Continuing our Ramadaan series, this post continues the book entitled “Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart” – Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson‘s translation and commentary of Imam Muḥammad Mawlūd’s didactic poem “Matharat al-Qulub” (purification of the heart). The Imam was a 19th century Mauritanian scholar. For notes on the copyright status of the book, as well as links to purchase your own copy, please see the introductory post of the series.
Seeking Reputation
POEM VERSES 108–116 [The disease of] seeking reputation entails informing others of one’s acts of obedience after they had been performed free of blemishes. This results from some causes of showing off. A good deed becomes corrupted when telling others of it. But should you repent, [the deed’s goodness] is restored. Similar to this are deeds done so that others may hear about them. The one who does this is also considered a seeker of reputation, according to those with insight. The great Brigand [al-Shiẓāẓ] who robs all of these wayfarers is covetousness. This is the cause of every iniquity, such as backbiting, lies, preoccupation of the heart during one’s prayers, and insincere praise of others. Indeed, one will inevitably resort to hypocrisy as a result of it. If you could ask desire itself about his trade he would answer, “Earning humiliation!” or about his father, he would respond, “Doubt concerning the divine apportioning [of provision].” Or about his objective, he would say, “Deprivation of the very thing one longs for.” Its definition is longing for some benefit from creation. But if one recognizes that [creatures] are incapable of benefiting anyone, even themselves, then [covetousness] wanes.
Discussion
Seeking reputation (sumʿah) is a disease of the heart closely related to ostentation. This disease involves desiring that people hear of one’s goodness, an aural ostentation. It is seeking out renown: for example, a person wanting others to hear how much money he or she gave in charity. The Prophet said, “Whoever seeks out reputation, God will expose him on the Day of Judgment.” Whomever God debases, none can elevate: “You exalt whomever You will; and You debase whomever You will. In Your Hand is all good. Indeed, You have power over all things” (QUR’AN , 3:26).
The Imam says that performing an act for the sake of God is ruined when one goes about informing people of it afterwards. Repentance restores the value of the good deed. Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām states that there is no harm in informing others of one’s works for the purpose of encouraging them to do good. But even in this case, one must tread carefully. The hadith says, “Whoever displays his good deeds to others, God will display his bad deeds on the Day of Judgment.”
The Imam uses a word here that is taken from the name of a well-known brigand, Shiẓāẓ from Banī Ḍabbah, whose name the Arabs came to apply in a proverb. For example, a notorious thief is called Shiẓāẓ. Metaphorically, coveting renown is the brigand who robs people on the road to their Lord.
The spiritual sage Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mursī relates that he once was in the marketplace and saw someone he knew, a very righteous man known for his scholarship and spirituality, and who was also a merchant. Al-Mursī, as he relates, thought to himself that if he were to go to this righteous person, he could purchase his goods for a better price because the merchant was an exceptionally religious person and knew what a good man al-Mursī was. But then al-Mursī heard an inner voice admonishing him, “Make your religion sound, and do not desire benefit from created beings.” The life-support for ostentation and reputation is covetousness. And the cause of this covetousness, according to Sīdī Aḥmad Zarrūq, is heedlessness (ghaflah). A person permits himself to forget that blessings are from God alone. No good or harm can come to one except by God’s leave. This level of heedlessness is not a casual lapse of memory. People can become so terribly preoccupied with seeking things from other people that they become heedless of God’s power and ownership. When this happens, a person opens his or her heart to all kinds of spiritual diseases. God warns against heedlessness in the Qur’an. To ignore these warnings is the summit of carelessness. “And if God were to touch you with affliction, there is none who can relieve it save Him. And if He were to touch you with good fortune, then [know] He is powerful over all things” (QUR’AN , 6:17). The Prophet said, “Know that if an entire nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, it would benefit you only with something that God had already prescribed for you. And if [an entire nation] were to gather together to harm you, it would harm you only with something that God had already prescribed for you.”
When the topic of God’s power is discussed, questions often arise about those who hold rancor in their hearts to the degree that they wish harm to come to others. There is real concern about the affliction such people can cause. It is necessary to remember that when one is straight with God—observant of His commands, avoiding what He has prohibited, and going beyond the mere obligations by remembering Him often through litanies, voluntary acts of worship, and generosity in charity—the prayers of others to befall one will not prevail. But if one is oppressing people— depriving them of their rights—then one is justified in feeling some fear, for the Prophet said, “Fear the supplication of the oppressed.” If someone prays against another unjustly, then the iniquity will revert back to the wrongdoer. God never commanded people to supplicate against others, with the exception of the oppressors. God said, “Let there be no hostility except against oppressors” (QUR’AN, 2:193). The Prophet
said that supplication is “the weapon of the believer,” a great blessing from God. In many circumstances, we find people bereft of any means to defend themselves against wrongdoing and oppression, and all they have is the power of supplication. But to say “that is all they have” is rather ironic, given there is no power or might except with God. Sincere supplication is very powerful, and God answers the prayers of those who call on Him earnestly. When oppressed, the cries of even an atheist are answered, according to the sound hadith.
