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Ibn Al Qayim
I just finished
reading an amazing book in Arabic by a great Muslim scholar named “Ibn Kayem”
who lived in the years (691-751h), the book is called: “Al Gawab Al Kafy Liman
Sa-al 3an Al Dawa Al Shafy” – or “The Sufficient Answer For Those Who Ask
For The Cure”. The book is so simple and enlightening that I just wish that
every Muslim in the world could read it. Its not one of those big complicated
theological books, instead its just simply written to inform the average Muslim
with certain things and hints that he or she can benefit from. And since it’s
a whole book and I can’t possibly translate a whole book cause I neither have
the time nor the skill to do so, I picked out some little things that I liked
and thought it would be nice to share – plus the shorter this email is the
more likelihood of who ever gets this - of actually reading the whole thing! –
cause I know when I sometimes get emails that are too long I just save my self
the trouble and press “delete” - so if anyone on this list has ever sent me
an extremely long email that I never replied to or just replied to with – “I’ll
think about it” – now u know why J
Anyways to make a long email – “less long” I will go right into this, but
first I want to briefly explain the method I used in translating these texts:
1st: All the dialogue and the actual words of the author himself I translated my
self and did not include its original Arabic equivalent so unfortunately you
will just have to take my word for it – but if I had included the original
Arabic, this would be a much longer email – but inshAllah I would not have
made many mistakes.
2nd: All the Ahadeeth by the Prophet (PBUH), I also translated my self but also
included the original Arabic text because its important, plus anyone who gets
this who might also read Arabic might find some faults in my translation so then
he or she can correct them for me and Jazakom Allah Khier on your help.
3rd: All the verses from the Koran – I did not translate my self because I
defiantly am not qualified to do so and would be too worried that I might
in-correctly translate a verse, so instead I cut and paste the English
translation of the Koran from an Islamic site I found on the net:
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/k/koran
Finally just some brief info about the author of the book:
His name is “Al Imam Shams Al Din Mohamed Ibn Aby Bakr Ibn Kayem Al Jozieh”
- "الاما&م شمس
الدين محمد بن
أبى بكر بن قيم
الجوزيه"
He was born in the year 691h and died in 751h and has authored around 40 famous
books and manuscripts about different aspects of Islam. He was also a student of
one of the most famous and greatest Muslim scholars of all time – “Ibn
Tamima”.
And just to give you an idea of how Muslim scholars through out history have
viewed “Ibn Kayem” – our author -, when Muslim scholars used to talk about
the great “Ibn Tamima” and his vast knowledge and achievements they used to
say that perhaps one of his greatest achievement of all was that he was the
teacher of “Ibn Kayem”.
Anyways, I think I’ll stop here cause I’m sure by now some of you are
confused between all the “Ibns” and who is who and exactly which one of
those are we reading for?!
So why don’t we just start now, just please keep in mind that this is in no
specific order or logic, just bits and pieces that I picked out of the book,
many in different areas:
P.S: please note that the number (7) in some of the words is to replace the (H)
sounding letter in the Arabic language & the number (3) is a substitute for
a sound that doesn’t exists in the English language but can be pronounced as a
double (A).
