| Min Ahlil Hadeeth
Status: Offline Posts: 7,268 Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: ~ Daar as-Sa'aadah ~ Gender:  Way of Life: Muslim |  Re: -From the works of Imam Ibn al Qayyim- -
05-02-2007
Al-Waabil As-Sayyib - The Many Benefits of Remembrance
(33 of the 73 listed in the English Copy – The Arabic Copy quotes 100)
There are more than a hundred benefits to remember.
1. Remembrance drives away, fetters and breaks the devil
2. It pleases the Most Merciful, God Almighty
3. It removes the cares and worries of the heart
4. It brings happiness, joy and relief to the heart
5. It strengthens both heart and body
6. It illuminates the face and the heart
7. It brings provision (al-rizq)
8. It adorns the one who practices it with dignity, sweetness and radiance
9. It endows him with love (al-mahabba) which is the very spirit of Islam, the pivotal point of religion and the axis of eternal happiness and deliverance. For God has opened a way of access to everything, and the way to love is constancy in remembrance. It is both a lesson and a reminder. It is equally the gateway to gnosis (bab al-‘ilm) as the gateway to love, its widest route and straightest path.
10. It endows one with vigilance (al-muraqaba), which opens the door of self reform. Entering (therein), the servant worships God as if he were seeing Him. There is no way for the heedless man to reach the station of excellence (ihsan), any more than for a seated man to reach his home.
11. It predisposes (the servant) to turn back to God Almighty. When someone turns to God frequently in remembrance, it predisposes his heart to turn back to Him in every state – so that in the face of trials and tribulations, God remains his sanctuary and his shelter, his protection and refuge, the Qibla and prayer niche of his heart.
12. It endows him with proximity (al-qurb) to God. His proximity to God is in proportion to his remembrance; his distance in proportion to his heedlessness.
13. It opens for him the greatest door to gnosis (abwab al-ma’rifa) and as his remembrance increases, so does his gnosis.
14. It endows him with a sense of reverence and awe (al-hayba) before the lord, because of the high place that (remembrance) holds in his heart and the intensity of his presence with God Most High – unlike the heedless man, whose heart is veiled from the awe of God.
15. It endows him with God’s own remembrance of him, even as God says, ‘Remember Me, I shall remember you’. Indeed remembrance would be merit and honour enough if there should be no more in it than that. The Prophet related these words from, His Lord; ‘Whoever mentions Me within himself, I shall mention him within Myself; whoever mentions Me in a gathering, I shall mention him in a better gather.’
16. It endows the heart with life. I heard the Shaykh of Islaam ibn Taymiyyah say, ‘Remembrance is to the heart what water is to the fish. And what is the state of a fish that leaves water?’
17. It is nourishment to the heart and soul. If the servant is deprived of it, it is as if his body were deprived of food. Once when I was with the Shaykh of Islaam, ibn Taymiyyah, he performed the pre-dawn prayer and then sat down to remember God Most High until sunrise. Then he turned to me and said, ‘This is my morning meal. If I do not take my morning meal, I will lose my strength’, or words to that effect. Another time he said to me, ‘I never forsake remembrance except with the intention of giving myself respite to be ready to resume another remembrance’, or words to that effect.
18. It polishes away the heart’s tarnish. This has been mentioned in the previous hadith, which states that everything can be polished. For the heart, the tarnish is heedlessness and passions, while its polish is the remembrance of God, repentance and the seeking of forgiveness. The meaning of this has already been discussed.
19. It erases sins and repels them, for it is a good deed that is of the greatest importance, and ‘good deeds drive away wrongs’.
20. It removes estrangement (al-wahsha) between the servant and his Lord, for between a heedless man and God there is an estrangement which only remembrance can remove.
21. As the servant mentions his Lord by extolling His majesty, glorifying and praising Him, so shall the Lord remember him in his times of adversity. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal that the Prophet said, ‘As you remember the majesty of your Lord, (saying) “There is no deity but God,” “God is Most Great” and “Praise be to God” so shall the divine Throne be surrounded by a drone like that of bees, invoking the one who invokes God. And is there any of you who would not want something by which he is mentioned (to his Lord)?” This is the hadith or its meaning.
22. When the servant seeks to know his Lord through remembrance in times of ease, the Lord will know him in times of hardship. A saying with this meaning states that when an obedient servant who (regularly) calls on his Lord is afflicted by some adversity, or asks something of God, the angels exclaim, ‘O Lord a familiar voice from a familiar servant!’ but if it is a servant who neither heeds nor obeys his Lord, the angels say ‘An unknown voice from an unknown servant.’
