Al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ: The Tears of ʿArafa and Contentment with Allah

Occasion: Transcription of an evening khatira delivered on 22 March 2019 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, we ask You for pardon and well-being in our religion, our worldly life, and our Hereafter. O Allah, prepare for us right guidance in our affair, bless us in what You have provided us, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire, O Lord of the worlds.

In our circles on "Guideposts of Guidance" we had spoken about al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, may Allah the Exalted have mercy on him, and we mentioned part of his biography. At the beginning of his life he was one of those whom the world had taken and whom their desires had carried away; he would waylay people on the road, assault them, and rob them of their money and belongings. Then Allah, glorified and exalted is He, willed, for some reason, to guide him when he heard the saying of Allah, blessed and exalted is He: ﴿أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ﴾^[1] (Has the time not come for those who have believed that their hearts should become humble at the remembrance of Allah and what has come down of the truth?), and his answer was: It has come, O Lord, now.

From Highwayman to Neighbor of the House

He proceeded on his way to repentance. And on the night he repented to Allah he heard people warning one another against traveling this road because al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ was on it, so he informed those around him of his resolve to take up residence beside the Kaʿba.^[2] And we mentioned that on his way he passed by people of knowledge and sat with them, and continued his journey heading to the Meccan Sanctuary.

ʿArafa: Weeping That Prevents Supplication

And there he was among the most prominent of creation in the scenes of worship of Allah, blessed and exalted is He. Imam Ibn al-Jawzī, may Allah have mercy on him, relates to us in Ṣifat al-Ṣafwa from Mihrān ibn ʿUmar who said: I heard al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ on the evening of ʿArafāt at the standing place, with weeping having come between him and supplication.

And sometimes, my brothers, a person cannot complete what he wants to say while he is confiding in the Lord of the worlds, and weeping overcomes him until it prevents him from completing his supplication. And this is one of the states of awe of the Lord of Might, glorified is He; the servant weeps, and it is not the tongue that speaks, but the feelings and the inner emotion of the person that expresses his state.

And he would say and repeat: Woe for my shame! That is: Oh, my disgrace! He felt the pain of what he used to do before, of assaulting creation and taking money, and he imagined that when he stands before Allah, standing before the Lord of Might with all people watching this reckoning and this disgrace in public, what sin could he conceal, and what thing would not become known in people's hearing? So he would say: Woe for my shame, even if You pardon me! That is: even if You pardon, I have a store of evil deeds.

And someone may say: If Allah, Mighty and Majestic, pardons the servant, how can he say that? And we say, to begin with: This is the state of one whom ecstasy has reached; he is at a stage of the feeling of sin and remorse, in which he speaks about his own state, and although he knew that Allah the Exalted could pardon him, he was reporting the state of ecstasy he was in.

And Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭabarī said: I stood with al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ at ʿArafāt and did not hear anything of his supplication, except that he put his right hand on his cheek and bowed his head weeping a hidden weeping, and he did not cease being like that until the imam departed, then he raised his head to the heavens saying: Woe for my shame before You, even if You forgive! He means: What kind of shame I feel before You, even if You pardon me! His feeling of shame remained before the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted is He.

Obedience from Which Its Doer Awakens Only to More of It

And imagine a person who came out of an era of disobedience, of departing from the foundation of purification and worship of Allah, glorified is He, to another era in which he turned toward Allah, blessed and exalted is He. They used to describe his prayer, saying: A mat would be laid out for him in his mosque, and he would pray at the beginning of the night for an hour, he would stand: Allāhu akbar, pray an hour, then his eye would overcome him and he would throw himself on the mat and sleep a little, then get up, and if sleep overcame him he slept, then got up and prayed, and so on until morning. And his habit was that when drowsiness overcame him he would sleep until he awoke, and he would awaken only to more obedience.

ʿAlī ibn al-Fuḍayl: "I Fear That the Resurrection Will Not Bring Us Together"

And they relate about one of his sons, he had a son named ʿAlī, and they say: We have not seen a son attain such obedience that he surpasses his father in it like ʿAlī ibn al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ. And we hear a scene from his scenes; al-Fuḍayl tells it, saying: I saw my son ʿAlī weeping, so I said: What makes you weep, my son? He said: By Allah, father, I fear that the Resurrection will not bring us together.

