“The good deed and the evil deed cannot be equal. Repel evil with that which is better; then indeed, he between whom and you there was enmity, will become as though he was a close friend.” [Fussilat 41:34]

Not equal are acts of goodness and obedience, which are done to earn the pleasure of Allâh; and acts of evil and disobedience, that bring about the anger of Allâh, and not His good pleasure. Likewise, not equal are those acts of goodness and kindness that are done towards the creation, and those acts of evil done against them – neither in their nature, their characteristics, nor in their rewards: “Is not the reward for good acts, goodness.” Then, a particular, but important act of ihsân [goodness and kindness] is commanded, which is: showing ihsân towards the one who has ill-treated you; because Allâh commanded to repel evil with that which is better. This means that whenever you are ill-treated by anyone from amongst the creation – in particular those that have great rights over you; such as relatives, friends, and their like – then return their ill-treatment of you with acts of kindness and goodness towards them. Thus, if you have been cut-off from then seek to join the ties of relation; if you have been oppressed, then be forgiving; if you have been spoken ill of, either in your presence or behind your back, then do not retaliate, but rather be forgiving and speak to them with mild and soft words; if you have been boycotted and abandoned, then continue speaking to those who have done so, with good words, and continue giving them the greetings of salâm. So if you return acts of evil with acts of ihsân [goodness and kindness], then you will indeed acquire a tremendous benefit.

Shaykh ‘Abdur-Rahmân bin Nâsir as-Sa’dî [d.1376H]
Taysîr al-Karîm ar-Rahmân, P. 695

So if there is a common deficiency amongst you and one of your companions or family members then join him with you in resolving this problem because the Messenger of Allâh [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said:

“Whoever from amongst you sees an evil he should change it with his hand and if he is not able to then with his tongue and if he is not able to, then (he should hate it) in his heart and that is the weakest level of faith.” [1]

Likewise before you think about spending time amongst your companions either for the sake of knowledge, action or inviting to Allâh, contemplate and think:

- How is your relationship with Allâh [subhâna wa ta’âlâ]?
- How is your humbleness in prayer?
- Read about that which will better your condition and that of your prayer, increase your humbleness in it and soften your heart.
- Are you one whose supplications are answered or do you notice that most of your supplications not being answered?
- Look into your ‘aqîdah and the level of your certainty and reliance upon Allâh [subhâna wa ta’âlâ] and observe closely your food and drink – are they from that which is halâl or harâm, or is there some doubt about their source?
- If the situation was one that requires enjoining the good and forbidding evil, what would you do? [2]

…all that to solve the reason why our supplications are not being answered.

Maybe you would benefit from reading hadîths pertaining to the punishment of the grave and that of its bliss, about the terror of the Resurrection, and the torment of the Hell Fire. You could well continue reading for days, weeks, or months, accompanying that with good actions and self struggle.

It is imperative that a person takes his soul to account and treats his deficiencies. Match yourself against the Qur’ân and the Sunnah to know who you are, and look what you have set aside for Allâh to know what Allâh the Almighty and Majestic has prepared for you because of the saying of the Messenger of Allâh [sall-Allâhu 'alayhi wa sallam]:

“Whoever wants to know what Allâh has prepared for him, then he should look to what he has prepared for Allâh.” [3]

- Are you prepared for the meeting with Allâh [subhâna wa ta’âlâ]?
- Have you fulfilled the rights of the creation, one to another? Or are you in a constant state of postponing and deferring?
- Have you converted your knowledge of repentance into crying and penitence?
- Have you turned whatever you have read about the loving for Allâh, into real love for your Muslim brothers?
- Do you often visit them, and overlook their faults? Do you aid the needy amongst them, feel delight for their happiness and grieve for their sorrow?
- Do you taste the sweetness and delight of Faith?

If the answer is in the negative then go back to the hadîth of the Prophet [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]:

“There are three attributes whoever is characterised by them will relish the sweetness of faith: he to whom Allâh and His Messenger are more beloved than anyone else; he who loves a person solely for the sake of Allâh; and he who has as great an abhorrence of entering into disbelief after Allâh has rescued him from it, as he has of being thrown into the Fire.” [4]

- Is Allâh and His Messenger [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam more beloved to you than anybody else?
- Do you give precedence to the love of Allâh over wealth, business, whims and desires?
- Test yourself when you hear the call to prayer, if you notice a desire to delay answering it in order to pursue your interests in trade (for example) then know that Shaytân has succeeded in gradually leading you astray and that your love for Allâh [subhâna wa ta’âlâ] is deficient. In this way it is upon you to consolidate yourself, giving precedence to that orders of Allâh [subhâna wa ta’âlâ] over any other worldly matter.

