Another disease is hatred for other than the sake of [God] the
Exalted. Its cure is to pray for the one despised.
This is with the understanding that you have not done wrong if
you are repulsed by the hatred you harbor and do not act in
accordance with it [to harm the person].
Definition and Treatment
The next disease is hatred (bughd). In itself, hatred is not
necessarily negative. It is commendable to hate corruption, evil, disbelief,
murder, lewdness, and anything else that God has exposed as despicable. The
Prophet pbuh never disliked things because of
their essences, but because of what they manifested.
Hatred or strong dislike of a person for no legitimate reason is
the disease of bughd. The Prophet pbuh once said to his Companions, "Do you
want to see a man of Paradise?" A man then passed by and the Prophetsaid, "That man is one of the people of
Paradise." So a Companion of the Prophet pbuh decided to learn what it was
about this man that earned him such a commendation from the Messenger of God pbuh.
He spent time with this man and observed him closely. He noticed that he did
not perform the Night Prayer vigil (Tahajjud) or anything extraordinary. He
appeared to be an average man of Madinah. The Companion finally told the man
what the Prophet pbuh had said about him and
asked if he did anything special. And the man replied, "The only thing
that I can think of, other than what everybody else does, is that I make sure
that I never sleep with any rancor in my heart towards another." That was
his secret.
The cure for hatred is straightforward. One should pray for the
person toward whom he feels hatred; make specific supplication mentioning this
person by name, asking God to give this person good things in this life and the
next. When one does this with sincerity, hearts mend. If one truly wants to
purify his or her heart and root out disease, there must be total sincerity and
conviction that these cures are effective.
Arguably, the disease of hatred is one of the most devastating
forces in the world. But the force that is infinitely more powerful is love.
Love is an attribute of God; hate is not. A name of God mentioned in the Quran
is al-Wadud, the Loving one. Hate is the absence of love, and only through love
can hatred be removed from the heart. In a profound and beautiful hadith, the
Prophet pbuh said, "None of you has
achieved faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."
The 13th-century scholar Imam al-Nawawi comments on this hadith saying:
When the Prophetsays
"brother" we should interpret this as universal brotherhood, which
includes Muslims and non-Muslims. For one should desire for his brother
non-Muslim that he enter into the state of submission with his Lord [Islam].
And for his brother Muslim, he should love for him the continuation of guidance
and that he remain in submission. Because of this, it is considered highly
recommended and divinely rewarding to pray for a non-Muslim's guidance. The word
"love" here refers to a desire for good and benefit to come to others.
This love is celestial or spiritual love and not earthly love or human love. For
human nature causes people to desire harm to befall their enemies and to discriminate
against those who are unlike them [in creed, color, or character]. But men must
oppose their nature and pray for their brothers and desire for others what they
desire for themselves. Moreover, whenever a man does not desire good for his brother,
it is from envy. And envy is a rejection of God's apportionment in the world.
Thus, one is opposing how God meted out sustenance in concord with His wisdom. Therefore,
one must oppose his own ego's desires and seek treatment for this disease with
the healing force of acceptance of the divine decree and prayer on behalf of
one's enemies in a way that suppresses the ego [nafs].
As for [the disease of] wantonness, its definition is excessive
mirth, which, according to the people of knowledge, is having
excessive exuberance.
Treat it with hunger and the remembrance of the Hereafter,
reminding yourself that [God] says He does not love the
excessively joyful— which alone is a deterrent.
Definition and Treatment
The next disease is wantonness (batar), along with
excessiveness, an unbridled desire to need and want more. The word batar has
several meanings: the inability to bear blessings; bewilderment; dislike of
something undeserving of dislike; and reckless extravagance. Imam Mawlud says
that according to the people of knowledge, it is defined as excessive mirth and
exuberance. He then says that its cure is intentionally engaging in hunger and
reflecting on death.
