From the sayings of our master Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili
“Do not be excessive in abandoning the world, lest its darkness overwhelm you and your limbs become attached to it, so that after leaving it you return to embracing it—whether through aspiration, thought, will, or action. At that point the intellect becomes confused, and the servant becomes like one whom devils have lured on the earth, bewildered, with companions calling him to guidance, ‘Come to us.’ Say: Indeed, the guidance of Allah is the [true] guidance. And there is no guidance except for one who has taqwa, and there is no taqwa except for one who turns away from the world.”
The meaning of his words—may Allah be pleased with him—
When you abandon the world and renounce it completely, your inner self yearns for it. Thus he says, “lest its darkness overwhelm you”—it comes to dominate you. You want to leave it, yet it says to you, “How can you leave me?” It keeps attacking you, calling you back to it.
(“and your limbs become attached to it”)—your limbs long for it.
(“so that after leaving it you return to embracing it”)—you return and embrace it anew, yearning again after all that separation,
(“whether through aspiration, thought, will, or action”).
Through aspiration: rushing toward it repeatedly.
Through thought: it is constantly on your mind, never leaving you.
Through will: after thought, you form many intentions to pursue it.
Through action: hastening to practical deeds.
He means—may Allah be pleased with him—that if you suppress the natural inclinations of the soul in your life, you will become a hypocrite: claiming one thing while practicing another inwardly. Yes, he says “turn away from the world,” but what is meant by turning away here is that its value falls in your eyes when it is stripped of seeing Allah within it. As for when you see Allah in it, then detachment and distancing yourself from it in this way would actually be distancing yourself from Allah.
He is saying that you should not do anything in your conduct and behavior unless it springs from your inner reality. Anything that lacks sincerity is unreal and does not represent your true capacity. For example, do not keep saying, “It is only the adornments of the world,” then go buy a phone and choose a mid-range one, and when you see someone else with a better one you keep saying, “The glitter of the world has preoccupied them,” while inwardly you are more preoccupied than they are. They wanted it, got it, felt at ease, and are no longer preoccupied with it at all. You, however, remain preoccupied while claiming you are better—lying and acting hypocritically, claiming what you do not possess. They thanked Allah for the blessing, felt His favor upon them, and felt their own shortcomings—meaning they practiced acts of the heart. Meanwhile, you claim to be among the people of scrupulousness, piety, and worship.
He wants to say: do only what you truly feel and are sincere about. Do not put on airs, do not do what is beyond your capacity, and do not impersonate the great ones whose eyes the world has fallen from—not out of contempt for it, but because they have no aspiration for it. They simply do not want it, do not love it, and it does not even cross their minds. You imitate them while your state is not their state.
Allah has commanded us: “O you who believe, fear Allah and be with the truthful.”
The leader of the truthful is our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Truthfulness means correspondence—correspondence of the outward with the inward. Whatever state I am in, if my outward matches my inward, then it corresponds to the original state exemplified by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
When I am truthful and my outward state matches my inward state, this is following the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—according to my own capacity. This falls under the broad concept of following that encompasses everyone, in all states.
Muhammad Awad Al-Manqoush
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