بسم الله
الرحمن
الرحيم
In the name of God (Allah) the Merciful, the Most Gracious
Extracts from the book:
الجواب
الكافى لمن
سأل عن الدواء
الشافى""
تأليف : الامام
شمس الدين
محمد بن أبى
بكر بن قيم
الجوزيه
(Al Gawab Al Kafy Liman Sa-al 3an Al Dawa Al Shafy)
The Sufficient Answer For Those Who Ask For The Cure
By:
Al Imam Shams Al Din Mohamed Ibn Aby Bakr Ibn Kayem Al Jozieh
The first chapter in the book talked about the Do3a’, or when we pray to God
and ask for anything, and here is some of what Ibn Kayem wrote:
When we pray and ask God for anything we should be doing it with the absolute
belief and conviction that God has the power to give us what we ask for, we
should not have any doubts of Gods power or ability, no matter how big or how
much what we ask for might seem impossible, we must always be praying while
knowing that all is possible by God, we should never think - “maybe this is
too much or maybe God (estakhfar Allah) is not capable of granting us this. And
Ibn Kayem supported this by a Hadeeth by the Prophet (PBUH) that was related by
one of the Prophets companions; Aby Horayra – he said the Prophet (PBUH)
said:
" ادعو الله
وأنتم موقنون
بالأجابة "
Arabic Pronunciation: “Ed3oo Allah wa antom mokenoon bel ejaba”
Translated: Pray to Allah while you are confident of him granting you your wish
One must also always be persistent in his Do3a or praying, meaning you should
never give up and always ask for what you want, and because you did not get it
right away does not necessary mean that you will never get it – just don’t
give up or let your faith come down, and a Hadeeth by Aisha (The Prophets (PBUH)
wife) – may God be pleased with her – she said that she heard the Prophet
(PBUH) say:
" أن الله يحب
الملحين فى
الدعاء "
Arabic Pronunciation: “ Ina Allah Yo7eb Al Mole7een Fee Al Do3a”
Translated: Allah likes those who are persistent in their Do3a
It is also good to know that there are 6 periods or times of day that is
preferred to do your Do3a in or ask God for what you want, of course though this
does not mean that if you pray to God or do your Do3a at any other time it wont
be heard – Allah the most Gracious and most Merciful hears us at any and all
times, but the 6 time periods mentioned here are periods which the Prophet
(PBUH) said might be better than others. They are:
أوقات
الاجابة
الستة :
1 – الثلث
الاخير من
الليل
2 – عند الاذان
3 – بين الاذان
والاقامة
4 – بار الصلوات
المكتوبة
5 – عند صعود
الامام يوم
الجمعة على
المنبر حتى
تقضى صلاة هذا
اليوم
6 – أخر ساعة بعد
العصر
1- The last Third of the night
2- When we hear the Azan or call for prayer
3- Between the Azan and Ikama – between hearing the Azan and actually praying
4- After each of the 5 prayers
5- From the time the Imam starts his Khotba (lecture) in the Friday prayer until
the end of the prayer that day
6- The last hour after “Asr” prayer, right before maghreb or sun set
Things that you should also try to do while you are praying and saying your do3a
that might help are:
- Be clean, meaning wash up like you wash upp for praying
- Try to face the ka3ba (Mecca)
- Raise your hands up to God
- Start by thanking Allah for all his blessiings on you
- Call him by his many names that show his GGreatness, Power and Generosity
- Then start by al sala on the Prophet (PBUHH) – “Allahoma Sally 3ala Sayedna
Mohamed”
- Say “esteghfar” – ask God for forgiveness for little and big things you
might have done wrong
- Be as humble and as sincere as you can- reemember you are between the hands of
God now
- Be persistent and confident in Gods power<
- End by once again thanking Allah and againn Al sala on the Prophet (PBUH)
The Prophet (PBUH) also said that the greatest names of God that one should try
to use as often as possible while praying and do3a can be found in the following
two verses:
" وإلهكم إله
واحد لا إله
إلا هو الرحمن
الرحيم "
( البقرة : 163 )
" ألم . الله لا
إله إلا هو
الحى القيوم
"
( أل عمران : 1 )
Translated:
And your God is one God! there is no God but He; He is the Beneficent, the
Merciful.
[ The Cow: 163]
Alif Lam Mim.
Allah, (there is) no God but He, the Ever-living, the Self-subsisting by Whom
all things subsist.
[The Family of Imran - Al 3emran: 1,2]
And the names are:
"الرحمن
الرحيم" , "
الحى القيوم"
Arabic Pronunciation: “Al Ra7man”, “Al Ra7eem”, Al 7ay”, & “Al
Kayoom”
Translated: the Beneficent, the Merciful, & the Ever-living the
Self-subsisting by Whom all things subsist.