The Quran says, Obey God and His Messenger, and dispute not among
yourselves lest you falter and your strength departs from you. And be patient,
for God is with the patient. And do not be like those who leave their homes
batara [filled with excessive pride about their state], showing off before
people and preventing others from the way of God. And God encompasses what they
do (QURAN, 8:46-47);
How many cities have We destroyed that exulted in their livelihood?
Here are their homes now uninhabited after them except for a few (QURAN,
28:58).
The world of the classical civilizations is full of ruins of once grand
structures and communities that used to be teeming with life, inhabited by
people who exulted in their wealth and accomplishments. Visit these ruins and
notice the utter silence of these towns. Each soul that lived there is now in
another state, waiting God's final judgment.
Wantonness is a disease to which the world's affluent societies
are particularly vulnerable. In societies that are extremely pleased with their
standard of living, their extravagance and hubris are obvious. One sign of
these conditions is the ease with which people enter into debt and live
contentedly with it. People are consciously living beyond their means in order
to maintain the appearance of affluence. This is a product of wantonness, willingly
falling headlong into debt in order to achieve a certain material standard of
living.
The Imam posits that the treatment of wantonness is to willfully
experience hunger and to reflect seriously on death and the Hereafter. Hunger
can be achieved through voluntary fasting (sawm) or by simply reducing what one
eats. One aspect of traditional medicine related to a spiritual
cosmology—whether this tradition was Greek, Chinese, or Arab—is the belief that
too much food harms the spiritual heart and, in fact, could kill it. It was
commonly held that people who eat in abundance become hard-hearted. Those who
consume an abundance of rich foods literally do become hardhearted with
arterial sclerosis, the hardening of the arteries. (Sclerotic means hard, rigid,
or stiff.) Likewise, the spiritual heart may experience what occurs to the
physical heart.
Scholars of religion often expounded on hunger as an important
sensation that feeds spiritual growth. Feeling emptiness in the stomach, they
say, is excellent for the body but also the soul. According to Imam Malik,
fasting three days out of the month is the best way to maintain a regular
engagement with hunger. There is also a fasting regimen known as the Fast of
David (Dawud ), which consists of fasting every other day, with the exception
of religious holidays. Fasting Mondays and Thursdays is also excellent.
Whichever pattern of fasting one chooses, it is important to maintain it, for
fasting is an excellent form of worship that is beloved by God and praised by
the Prophet pbuh. It also is a protective shield against wantonness.
The second aspect to the remedy is to remember death and the
Hereafter. What is meant by remember here is not the common function of memory,
in which one merely calls up a fact without reflection. (In fact, no remedy
mentioned in this book involves a flaccid process. Each requires exertion and a
true desire to achieve success in its fullest sense.) Freeing the heart of
diseases like wantonness requires the remembrance of the Hereafter and its
various states and tumultuous scenes. For example, one should reflect on the
state of the grave, which will be either a parcel of Paradise or a pit of Hell.
Once a person dies, his journey in the Hereafter begins. Meditation on the
Hereafter requires learning more about its various stations and passages,
including the Traverse (sirat), over which people must cross and behold below
the awesome inferno of Hellfire. Consistent reflection of this nature lessens
the value of extravagance and, in general, all the fleeting things this world
has to offer, whether it is wealth, prestige, fame, or the like.
The Imam cites the verse, God does not love those who exult
(QURAN, 28:76), whether it is in their wealth, status, or anything else. Images
of wantonness are ubiquitous in our times. Even as one drives, he or she is
accosted by billboard advertisements that show the faces of wantonness, people
in ecstatic postures and exaggerated smiles and gaping mouths—showing off their
supreme happiness because they own a kind of car or smoke a certain brand of cigarettes
or guzzle a special brand of beer—alcohol that destroys lives and minds. It is
part of advertising theory that when people are constantly exposed to such
images, they not only incline toward the product but desire the culture
associated with it. Advertisers sell a lifestyle that glorifies wantonness and
subtly dissuades reflection. All those smiling people on these billboards and
all those who aim their glances toward them will someday die and stand before
their Maker. This is the ultimate destiny of all human beings. This realization
is the slayer of wantonness.