Sīdī Aḥmad Zarrūq holds that heedlessness is blindness to the providential order that God has set in place and sustains at every instant. A person may say, after recovering from an illness, “How wonderful is this medication! It saved my life.” This is heedlessness of the fact that one of the attributes of God is that He is the Healer. This is not to say that people should not take medicine, but it is important to be aware that it is God who has placed in this world remedies for our bodies, and that every bit of this world is in constant dependence on God. The properties of every chemical are in obedience; they do their work because of God’s commands. The heedless forget that God truly holds the heavens and the earth, that He is the Owner and Sustainer of the universe, whatever is seen or unseen, large or minute. The believer who recovers from an illness says, “All praise is for God who has healed me.” The difference in responses is the difference between sentience and oblivion.
Imam Mawlūd holds that covetousness is the root cause of many iniquities, like slander. A person who slanders another does so for some perceived gain. He desires, for example, to instill negative thoughts in others toward the victim of his slander. Covetousness can be so overwhelming that it occupies one’s mind during prayer. It also leads to insincere praise of others in order to derive some benefit from them. Most salespeople, for example, will say just about anything (lies and flattery) to sell their wares. For this reason the “honest merchant will be raised with the martyrs on the Day of Judgment.” The honest merchant does not sacrifice his morality and ethics. If he is successful, he knows his success is from God.
It is interesting to observe in traditional cultures, especially in the Muslim world, that the marketplaces are comprised of rows of businesses dealing with the same product. In America, many would consider it foolish to open a business in proximity to another business already selling the same product. In Damascus, everyone knows where the marketplace for clothing is. There are dozens of stores strung together selling virtually the same material and fashions. Not only are the stores together, but when the time for prayer comes, the merchants pray together. They often attend the same study circles, have the same teachers, and are the best of friends. It used to be that when one person sold enough for the day, he would shut down, go home, and allow other merchants to get what they need. This is not make-believe or part of a utopian world. It actually happened. It is hard to believe that there were people like that on the planet. They exist to this day, but to a lesser extent. They are now old, and many of their sons have not embraced the beauty of that way of doing business.
Today’s business culture, on the other hand, has a greater tendency to glorify cutthroat strategies, in which it is not enough to do well. Rather, destroying the competition is encouraged and celebrated. This is covetousness puffed up to an obscene degree. As a result, whole societies are wounded spiritually, for the business culture is never contained only among the merchants but flows through the veins of a nation. The Imam says that for this reason, we need to purify ourselves from vile characteristics, such as covetousness. What makes the process difficult is living in a time when the abnormal is made to seem normal. The Qur’an warns that Satan seeks to adorn things before human eyes so that we do not see things for what they are. Even covetousness is now adorned. It is stripped of the stigma it so rightly deserves; it has now become placed under the rubric of “smart business.” The terminology changes, though the essence survives shamelessly. The Prophet said, “Competition is the disease of civilizations.” The propagation of the philosophy of “us against them” will spare no one, neither “us” nor “them.” According to this worldview, everyone is considered “them” to someone else. Unnecessary competition grows into animosity. That is how deep and insidious this disease is. Covetousness leaves one with the feeling of desiring more, which leads to a culture that can never be satisfied.
The Greeks differentiated between types of desire. They had a concept called eros, a longing for something, which is never really fulfilled—wanting more and more. The Prophet said, “Nothing will fill the mouth of the son of Adam except the soil of his own grave. If he had one mountain of gold, he will only desire a second.” The Prophet
also said, “Two people will never be satiated: seekers of knowledge and seekers of the world.” Covetousness, if it is not for God and His religion, will be for worldly things.
Imam Mawlūd next personifies “desire” and says, “If you ask desire itself about his trade,” it will answer, “Earning humiliation!”
As for its father, it would say, “Doubt concerning the divine apportioning [of provision],” meaning being skeptical about how material provisions are allotted to different people.
The provision that one receives is called rizq. Rarely does God use two very similar names that evoke one attribute. When it comes to provision, God is al-Rāziq and al-Razzāq; both names refer to Him as the Provider. We creatures are known as marzūq, the beneficiaries of God’s provision. Some scholars say that provision is anything from which a person derives benefit. Others say it refers to all the material possessions one has. The dominant opinion is the former, since God, the Exalted, says, “And there is not a creature treading the earth but that its provision depends upon God” (QUR’AN , 11:6).
God divides the provision of people into two kinds: inner (bāṭinī) and outer (ẓāhirī). The outward provision includes such things as food, shelter, and wellbeing. Inner provision includes knowledge, good character, contentment, and similar qualities. Even the people in one’s life (friends, teachers, family, etc.) are considered provision. Along with the provision that God gives, He also has provided the means (asbāb) by which one must seek out his provision. One person may be in possession of a meal that is meant for another, who then is invited to the former’s home for that very meal. So a person never loses anything by feeding a guest. It is a provision meant for that guest, which was already decreed by God.There should be no confusion about the means of attaining wealth and the wealth itself. When one starts to believe that his or her wealth is in the hands of another person, this creates a breeding ground for diseases, such as coveting what others have, doing whatever it takes to get it, and becoming angry when one does not receive what he or she expects. The Prophet
said that Angel Gabriel disclosed to him, “No soul will die until it completes the provision that was allotted to it.” One must trust in God and seek refuge in Him from resorting to illicit livelihood out of fear of not having enough wealth.
slip-sliding away..... 