Also Aby Imama said that he heard the Prophet (PBUH) say that Gods greatest name
is in the following 3 Sora’s or Chapters of the Koran: “Al Bakara” (The
Cow), “Al 3emran” (The Family of Imran), & “Taha” – so he went and
checked out the 3 chapters to see what names he could find in common in all
three – and he found:
" الحى القيوم
"
Arabic Pronunciation: “Al 7ay Al Kayoom”
Translated: the Self-subsisting by Whom all things subsist.
Another do3a that the Prophet (PBUH) said is a real good one that people should
use, specially when they are in a bad situation is the one that the Prophet
Yunis (PBUH) said when he was inside the belly of the whale:
" لا إله إلا
أنت ، سبحانك
انى كنت من
الظالمين "
Arabic Pronunciation: “La ILLah ILa Ant, Sobhanak, Eny Kont Min Al Zalemeen”
One of the interesting stories in the book about the power of do3a, was about a
man who was one of the companions of the Prophet (PBUH), he was from the “Ansar”
– (the people of Medina who received and supported the Prophet (PBUH) when he
left Mecca) this man was called: “Aba Ma3lak” and he was a very good, decent
and religious man, He was also a merchant who traveled a lot to trade – and
one time while he was traveling he was ambushed by a masked thief carrying a
weapon, and the thief told him to let everything go because he is about to kill
him, so the merchant said: why kill me? What would you gain from my blood? Just
take my merchandise and let me be! But the thief refused and said: I will take
your merchandise anyways but I will also kill you so don’t try to talk me out
of it. So the merchant said: okay then, but at least let me pray before you kill
me. The thief agreed.
And as the merchant was praying, he prayed and made do3a to Allah that he would
save him from this killer – he made his do3a 3 times. And as soon as he
finished and was about to face his fate, he and the thief saw a warrior on a
horse rushing towards them at great speed with a great spear held in his arms
pointing at them – and before they could figure out what was going on or where
did this guy come from, the warrior had killed the thief.
The merchant could not believe it and was so happy and asked the warrior: who
are you? For you have saved me from eminent death!
The warrior replied: I am an angel from the fourth sky, and when you made your
do3a the first time, the gates of the skies made a big noise, and when you
repeated your do3a a second time, the inhabitants of the skies and heavens made
a big fuss for you, and when you finally repeated it a 3rd time, I was told this
is the do3a of a good person in great trouble, so I asked Allah to let me help
you.
Well, that was one of the stories and its just so good specially if you read it
in Arabic, but unfortunately I can see it lost some of its passion when I
translated it, but at least I hope you got the moral of the story…..which is:…hmm,
well pretty much the same as everything else above, be sincere in your do3a,
persistent and have great faith in Allah. Of course though don’t expect an
angel on a horse to come riding into your office carrying a spear and kill your
jerk boss! J but at the same time, you never know, angels come in many forms,
some times human.
In another chapter in Ibn Kayem’s book, he talks about alcohol and drinking
– I’m not going to go into this much cause I think we all already know that
its haram and what its consequences are, but I just wanted to mention a Hadeeth
for the Prophet (PBUH) about drinking:
" من ترك
الصلاة سكراً
مرة واحدة
فكأتنما كانت
له الدنيا وما
عليها فسلبها
، ومن ترك
الصلاة سكراً
أربع مرات كان
حقاً على الله
ان يسقيه طينة
الخبال ، قيل :
وما طينة
الخبال يا
رسول الله ؟
قال : عصارة
اهل جهنم "
Translated: “a person who cant pray one time because he is drunk, is like a
person who had the whole world and everything on it, but then lost it all. And a
person who 4 times cant pray because he is drunk, then he has earned that God
make him drink the sweat of the people in hell”
In another chapter about doing the right thing or the wrong thing, Ibn Kayem
wrote that Al Omary Al Zahed said:
One of the things that make you lose your self and pulls you away from God is if
you see something bad or something that upsets God and you don’t do anything
about it, or try to stop it, or at least just say something about it – just
because you are afraid that the person doing this wrong deed could harm you or
not help you in any way – and you forget that only God can harm or help you.
