The Wrappings of Gratitude

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
ِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

أَلَمْ نَجْعَل لَّهُ عَيْنَيْنِ
وَلِسَانًا وَشَفَتَيْنِ
وَهَدَيْنَاهُ النَّجْدَيْنِ
فَلَا اقْتَحَمَ الْعَقَبَةَ
وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَاالْعَقَبَةُ

Have We not made for him a pair of eyes?-
And a tongue, and a pair of lips?-
And shown him the two highways?
But he hath made no haste on the path that is steep.
And what will explain to thee the path that is steep?-
(Al-Balad 90:8-12)

The path to certainty is knowledge. This is true because it is greater certainty that we as believers are striving towards, and continually seeking to increase throughout our lives. As Allah says in the Quran:

قَالَتِ الْأَعْرَابُ آمَنَّا قُل لَّمْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَكِن قُولُوا أَسْلَمْنَا وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَإِن تُطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ لَا يَلِتْكُم مِّنْ أَعْمَالِكُمْ شَيْئًا إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

“The desert Arabs say, “We believe.” Say, “Ye have no faith; but ye (only) say, ‘We have submitted our wills to Allah,’ For not yet has Faith entered your hearts. But if ye obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not belittle aught of your deeds: for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Hujurat 49:14).

Therefore certainty does not begin with belief it begins with submission which is a proof of the fact that belief is something that is acquired gradually over time. How does this happen? There are two components to increasing in certainty and hence belief, which are humility and sincerity. As Allah says:

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ وَلَا يَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِن قَبْلُ فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَمَدُ فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ

“Has not the time arrived for the Believers that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which has been revealed (to them), and that they should not become like those to whom was given Revelation aforetime, but long ages passed over them and their hearts grew hard? For many among them are rebellious transgressors”. (Al-Hadid 57:16).

Allah is informing us that to remember Him requires humility, but we also know that in the remembrance of Allah is contained hidden knowledge, which only He makes known to the extent of the sincerity of the believer. A mark of sincerity is consistency of practice. Hence consistently and sincerely remembering Allah is rewarded by Allah through greater knowledge with which comes greater certainty. Another proof of this is that whilst knowledge may be gained through reading, understanding is granted by Allah directly into the heart. If greater certainty comes from knowledge and understanding is greater than knowledge, then it means, certainty like understanding is granted directly by Allah and neither can be acquired by any other means except humility and sincerity. Hence through humility and sincerity a person is increased in their knowledge and understanding. Through consistently practicing what we know, we are also increased in our sincerity, and with greater sincerity comes greater understanding from which comes greater certainty of the existence of God.

Every believer believes in the existence of God, but believers are distinguished, not only according to their deeds but the certainty with which those deeds are performed, that is to say, the certainty of their actions. Actions performed half-heartedly emanate from a heart that is less than certain about the validity or importance of the action. A proof of this is the way in which a believer performs his prayers. A half-hearted pray emanates from a heart that lacks certainty about the impact a good prayer can have on the heart, and its accounting with Allah. Of the prayer it is said:

“If a man meets God when he has been negligent of the Prayer, God will pay no attention to his other virtues”
(narrated by Al-Tabarani)

And also it is said:
“the key to paradise is ritual Prayer”
(narrated by Abu-Dawud)

These are but two narrations about the prayer by the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, there are numerous other examples. But it is also known that people vary considerably in the seriousness with which they perform their wudu and the prayer on time with the requisite adab. Thus the point being made here is that if something that we all understand the importance of, which is the prayer, can elicit such a variance of response according to our certainty, then it is quite likely that our certainty of the existence of God will diverge considerably more. However, it is important to mention here that when we refer to certainty we are referring to the degree of certainty. In other words, on the path of greater submission, one is joined by certainty at some point, the further he travails on this path then greater is he increased in the certainty of his Lord because the further into this journey he ventures the more of the signs of his Lord does he witness. An appropriate analogy would be if a person was undertaking a journey to a destination he had been before, but did not know this was where he was being taken, and nor by the route he was being led. At the beginning of the journey and perhaps a greater portion of it he would not know where he was and would not have any certainty about where he was going. But slowly he would begin to see signs along the way that would allude to the destination. He would still not be entirely sure but his certainty about where he was going would gradually increase until he had seen so many signs of the landscape and other familiar sights as to not be in any doubt as to where he was heading. This is essentially what certainty is. The journey is the spiritual path back to Allah along life’s road. Our guide is our prophet, peace be upon him. We could not wish to have been blessed with a better guide, peace and blessings be upon him.

Thus to increase in certainty about the existence of Allah, about the destination we are all heading to, is the reason why the prophets and messengers, peace be upon them all were sent by Allah. Because only they possessed the greatest certainty of the existence of God, and this is what they sought to instil in the hearts of their followers. They did not possess any doubt about the existence of God and hence they performed the duties they were commanded with complete certainty about their outcomes, and nor did they ever waiver. Allah has always made the distinction between the prophets and their followers through the criteria of certainty in that which ever people were tested their prophets remained resolute whereas the followers were always shaken in their faith. Revealed during the siege of Medina by the Quraysh their allies Allah say:

إِذْ جَاؤُوكُم مِّن فَوْقِكُمْ وَمِنْ أَسْفَلَ مِنكُمْ وَإِذْ زَاغَتْ الْأَبْصَارُ وَبَلَغَتِ
الْقُلُوبُ الْحَنَاجِرَ وَتَظُنُّونَ بِاللَّهِ الظُّنُونَا
هُنَالِكَ ابْتُلِيَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَزُلْزِلُوا زِلْزَالًا شَدِيدًا

“Behold! they came on you from above you and from below you, and behold, the eyes became dim and the hearts gaped up to the throats, and ye imagined various (vain) thoughts about Allah! In that situation were the Believers tried: they were shaken as by a tremendous shaking”. (Ahzab 33:10-11).

When the faithful were tested to such as extent that they did not know if they could hold out any longer, what manifest in their hearts was a certain doubt about Allah. This doubt is not the same as we may imagine because their level of certainty and ours are oceans apart. However, their response was relative to the extreme difficulty of their test, and when the power of Allah was not apparent, when they were hemmed in on all sides, and were close to their limit of endurance and faith, their hearts produced this response. But let us not be under any illusion that we may have done better than these noble people, who were chosen especially by Allah to be the vanguard of Islam. For as we know, the first three generations, we are told are the best of all generations of humanity to have ever lived.

·27 Rabi-Al-Awwal 1429·