Reflect: What does the son fear? He fears that on the Day of Resurrection we will not be together. This is his concern! And imagine our children, and what we are thinking about. We think about the enjoyment of the world and gain in it, and worldly profits, and fame among people, and companionship that testifies for you to such-and-such; we think about more of what is in our hands, about our appearances and shapes and colors and the areas in which we move and frolic. That is the world in our hands, while the son weeps that he may not be gathered with his father on the Day of Resurrection.

And this reminded us of one of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ when he came to him weeping, and he asked him about his weeping, and he said: O Messenger of Allah, I called the Resurrection to mind and feared that I would not be with you. The Prophet ﷺ asked him: Do you love? He said: I love you, O Messenger of Allah. So he ﷺ made clear to him that «المرء مع من أحبّ» ("a person is with whom he loves").^[3] This is the state of human beings who sense the brevity of the world in its very word: it is dunyā, not the highest but the lowest, while the Hereafter is the ḥayawān, that is, the true life in the presence of the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted is He.^[4]

Then he said to him: Father, ask the One who granted me to you in this world to grant me to you in the Hereafter. That is: Pray to our Lord, as He granted me to you in this world as a son, to grant me to you in the Hereafter. And we did not choose that this child be our son; Allah, glorified and exalted is He, willed him and chose him for us with his shape, appearance, characteristics, and psychological and mental makeup. Allah chose this child for us to be our son, and he is a gift from Allah, blessed and exalted is He. So he says to him: As You granted me to you in this world, pray to Allah that He grant me to you in the Hereafter. And he knows, from the righteousness of his father's state, that he is, Allah willing, in Paradise, and wants to be with him, and nothing makes him weep except that he fears the separation that may occur when they meet Allah, blessed and exalted is He.

Al-Fuḍayl said: He did not cease, my son, to be broken-hearted and sad. Then he said: He used to help me to weep, O fruit of my heart, may Allah thank you for what He knows in you. And this speech was after the son had died in his father's lifetime.

And ʿAlī died from a verse he heard from a reciter reading the Qur'an. Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz said: I heard Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār say: The verse from which ʿAlī ibn al-Fuḍayl died is the saying of Allah, blessed and exalted is He: ﴿وَلَوْ تَرَىٰ إِذْ وُقِفُوا عَلَى النَّارِ فَقَالُوا يَا لَيْتَنَا نُرَدُّ﴾^[5] (If you could but see when they are made to stand before the Fire and say: Oh, would that we could be sent back). This is the verse after which the son died.

A World Other Than the World of Give and Take

My brothers, when we speak about feelings and sentiment, we are speaking about a world different from the world of give and take, matter, and the controls that control us in the world. We are speaking about another level of thinking, about those who have felt this feeling. You see the little boy who loves you, comes toward you, and if he is angry with you he turns away from you. Feeling is what controls human movement; if you love something you turn toward it, and if you love it and turn toward it you may consume yourself for its sake. We imagine that a person dies for a morsel of bread, but we cannot imagine that a person dies because he heard a text from the Noble Qur'an that affected his heart and his inner being and he left this life because of it. He felt it, sensed it, and lived it, if only for moments.

His Daughter: "Allah Has Spread Out for Me of Its Reward"

And the remarkable thing in the situation is that he had a daughter no less pious than her brother or her father. Listen to what the narrator says: And al-Fuḍayl, the one before whom al-Rashīd was humbled, for whose counsels the emir wept, by whose admonitions the great scholars were affected, used to receive counsels from this daughter of his, and stand toward her admonitions as the student stands toward his teacher. Among that: he once visited her to see how she was, and she was suffering from a pain in her palm, and he said to her: My daughter, how is this palm of yours? She said: Father, Allah has spread out for me of its reward that which I can never repay in thanks.

