who will be saved in it will be the ones who make duʿā like a drowning person would.”
Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaibah, 37134.
Gifts of Knowledge 