And a person who does not say that something is wrong when he see’s it, God
takes away the obedience of anyone around him towards him, like his son or wife
or anyone who should listen to him and do what he says.
Ibn Kayem also wrote in this chapter that Ibn Abbas said:
For a person to not feel guilty or ashamed while doing a sin, is greater than
the actual sin, for a person to be laughing in enjoyment while doing the sin,
not knowing or caring what God will do to you- is greater than the sin, and your
happiness in succeeding in doing a sin is greater than the sin, and your only
fear that someone might see you doing the sin while your heart does not even
care that God can see you while you commit the sin, is greater than the sin.
Also..
Bilal Ibn Asa3ad said:
" لا تنظر الى
صغر الخطيئة ،
ولكن أنظر الى
من عصيت "
Translated: “You should not think of how small your sin is, instead you should
think of exactly who it is that you are disobeying: Allah.”
And he went on to explain more on this point “that you shouldn’t think that
your sin is not a big one – but you should worry more that you are still
disobeying God”, he gave and example and said:
If a king had 2 messengers and he sent one of them to deliver a message to the
house next door, and he sent the other messenger to deliver a message to a far
away country, but then both messengers refused to deliver their messages –
does that mean that the one who was suppose to deliver the message to the far
away country committed a bigger mistake than the other? No, because the distance
wont matter, because they both disobeyed the king and broke his orders.
Another point mentioned that I think all Muslims already know is that anything
we do, whether its, eating, drinking, driving, going out or anything at all, we
should always say before starting:
" بسم الله
الرحمن
الرحيم "
Arabic Pronunciation: “Besm Allah al Rahman al Rahim”
Because by saying Gods name before doing anything, we are blessing what ever it
is we are about to do, and kicking the shitan out of it.
Unfortunately some times we do so many bad things and so many things that God
forbids, while also forgetting or not caring about God or the Koran – that God
assigns to us then a (Kareen) a shitan (a devil) that becomes like our twin, and
sticks with us where ever we go, night and day and from that point on will -
only help in making us do more bad things and this un-seen devil would become
like your inner best friend who will constantly make doing bad things look so
tempting and rewarding, while he’ll make doing good things or thinking of God
look so difficult and hard. This shitan will be Gods punishment in this world,
he shall stick to you and will make you do more and more bad things and pull you
away from God as much as he can – and he will stay with you for every second
of your life till its too late! But as long as we are alive and breathing and
since no one of us has a guarantee that he/she will live another day – then
its never too late, and we could always change how we are and God will help us
get rid of this (Kareen)
And Ibn Kayem shows us the verses in the Koran that talks about this “Kareen”
or assigned devil:
" ومن يعيش عن
ذكر الرحمن
نقيض له
شيطاناً فهو
له قرين ،
وانهم
ليصدونهم عن
السبيل
ويحسبون أنهم
مهتدون ، حتى
اذا جاءنا قال
: يا ليت بينى
وبينك بعد
المشرقين ،
فبئس القرين ،
ولن ينفعكم
اليوم اذا
ظلمتم انكم فى
العذاب
مشتركون "
( الزخرف : 36 – 39 )
Arabic Pronunciation: “wa man ya3sh 3an zikr al Ra7man, nokayed laho shitanan
fahowa laho kareen, wa enahom layasedoon 3an al sabeel wa ya7saboon anahom
mohtadoon, 7ata iza ja-ana kall; ya layt bayny wa baynak bo3d al mashrakayn,
fa-bes al kareen, wa lan yanfa3akom al yawm iza zalamtom, enakom fee al 3azab
moshtarekoon”
Translated:
[36] And whoever turns himself away from the remembrance of the Beneficent God,
We appoint for him a Shaitan, so he becomes his associate.