So we are before a woman or a girl who complains of pain in her palm, and the father asks her about her hand, and she says to him: Allah has spread out for me of its reward; as if she were drawing near to Allah, blessed and exalted is He, through this pain. Reflect: she is in pain, but she does not carry the worry of the pain as much as she is joyful about the reward that follows it. And we complain that if we go to the mosque and sit an hour or half an hour or five minutes, we complain that the imam prolongs the prayer for us, and we complain if we are in a gathering of knowledge or a gathering of Qur'an or a Friday khutba that such-and-such happens to us, and we fear making an effort or walking a long walk, even though worldly benefits may be achieved for us. And this example gives you that pain in itself, if the believer feels that it has brought him closer to Allah, then the reward that follows it is more to be hoped for than anything in this worldly life. Al-Fuḍayl says: So I marveled at the excellence of her certainty.

"Love Is for the Creator and Mercy for the Children"

Al-Fuḍayl said: I was sitting with her when a son of mine, three years old, came to me, and I turned to him and kissed him and held him to my chest, and she said to me: Father, I ask you by Allah, do you love him? I said: Yes, by Allah, my daughter.^[6] She said: By Allah, father, I thought you did not love anyone besides Allah! He said: My daughter, should we not love children? She said: Father, love is for the Creator and mercy for the children.

As if she divided the matter of feelings into two kinds: a pure heart attached to the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted is He, knowing no one but Him, and feelings adjoining this love that revolve around it: mercy, compassion, tenderness, and pardon. As if she divided the matter into two issues: the issue of love directed to Allah, blessed and exalted is He, which is not turned to anyone else, and the issue of dealing with the surrounding persons; the wife has such a share, the children have such a share, the mother has such a share, the father has such a share.

Al-Fuḍayl says: By Allah, this daughter of mine has made me infatuated with her love and the love of her brother, but, by Allah, I love no one with You until I meet You, O Lord of the worlds.

Contentment with Allah: The Capital

And the narrators say that al-Fuḍayl, after he had reached this standing and rank and was residing beside the Sacred House of Allah, was overcome by what is called contentment (riḍā), and this was apparent in what people narrate. When someone sought his counsel, he would advise him to make his capital contentment with Allah, glorified and exalted is He. Are you content with Allah, Mighty and Majestic, or not content? And the question may come: Is it possible that anyone would not be content with Allah, blessed and exalted is He? And the answer: If you are content with what He gave and content with what He took, then you are content with Allah.

And I imagine that when a person knows from himself and his state that he has no power or strength, and that the loser in this world is the one deluded by himself and his strength and his wealth and his authority and his life, the loser in this world is the one who was distracted from Allah by other than Allah, then he knows the worth of contentment.

And Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith, known as al-Ḥāfī, visited him, and when he sat with him he said to him: Bishr, contentment with Allah is greater than everything, greater than asceticism in the world. And if you notice, you will find that some people confuse the two matters; he thinks that asceticism in the world, which is that you leave the whole world, is proof of contentment, and that the one who has left the world is undoubtedly content with our Lord. No, he may not be. For contentment with Allah, blessed and exalted is He, in taking and in giving is one matter, and asceticism in the world is another matter. And leaving the world is not a definite indicator that you are content with Allah, because some people are ascetic in this world due to their lack of contentment with this world, or because they feel it is not compatible with them.

How Do We Become Content with Allah?

How do we become content with Allah, glorified and exalted is He? That you be fully convinced, so that your mind is filled with belief and certainty, and your heart is filled with belief and certainty in Allah, blessed and exalted is He. And if you are convinced of that, you know that every state you are in is your happiness that the Lord of the worlds chose for you. If you are certain that Allah the Exalted does not harm you, and that He does not spread out for you what harms you, and that He does not set upon you what is your pain, then you have become certain that your contentment with Allah, blessed and exalted is He, is the perfection of faith.

And those who suffer pain, did you not see what the girl was saying when we spoke with her about her palm: How are you, how is your palm now? She said: Its reward is more to be hoped for with me than the pain I feel. Had she dealt with the causes of the world she would have been occupied with treatment and how, and medications and their times, but she dealt with the One who causes, glorified and exalted is He.

A Letter to Hārūn al-Rashīd

A son of Hārūn al-Rashīd died, so al-Fuḍayl wrote him a letter in which he says: To proceed, O Commander of the Faithful, if you are able to make your thanks to Him when He took him from you better than your thanks to Him when He granted him to you, then do so.