Then contemplate the second matter, may Allâh have mercy upon you: “He who loves a person solely for the sake of Allâh.” Look into the reality of your love for people: What is the basis of your love? What is the basis of your hating and detesting? Why do you love a particular person more than another? Is it because he is from your people? Or for his wealth and status, or for some worldly interests? Or is it because of his compliance to the orders of Allâh [subhâna wa ta’âlâ] and his undertaking of righteous actions?

Maybe you are still facing difficulty for not having relished the sweetness of faith. So where does the problem lie? It could be that the third matter has not materialised, that is the saying of the Messenger [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]: “…and he who has as great an abhorrence of entering into disbelief after Allâh has rescued him from it, as he has of being thrown into the Fire.”

- How is your abhorrence of entering into disbelief? Do you abhor it as you would abhor being thrown into the Hellfire?
- Do you live this abhorrence and this fear?
- It ought to be that you cultivate this feeling in you, so that your sincerity to Allâh [subhâna wa ta’âlâ] is cultivated and that you may hasten to purify your soul.
- Contemplate the hadîth of Umm Salamah [radî Allâhu ‘anhâ] who said: “Most of the invocations of the Messenger of Allâh [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam] used to be: ‘O Changer of the Hearts make my heart firm upon your religion’.” [5]
- Reflect upon how Ibrâhîm [‘alayhi-s-salâm] feared associating partners with Allâh, so he used to supplicate: “And keep me and my sons from worshipping idols.” [Ibrâhîm 14:35]
- Don’t forget the supplication of Yûsuf [‘alayhi-s-salâm]: “Cause me to die as a Muslim and join me with the righteous.” [Yûsuf 12:101]

You should aid yourself through fear: living with the fear of eternal abode in the Hellfire and of never coming out of it, from everlasting hunger and continuous thirst, with fear of crying blood continually, so much so that if a ship was to be sent into it, it would float. [6]

Don’t rest and sit around while the sweetness of faith is missing or is weakened. How many people set out on journeys for the purpose of treating their illnesses and how many of them spend out of their wealth to treat these illnesses? Do not the souls and the hearts have more priority in being treated, as their matter is one of total eternity?

Bring to mind the hadîth: “Every slave will be resurrected upon that which he died.” [7] Then expect death at any moment. It is better for you if you were to meet death whilst trying to improve your own condition than to die whilst striving to improve others’, being held accountable at the same time for leaving off obligatory actions just like the lantern that burns itself out and gives light to others, as in the hadîth: “The example of the scholar who teaches the people good things but forgets himself is that of a lantern, it gives light to the people but burns itself out.” [8]

Shaykh Husayn al-‘Awâyishah
Adorning Knowledge with Actions, Pgs. 24-28

Footnotes:

[1] Ahmad, Vol.3, P. 20, 49, and 92 and Muslim English. Translation, Vol. 1, P. 33, no.79, and others
[2] This is in reference to the saying of the Messenger of Allâh [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]: “By Him in Who’s Hands is my soul, you will enjoin the good and prohibit the evil or (else) Allâh will soon send upon you a punishment from Him, then you will call upon Him and He will not answer you.” [Ahmed in his Musnad and at-Tirmidhî]
[3] Abu Nu’aym in al-Hilyah and others, see: Silsilah as-Sahîhah, No. 2310
[4] Ahmad in his Musnad, al-Bukhârî, English Translation, Vol.1, P. 20, No. 15, Muslim, Book of Îmân, Vol. 1, P. 30, No.67 and others
[5] Ahmad in his Musnad, at-Tirmidhî and others
[6] The Messenger of Allâh [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said: “Verily the inhabitants of the Fire cry, so much so that if ships were sailed into their tears, they would float, and verily they would cry blood – meaning instead of tears.” [Al-Hâkim, Ibn Mâjah and others]
[7] Muslim and others
[8] At-Tabâranî in al-Kabir and ad-Diya. See also Iqti’ al-‘Ilm al-‘Amal, No.70

“And the Messenger said: ‘O my Lord my people have abandoned – acting or listening – to the Qur’ân.” [Al-Furqân 25:30]

So Allâh informs us about His Messenger and Prophet Muhammad, that he said: “My Lord my people have abandoned acting or listening to the Qur’ân,” and that is because the idol worshippers did not pay attention not listen to the Qur’ân, as Allâh says: “The ones who disbelieved said do not listen to this Qur’ân but make noise so that you may overcome it.”