[37] And most surely they turn them away from the path, and they think that they
are guided aright:
[38] Until when he comes to Us, he says: O would that between me and you there
were the distance of the East and the West; so evil is the associate!
[39] And since you were unjust, it will not profit you this day that you are
sharers in the chastisement.
[Ornaments of Gold – Al Zokhrof 39-39]
In one of the really good chapters in Ibn Kayems book, he uses a real inventive
method to try and better explain to us how the shitan (devil) will try to
infiltrate our thoughts and souls and try to get us to do bad. He pictures the
average Muslim as this commander of an army, where all his soldiers are his good
deeds and strong faith, all trying to protect their castle, which is the Muslims
heart. While the shitan and his followers are the other army trying to overtake
this castle – and Ibn Kayem then goes on to describe to us the battle between
good and evil that takes place…….
The Battle…..
The armies of the shitan are approaching, but they can see that they can’t go
for a direct attack, because if they do, they shall loose. They can see that the
Muslim is well in command of his castle with all his soldiers (faith and
strength) greatly fortified and ready to defend from whatever comes at them. The
shitan see’s that the commander is loved by his soldiers and they are ready to
fight for him bravely – so now the only alternative is to use an unexpected
plan, to use deceit - to trick his way in.
So the shitan asks his soldiers, who is that Muslims closest soldier and
greatest ally? Who does he depend on the most?
The shitans soldiers reply; “heya al nafss” or its his “self” or “soul”
The shitan says: fine, we shall start with it then, and that will be our point
of entrance to the castle - I want you to go in from where it least expects, I
want you to find out what it likes and loves and use it as a gateway, whether it’s
a person he loves or lusts for, whether its fame, money, fortune, or power, or
whether its something that doesn’t belong to him – whatever it is he wants
and thinks about – find out what it is and use it! If he thinks about it 1
hour a day, make him think about it 24 hours a day, go into his mind and draw a
picture of it and make him imagine how it could be when he has what he wants,
make him think about it when he is awake and while he is sleeping – and as
soon as you know that you have succeeded in this stage and that this thing has
overtaken his thought that he is hanging on to it – then you throw in the
chains and pull him with it – and as soon as u have captured him it will be a
lot easier to capture the other weaker soldiers of the eyes, ears, tongue,
mouth, hands and legs and then you can use them to make it easier for you to
capture the heart, kill it or at least make it full of wounds and holes.
The shitan continues to give orders to his soldiers:
Don’t abandon your posts and leave those senses that you have captured, try to
settle in and be as comfortable as you can and make him get use to you and make
him be comfortable with your presence there – and don’t you dare allow him
to fight back by remembering God and trying to do good – make it as hard and
as un-natural as you can for him to do so, but if he is persistent and is
determined to be good again and still wants to get back closer to God, then at
least don’t leave with out doing some damage or leaving some traps for him so
that his soldiers would suffer and weaken and that they would never make it back
to the heart, and if they ever do, then only a few would make it and he still
wont be that strong.
And while you are in control of his sense’s, use them for bad, specially his
eyes and sight, it’s the easiest sense to use and the easiest way to lead him
towards bigger sins and mistakes, make him view things that he shouldn’t be
seeing, make him look with lust and envy, use his eyes to make him see things
that are not his and make him wish he had them. Make him think its all okay and
God doesn’t mind, for example, if his weakness is girls, make him look at
beautiful girls and check them out and stare at them while at the same time
convince his mind that by looking he is just enjoying the beauty of Gods
creation and admiring it, make him believe that by staring at them in a certain
way its actually like praying to God since its all Gods creation and we should
all admire it and look at it – and before you know it, we will have succeeded
in making him move on to another stage, where he actually takes action! And O my
soldiers (that’s the devil by the way still talking) - stick with this sense,
for there is no other sense that I have so successfully used through out the
ages to defeat man kind, for I first make him see something, then I plant the
seed of lust for it in his heart, then I water it with wish’s and hopes of
having it, and then I keep making it all seem so easier to get and more
important and make him want it more and more until his defense finally collapses
and he does what we want.