Why? When this son came to you, the day they told you that you had a son, you praised Allah the Exalted and thanked Him; you thanked our Lord because you were delighted with the blessing of Allah, glorified and exalted is He. So if you can make your thanks to Allah when He took him greater than your thanks to Him on the day He granted you, then do that, O Commander of the Faithful. For He, majestic is His praise, when He granted him to you, took back His gift; as if He had recovered what He had given. Imagine someone who borrows and takes things from you, while you are delighted at the time of receiving. The believer, or the sensible person, is the one who rejoices at repayment as he rejoices at taking. As for the one who does not rejoice at repayment, this one wants to consume people's money, and this is a closed matter. So the one who took from the Lord of Might, glorified and exalted is He, and rejoiced at the taking, should also rejoice at the recovery.

A Wedding Night, While We Weep for Ourselves

We often say to people at condolence gatherings: My brothers, if we know the good ending of one of those who died, this night should be a wedding night. You know that he has passed to his Lord, glorified and exalted is He, and that he has moved to the Garden of Allah. When we applaud and rejoice over our daughter when she marries, or over a son whom our Lord honors and who found for himself a bride like a rose who fills his life, Allah willing, we rejoice and applaud and rejoice for him, why? Because he is moving to bliss. And the girl who married begins, that is it, to be independent in her life and to live the new life. So if we know that the servant who moved from the world has moved to Paradise, what more do we need after that? What do we want beyond that?

And I often say that when we feel pain or weep or complain in the case of death, we are not complaining or feeling pain or weeping over the deceased, but we are weeping over ourselves for the most part. You hear the widow say: Who will provide for us after him? And she is told: Are you thinking about him or thinking about yourself? And when the son weeps at the loss of his father and says: He was my support, and who will be beside me? We say to him: My son, are you thinking of the one who departed or are you thinking of your own state, and that he used to meet your need, as if you were using him to fulfill this need? And the Lord of Might, glorified is He, chose for him to move to be beside Him.

"You Were Content with the World for Yourself"

And we hear the remainder of the words of al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, as he says to him: O Commander of the Faithful, when He granted him to you He took back His gift, and had he remained you would not have been safe from his trial. Do you see your anguish over him and your grief over his loss? Were you content with the world for yourself?

As if he is saying to him: Why do you grieve? Did you approve the world for yourself? The natural thing is that the believer be above the matter of the world and living in it and remaining forever and ever. You know in the first place that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, has decreed perishing upon everything besides Him, Mighty and Majestic, so we are departing without doubt. So are you content with the world you are in? Are you content with the world and approve it for yourself such that you approve it for your son? Imagine you are in a house you hate living in, you have a small apartment you are sitting in and hate, and you want to leave it for something more spacious; would you say of what you hate: I approve it for my son? It is sensible to say: No, I do not approve it for my son.

So the answer by that was: You approved the world for yourself so you approve it for your son! As for him, he has been delivered from the murkiness, from the murkiness of the world, its toil and its troubles, and you remain in danger. He says: As for him, he has been delivered from the murkiness and you remain in danger.

And the discussion has more to come, with the permission of the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted is He.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Ḥadīd, verse 16. The speaker limited himself to what we have entered of the verse without completing it. And al-Fuḍayl's answer is transcribed from the transcript in a form garbled in hearing ("I am, O Lord, now"), and it has been phrased here according to its closest reading; the original of the passage should be reviewed in the video. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The transcript's wording here is garbled ("والله لأجا... الكعبة"). What has been entered is the closest reading of it, and it is supported by the speaker's statement a little later that he was residing beside the Sacred House of Allah. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth "A person is with whom he loves" was recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim. The speaker did not name the Companion of the story, and transmitted the story by meaning, while his saying ﷺ "A person is with whom he loves" is transmitted in its well-known wording. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The speaker's allusion to "al-ḥayawān" accords with the saying of the Exalted in Sūrat al-ʿAnkabūt, verse 64, and he did not recite the verse. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Anʿām, verse 27, and the speaker limited himself to what appears in the body. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The transcript's text here is unclear ("I do not love him"), and the context (her saying after it and al-Fuḍayl's saying at the end of the story) favors that he answered her in the affirmative; the original of the passage should be reviewed in the video.