Now then: the refusal to give what is obliged according to
Sacred Law or to virtuous merit is the essence of miserliness,
which is mentioned [among the diseases of the heart].
As for the obligations of Sacred Law, they are such things as
Zakat, supporting one's dependents, and rights due to others,
and relieving the distressed. Examples of [virtuous merit]
include not nitpicking over trivialities.
Avoiding this is even more important with respect to a
neighbor, a relative, or a wealthy person;
or when hosting guests; or concerning something in which
such behavior is inappropriate, such as purchasing a burial
shroud or a sacrificial animal, or purchasing something you
intend to donate to the needy.
Thus one who makes matters difficult for one whose rights
clearly render this inappropriate to do so, such as a neighbor,
has indeed torn away the veils of dignity. This is as the
majestic and guiding sages have stated.
This is comparable to one who fulfills his obligations without
good cheer or who spends from the least of what he possesses.
Its root is love of this world for its own sake,
or so that the self can acquire some of its fleeting pleasures.
Definition and Causes
Imam Mawlud brings to the fore the definitions of these
diseases, their etiology (origins and causes), and how to cure them. The first
disease he speaks of is miserliness (bukhl). It is first not because it is the
worst of characters but because of alphabetical ordering in Arabic.
He mentions two aspects of miserliness. One relates to the
Sacred Law, Sharia, that is, rights due to God and to His creation. The other
pertains to muru'a, which is an important Arabic concept that connotes
manliness and valor. In pre-Islamic Arab culture, valor was a defining concept.
It is similar to Western ideals of chivalry and virtue. (The Latin word vir
means man. Similarly, the Arabic root for virtue, muru'a, is a cognate of the
word for man—though scholars state that it refers both to manliness and
humanity.)
Regarding the first aspect, the Sacred Law obliges payment of
Zakat—charity distributed to the needy. Miserliness in the form of not giving
Zakat is explicitly forbidden. The same is true with one's obligation to
support his wife and children. Even if a couple suffers a divorce, the man must
still pay child support. Miserliness, when it comes to the obligations of
Sacred Law, is the most virulent form.
In terms of valor, the Imam goes into some detail. One should
never create difficulty over paltry matters, he says. When it comes to debt, it
is far better for the creditor to be flexible and magnanimous than demanding
and unbearable. This is especially true when the creditor is not in need of
repayment, while the debtor faces hardship. An understanding and compassionate
creditor is one who has valor. Having this quality of magnanimity is not an obligation
in Sacred Law because the creditor has the right to what is owed to him. But if
he is apathetic to the needs of the debtor and insists on his payment, this is
considered reprehensible.
It is an Islamic ethic that a wealthy person have magnanimity,
generosity, and the demeanor of lenience. A hadith speaks of a wealthy man who
would instruct his servants when collecting money on his behalf, "If [the
debtors] do not have the means, tell them their debts are absolved." When
this wealthy man died without any good deeds save his largesse with debtors,
according to the hadith, God said to His angels, "This man was forgiving
of people's transgressions against him, and I'm more worthy of forgiving
transgressions. Therefore, I forgive him."
When hosting guests, one should
not be persnickety, says Imam Mawlud. If a guest, for example, spills something
on the carpet, the host should not display anger or, worse yet, scold the
guest. It is far better humanity and valor to make one's guests feel no
consternation at all. The Imam mentions buying a funeral shroud, saying there
should be no haggling over the cost, for the funeral shroud should remind one
of death and not worldly matters. Also, when buying livestock in order to give
meat to the needy, one should not haggle over the price. (This applies to
purchasing other goods that are intended for charity as well.)
A person who doles out difficulty without cause strips away the
veils of dignity; this is what the "wise guides" (that is, the
scholars) have said. It is equally regrettable when one discharges an
obligation or fulfills a trust without good cheer. When paying charity, for
example, one should smile and be humble, allowing the hand of the indigent to
be above the giver's hand. It is a privilege to be in the position to give
charity and an honor to fulfill a divine obligation.