And if he ever tries to use his eyes or sight for something good, then quickly
counter attack by putting in front of him something else to see that would
pre-occupy him, and remember the key is to convince him that after all - that’s
why God created the eyes; to enjoy his creations with – even if they are not
ours.
Then my soldiers you can move to the ears, and stop him from listening to Koran
or anything that could be good for him, if he is somewhere where people are
talking about religion or God make him go away and feel its all ridiculous, make
him not interested, if he goes somewhere else and accidentally hears Koran make
him want to hear music instead and make him go search for it. Let him hear
different words, test him and see what captures his thought and imagination, and
as soon as you find out what he likes, give him more and more of it – and
again, try as much as you can to stop him from listening to anything religious
or any ahadeeth of the Prophet (PBUH) – but if he does actually listen to
anything religious, make it seem hard to understand for him, make it seem
confusing, and convince him that it would be very hard if not impossible to try
to understand- let alone act like what the religious hadeeth says.
Then my soldiers you can move on to the tongue – it is also very easy to
manipulate and use – and so many tongues have led their owners to hell before
– so use it! Stop him from saying any thing good or reading Koran, stop him
from mentioning God or asking him for forgiveness, stop him from praying and
saying do3a, stop him from asking questions about his religion for any reason
– make him think it will be embarrassing if he does, just stop him. And my
soldiers there are 2 main methods that you have to focus on here:
1- Make him say bad things and talk about people, for a person who talks like
this is your brother and one of you
2- Make him not open his mouth or say anything whenever he see’s something bad
or wrong, make him not object when Gods laws are being broken in front of him,
for a person like this is also one of you and is your brother but he is our mute
brother.
Some thing else my soldiers, if you ever see a group of Muslims sitting together
and trying to learn more about their religion or read Koran or anything
religious– and if you try but fail to pre-occupy them or make them leave or
want to do something else, then in that case, use other people like them to
distract them, use some bad friends they might have or some people they don’t
know, make them come into their lives and talk to them in that time – use who
ever you can use.
And whenever the son of Adam (that’s us – man kind) gets mad or angry, don’t
ever let him “yatawada” (wash up) and pray, because if he does that, then
that will put off his anger and hate and wont make him do mistakes that he would
have.
Anyways,….the battle continued and Ibn Kayem went on to talk more about it,
but I feel maybe I wrote too much on it and I hope by this much you got his
point; I think what he was trying to say was that the shitan will use any means
possible to try to get to you and get you to do something wrong, and if you feel
you are strong – don’t ever be too confident because he will try to find a
way and he will never give up not only till the day of judgment comes and that’s
when he shall stop.
But at the same time, I think by Ibn Kayem describing to us this battle he is
also in a way telling us how easy it is for us to defeat the devil because of
how weak he really is – all we have to do is stay close to God and think of
God in everything we do, we can live our lives and achieve our dreams yet with
out giving up too much and with out loosing sight of the bigger picture, and
always keep your eyes, mind and heart open for what your personal weakness’
are that no body else knows, that he could some how use.
Simply, the closer we are to God, and the more he is in our lives – the
stronger and happier we shall be, in this life and the one after InshAllah.
In another chapter where Ibn Kayem continues to talk about good and bad he
mentioned something that some of the “sa7aba” or companions of the Prophet
(PBUH) had said and that is:
" أن معكم من لا
يفارق ،
فاستيحو ا
منهم
وأكرموهم "
Translated: “There are those that are with you at all time and never leave you
- (they are talking about the 2 angles that are with us since the day we are
born till we die who write down everything we do) – so be shy from them and
have some respect”
What is meant by that statement is that we are never alone, those angels are
always with us, so we should respect them and not insult them by doing something
bad or breaking Gods laws because the angles of God are with us and watching
everything we do.
