The 48th Syarah of Wisdom – Syarah al-Hikam

 

48th WISDOM

 لَا تُفَرِّحْكَ الطَّاعَةُ لِأَنَّهَا بَرَزَتْ مِنْكَ وَ افْرَحْ بِهَا لِأَنَّهَا بَرَزَتْ مِنَ اللهِ إِلَيْكَ.

" Do not be pleased with obedience because you are able to do it. But rejoice with it because it can be done because of God's gift to you. ”

  “Among the signs of a dead heart are; when the opportunity to worship is lost he does not grieve, and when he commits a sin he does not regret.”

Think about it! What is meant by a dead heart and a living heart?

The living heart is; a heart filled with love, ta'dzim and fear of Allah SWT. If the heart is empty of that feeling, it is a dead heart . Well, each of the living heart and the dead heart, has a significant influence on a person's journey and mystique.

Maybe you feel awkward with the description above; why not “make a mistake that is an indicator of the death of the heart. How is the "spirit of worship and obedience to God's commands" to be a gauge of the life of the heart?

This oddity arises, because he sees the life and death of the heart from the outward side, in the form of what humans do. Not in terms of feelings which include; There is no regret when you have sinned and you are not sad when you are absent from worship.

Know it! that if the heart is filled with love and devotion to Allah, it will surely be compelled to obey His commands and stay away from His prohibitions. Allah gives a person the gift of fitrah imaniyah, containing a very great wisdom, by which he can exceed the rank   of angels. That is by preparing a clean heart to accommodate the highest holy love, namely the love of Allah swt.

And by always glorifying and purifying the Most High Essence, he continues to increase to a higher degree. Until he is always in a high yearning to reach maqam malail a'la (highest degree) by his Lord.

That is an essential human entity, whose heart and spirit are always provided to be filled with sacred feelings, in the form of love and fear of God. But behind that it must be realized, that the power of the spirit in humans does not run smoothly. There are many obstacles that will stand in his way. Like the instinctive urge to commit immorality, the temptation of Satan that always sneaks up and the blaze of lust that pushes up strongly.

These two contrasting forces both encourage a person to act, so that he cannot be separated from one of the two lines, obedience and immorality. So are there any conclusions that can be drawn from this? The conclusion is the occurrence of wrong and right, obedience and immorality.

"All the children of Adam have made mistakes, and the best of those who are guilty is he who repents." HR. Ahmad

The spirit and feelings of the heart increase when doing obedience, as the heart feels heavy because it is burdened with lust when doing immorality.

Such is the condition of the hearts of all mankind, which is bombarded with acute rage when lust leads to obedience or disobedience.

Only the Prophet who did not have this kind of feeling, because in the Prophets provided 'ishmah (protection) from God so as not to fall into sin. What is the wisdom that can be felt from the contradiction of the strength of the heart when obeying, and being submissive to lust when immoral?

This contradiction that often reaps the heart of many people has wisdom so that we always run and ask God for help. Run away from how weak you are when you are stabbed by the snares of lust and ask not to give up easily in the face of lust.

Here we are faced with two contradictions: will our hearts incline to God, or follow our human desires? If we want to be aware, of course we will not sacrifice ourselves just to drink the pleasures of lust that are only momentary.

The wisdom of Ibn Athaillah at the beginning advised us to always be introspective and take care of ourselves so as not to obey our lustful desires. A servant can be said to keep himself from the seduction of lust is when he feels sorry for the mistakes / mistakes made.

Because no human being is clean from the negative effects of self-interest. Everyone must have made mistakes, except the Anbiya. Errors that are quickly corrected must have a positive impact, which can encourage our hearts to always be vigilant so as not to fall into that again.

This is true regret. Regret that can bring the owner to repent of his sins. Regret brings us closer to God.

We are certainly different from the physical angels who have never disobeyed God. Our way of life is not the same as the way of life of the angels. If we have lust, then angels don't. We can be immoral, angels are not the type of sinners. Very different right!

Then what is the wisdom of Allah creating angels without lust, while we were created with lust? What is the wisdom behind it?

Even though angels are not equipped with lust, there is an unfavorable side to angels that angels cannot feel the pleasure of receiving repentance by Allah. Angels cannot feel the pleasure of interacting directly with Him.

Humans can be higher in rank than angels. Humans can feel more extraordinary pleasures that cannot be felt by angels. So don't waste this opportunity. We should be superior, even higher in rank than angels or other creatures.

The disobedience/mistake committed can actually be an opportunity for us to be closer and in need of Allah, by being repented of. Repentance that is not playing games will definitely get an extraordinary response from Allah, because Allah will not abandon His beloved servant.

May we become our hearts alive and only filled with love and devotion to Him, so that we become His beloved servants. Amen