Thus when the Qur’ân was being read to them they would make noise and futile speech so that they would not hear the Qur’ân. However this is from the ways of abandoning the Qur’ân. Likewise not having faith and trust in it is also from the ways of abandoning the Qur’ân. Not pondering over it, not trying to understand it, not acting by it, not obeying its orders and refraining from what if forbids, turning to something other than it – whether poetry, opinions or music, amusement, or other forms of speech and taking a path that is derived from other than the Qur’ân are all from the ways of abandoning the Qur’ân.

Shaykh Muhammad Jamîl Zînû
How to Understand the Qur’ân, Pgs. 123-124

Imâm ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Al-Wâbil as-Sayyib min al-Kalim at-Tayyib, P. 45

- Allâh [subhâna wa ta’âlâ] will take care of all his needs and take care of all that is worrying him.
- He will empty his heart so that it will be filled only with love for Him, free his tongue so that it will speak only in remembrance of Him [dhikr], and cause all his faculties to work only in obedience to Him.

But when a person spends his entire day with no other concern than this world:

- Allâh will make him bear its distress, anxiety and pain.
- He will leave him to sort himself out, and cause his heart to be distracted from the love of Allâh towards the love of some created being.
- He will cause his tongue to speak only in remembering people instead of remembering Allâh.
- He will cause him to use his talents and energy in obeying and serving the people.
- This person will strive hard, labouring like some work-animal, to serve something other than Allâh.

Everyone who turns away from being a true slave of Allâh by obeying and loving Him will be burdened with servitude to some created being.

Allâh says in the Qur’an [interpretation of the meaning]:

“And whosoever turns away [blinds himself] from the remembrance of the Most Beneficent, We appoint for him a Shaytân to be his Qarîn [intimate companion].” [Az-Zukhruf 43:36]

‘Anas [radî Allâhu ‘anhu] reported that the Prophet [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said:

“Whoever is mainly concerned about the Hereafter, Allâh will make him feel independent of others and will make him focused and content, and his worldly affairs will fall into place. But whoever is mainly concerned with this world, Allâh will make him feel in constant need of others and will make him distracted and unfocused, and he will get nothing of this world except what is decreed for him.” [At-Tirmidhî, No. 2389 - Graded “sahîh” by al-Albânî]

Imâm ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Al-Fawâ’id, P. 159

“Indeed in this is a remembrance for those who have a living heart, listen attentively and are awake to taking heed.” [Qâf 50:37]

Therefore, if you desire to benefit from the Qur’ân, gather your heart when reciting it, focus your attention to it and focus as if you are the one being directly addressed by it. For indeed it is an address from Allâh via the path of the Messenger [sall-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam].

This is because gaining complete benefit from the Qur’ân is dependent upon the object providing the benefit, the place by which it is to be received, the conditions related to attaining the benefit and the non-existence of anything that may hinder the benefit from occurring. Hence the verse contains the explanation of all of these points, with the shortest and clearest words, and those that best prove the above point.

Thus the saying of Allâh: “Indeed in this there is a remembrance” has an inference to what has preceded the verse from the beginning of Sûrah Qâf up to this verse and this is what is causing the benefit.

Whilst the saying of Allâh: “…who have a living heart,” then this refers to the place that receives the benefit and this is the heart that has life and comprehends what Allâh has sent, as Allâh the Most High says:

“Indeed this is only a clear reminder and a Qur’ân so as to warn those who have a living heart.” [Yasîn 36:69-70]

And His saying: “…listen attentively,” i.e. who turns his attention to it and listens mindfully to what is being said. This is the condition that is placed so that one can be benefitted by it. And His saying: “…are awake to taking heed,” i.e. that the heart is attentive to it.

Ibn Qutaybah said: “Listen to the Book of Allâh whilst your heart and mind is attentive, not neglectful nor distant.”

This is an inference to the matter that prevents one from attaining benefit. This is when the heart is distant and unmindful such that it does not understand what is being said, nor comprehend it.

Therefore if the cause of the benefit – and that is the Qur’ân, is found and the place of receiving it – and that is the heart that has life – and the condition is fulfilled – and that is listening attentively – and the barriers what would prevent benefit from being attained are avoided – and that is the heart being pre-occupied with something else and it being unmindful of what is said – then one attains the benefit, of being benefitted by the Qur’ân.

Shaykh Shaykh Muhammad Jamîl Zînû
How to Understand the Qur’ân, Pgs. 115-116