In a chapter where Ibn Kayem talked about ways to gain extra “hassanat” or
“good points”, he mentioned a hadeeth by the Prophet (PBUH) where he said
“who ever prays the “3esha” or night prayer “jama3a” is like a person
who stayed up and prayed half the night, and a person who prays the “Fajr”
or sun rise “jama3a” is like a person who stayed up and prayed the entire
night!”
So imagine all the thawab a person could get every day just from doing this –
of course though, Ibn Kayem goes on to explain that even though a person who
prays those 2 prayers jama3a is like a person who prays the night like the
Prophet (PBUH) said, he does though make it clear that they are not exactly
equal – or else no one would bother to stay up all night and do “keyam liel”
while he could just get the same amount of thawab by praying the “Fajr”
jama3a – so of course actually praying “keyam liel” or at the middle of
the night is still better, but still the Prophet (PBUH) meant to show us how
easily we could gain great thawab that’s nearly as close as something so hard
just by praying jama3a.
And the great thing about this is even if you don’t have a mosque next to you,
all you need is just one other person to pray a jama3a and get its thawab, so a
husband and wife could pray it together and get the thawab, or 2 brothers and so
on.
Now I know this has been an extremely long attachment, but I honestly didn’t
expect it to be that long, but why am I telling you guys this now, I’m still
not finished! J but at least we are close to finishing so just bare with me and
InshAllah you are finding some of this useful.
One of my favorite chapters in this book is the one where he talks about the
Mercy of God and how God is soooo Great, Merciful and Beautiful that no matter
what we do, no matter how big our sins are, if we repent, he forgives us and
accepts us back under his Mercy.
So no matter what it is a person does, how many times he did it or how bad it
was, if we truly repent, feel sorry and turn to God – God does not only
forgive us and gives us a new clean start but he also actually converts our past
sins into “hasanat” or “good points”! can u believe how Generous Allah
is! I mean I could have been a bad person all my life and did so many bad things
that everyone would tell me its too late for you or that God wont forgive all
that that I have done – but no, not only does Allah forgive us but the
Merciful also converts our past sins to hasanat if we truly repent.
I don’t know, its hard to explain, and I really feel this chapter is loosing a
lot in the translation, I mean, I cant really say what Ibn Kayem says, the way
he says it, or make it sound in writing in English like he makes it sound in
Arabic- but its amazing, just amazing how forgiving God is! It just gives me so
much hope – even though its not like I was exactly Dr. Evil before, but still,
it gives me hope not only for my self, but for so many other people I know –
one can only say alhamdolelah.
P.S: I wonder if I’m starting to sound like those crazy evangelists I used to
see on TV in the states?! hope not!
Anyways, back to this chapter, Ibn Kayem then gives us a beautiful verse from
the Koran where God shows us his Mercy:
" قل يا عبادى
الذين أسرفوا
على انفسهم لا
تقنطوا من
رحمة الله ، أن
الله يغفر
الذنوب
جميعاً ، انه
هو الغفور
الرحيم"
( الزمر : 53 )
Arabic Pronunciation: “Kol ya 3ebady al lazeen asrafo 3ala anfosohom, la
taknato min ra7mat Allah, ena Allah yaghfer al zenoob jamee3an, enaho howa al
ghafoor al ra7eem”
Translated:
Say: O my servants who have acted extravagantly against their own souls, do not
despair of the mercy of Allah; surely Allah forgives the faults altogether;
surely He is the Forgiving the Merciful.
[The Companions – Al Zomor: 53]
Well, finally we have come to the end of this attachment, actually there was a
lot more I wanted to translate – but I figured this would be long enough J,
and for those of you who actually did make it this far and read this whole
thing, I truly hope that you found some of this useful. Unfortunately I could
not translate the whole book and I apologize if this was too long. But InshAllah
at least one person out of those who got this learned something new.
I recommend that you look back at the beginning of this email and write down the
name of the book and author, because who knows, maybe the book has already been
translated – so you can get the un-edited full version J
Al Salamo 3alikom.