23. Remembrance delivers one from God’s chastisement. As Mu’adh ibn Jabal is said to have uttered, ‘The son of Adam can do nothing more effectively to deliver himself from God’s chastisement than invoke Him’.
24. It is a means by which tranquility (sakinah) descends, Divine Mercy encompasses and angels surround the one who remembers in the manner described by the Prophet.
25. It is a way to keep the tongue from backbiting, slander, lies, lewdness and vain talk. For a servant must speak, and if upon speaking he fails to mention God and His commandments, then he falls into those forbidden things, or (at least) some of them. The only way to avoid the latter is to mention God. Both reflection and experience will bear this out: a person who accustoms his tongue to the mention of God, protects it from vain talk and chatter. But the tongue that is dry of God’s mention grows moist with vanities, chatter and lewdness. There is neither strength nor power save in God.
26. The gatherings where God is mentioned are the gathering of Angels, whereas those full of chatter and heedlessness are the gatherings of devils. Let the servant decide which of these (two gatherings) is more pleasing and important to him, for he will belong to it in this world and the next.
27. An invoker is made joyful for his invocation and makes those around him joyful, for he is blessed wherever he may be. But someone who is heedless of God’s mention, someone who just chatters, is made sorrowful by his heedlessness and empty talk, and makes those around him sorrowful as well.
28. Remembrance saves the servant from regret on the day of Judgement. Every gathering in which the servant does not mention his Lord will be a source of regret for him on that day.
29. The remembrance of God and the tears shed in private are the way to the shade that God will grant His servant on the day of the greatest heat in the shelter of His Throne. As people stand in the melting sun, he who remembered his Lord will find beneath the Throne of the Most Merciful, the Almighty.
30. To be busy with remembrance is how God grants something better to the invoker than those who supplicate Him. As the Messenger of God said, ‘God says “To one too occupied in My remembrance to supplicate Me, I give what is better than what I give to those who ask’.
31. The easiest form of worship, remembrance is also the strongest and the best. Moving the tongue is easier than moving the limbs of the body and simpler. If someone could move his muscles day and night as much as his tongue, he would be completely exhausted – in fact, it is quite impossible.
32. Remembrance plants the trees of heaven. In Tirmidhi, Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud states that the messenger of God said, ‘On the night of ascension, I met Abraham, Friend of God. He said to me: “O Muhammad, recite to your people the greetings of peace and let them know that the soil of heaven is fragrant, its water sweet; that it is green with vegetation; that its tree is planted by (the remembrance): Glory be to God, Praise be to God, there is no deity but God and God is Most Great!’ this hadith is considered unusual but good (hasan gharib). Also in Tirmidhi is the hadith transmitted by Abul Zubayr from Jabir (ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari), that God’s Messenger said, ‘For whoever says ‘Glory and Praise be to God’ a date palm is planted in Heaven.’ Tirmidhi calls this hadith good and sound.
33. The recompense and excellence (al-‘ata’ wal-fadl) that result from remembrance do not result from any other activity. In the two authorative collections, Abu Hurayrah related that God’s Messenger said, ‘For whoever says one hundred times in a single day “There is no deity but God, alone, without partner” it is like freeing ten slaves. One hundred good deeds are written for him and one hundred wrongs are removed. It will be a shield from the devil for that whole day until evening. No one comes with anything better, except someone who can do more. And whoever says one hundred times in one day “Glory be to God and Praise” his greater sins will be removed, though they may be like the foam on the sea.’
And in Muslim it is related that God’s Messenger said, ‘To say “Glory be to God, Praise be to God, there is no deity but God, God is Most Great” is more beloved to me than all upon which the sun sets.’
In Tirmidhi, Anas ibn Malik relates that the Prophet said, ‘Whoever says, in the morning or the evening, “O God, I have risen (this day) bearing witness to You, the bearers of Your Throne, Your Angels and the whole of Your Creation: that you are truly God, that there is no deity but You and that Muhammad is Your servant and Your Messenger” – God shall free him by one fourth from Hell. Whoever says it twice, God shall free him by one half. Whoever says it three times, God shall free him by three quarters. Whoever says it four times, God shall free him completely from hell.’
In Tirmidhi, Thawban relates that the Prophet said, ‘Whoever says in the evening and morning, “I am content with God as my Lord, Islam as my religion and Muhammad as the Messenger” will merit thereby God’s good pleasure.’
Again in Tirmidhi: ‘Whoever enters the marketplace and says “There is no deity but God, alone, without partner; to Him belongs the Kingdom and to Him the Praise; He gives life and brings death; He is the Living who does not die; in His Hand is goodness and He has power over all things” – for him God will record countless good deeds, erase countless ill deeds and raise him countless degrees.’
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