In Islam, it is an anathema to give away in charity what is
shoddy and inferior. There is parsimony and miserliness in this. The Muslim
tradition is to give away from what one loves; God blesses this charity and
extends its goodness. O you who believe, spend from the good things you have
earned and from what We brought out for you from the earth. And do not seek
what is inferior in order to spend from it, though you yourselves would not
take it unless your eyes were closed to it. And know that God is ever-rich and
worthy of praise (QURAN, 2:267); and You will not attain to righteousness until
you spend of what you love (QURAN, 3:92).
Generosity is one of the highest virtues of Islam and one of the
manifest qualities of the Prophet Muhammad pbuh who was known as the most generous
of people. The word for generosity here is derived from karam, which also means
nobility. In fact, one of the most excellent names of God is al-Karim, the
Generous. It is better to go beyond the minimum of what the Sacred Law demands
when giving charity. This generosity is an expression of gratitude to God, who
is the Provider of all wealth and provision.
The etiology of miserliness comes down to loving the fleeting
stuff of this world. The miser ardently clings to his wealth and hoards it up.
The word for cling in Arabic is masak, which is derived from another Arabic
word that means constipation. Miserly people are those who are unable to let go
of something that otherwise poisons them. The Prophet pbuh said, "God has made
what is excreted from the son of Adam a metaphor for the world [dunya]." When
one is hungry, he seeks out food, eats, and is pleased. But when it leaves the
body, it is the most odious of things. Giving Zakat is letting go of a portion
of one's wealth to purify all of one's other assets and, ultimately, one's
soul. It is possible that someone's earning may have some impurity in it, some
doubtful source. By giving Zakat, one purifies one's provision from whatever
unknown impurities that may have entered.
Imam Ali said, "The worst person is the miser. In this
world he is deprived of his own wealth, and in the Hereafter he is
punished." The ultimate casualty of miserliness is the miser himself. Many
wealthy people in our society live impoverished lives, though they have
millions in the bank. Their choice of living is not inspired by spiritual austerity.
Rather, it causes them great discomfort to spend their money even on themselves
and their families, let alone on others. The nature of the miser is that he
does not benefit from his wealth in this world; and in the Hereafter he is
bankrupt and debased for refusing to give to the needy—refusing to purify his
wealth and preventing it from being a cause of light and relief in the
Hereafter. The miser would argue that he hoards wealth to alleviate his fear of
poverty. What is remarkable about this mind-set is that the miser never truly
feels relieved of anxiety; a miser is constantly worried about money and
devoted to servicing his worry. The Prophet pbuh once asked some clansmen about their
leader. They mentioned his name and said, "But he is a bit of a
miser." The Prophet pbuh said, "A leader should never be a miser."
And then he added, "Do you know of any disease that is worse than
miserliness?"
POEM VERSES 26-29
Treat this by realizing that those who achieved [affluence] did
so only by exhausting themselves over long periods of time,
thus finally accumulating
what they sought.
Meanwhile, just as they approach the heights of (earthly)
splendor, death suddenly assails them.
[Treat miserliness by also recognizing] the disdain shown to
misers, and the hatred people have for them—even [hatred]
amongst [misers] themselves.
With this same treatment, treat the person whose heart's
ailment is love of wealth.
Treatment
The treatment for miserliness is realizing that those who
achieve wealth usually do so only after exhausting themselves over long periods
of time, working for it day and night. Meanwhile, life passes on and time runs
out. The culture of wanting more simply for more's sake can occupy a person for
an entire lifetime. And in the end, life is over. It terminates for the beggar
and the affluent just the same, whether one is old or young, rich or poor,
happy or sad.
This is Imam Mawlud's counsel: reflect long and hard on the fact
that just as people climb to the heights of affluence and start to achieve what
they have worn themselves out for, death assails them without invitation. When
death takes us and moves us on, our wealth stays behind for others to wrangle
over and spend.
One must also realize the level of disdain shown to misers.
Nobody likes a miser. Even misers loathe each other.
Realizing the hatred people have for misers is enough to turn
one away from their disease.
