If your soul directs you to seek sincerity then first turn your attention towards your yearning and slaughter it with the knife of renunciation. Then turn your attention towards praise and commendation and forsake it with the asceticism of those who loved the world for the sake of the Hereafter. When your slaughtering of your yearning and the renunciation of praise and commendation becomes firm then attaining sincerity will become easy for you.
If it is asked: what may facilitate the act of slaughtering ones yearning and renouncing the love of praise and commendation?
I would reply: as for slaughtering your yearning then this is made easy by you having certain knowledge that there is nothing that one would desire except that its treasures are in the Hand of Allaah alone and none has power over it save Him. There is no one who may bestow these things to a servant except for Allaah.
As for renouncing the love of praise and commendation then this is made easy by your knowing that there is no one who can praise you such that it would benefit you, or censure and vilify you such that it would harm you save Allaah alone. This is what occurs in the hadeeth in which the Arab said to the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam), "My being praised is adornment and my being vilified is disgrace," to which the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "That is (for) Allaah."
[Reported by at-Tirmidhee [no. 3266] with a saheeh isnaad from Baraa`a bin Aazib (RA).]
So renounce the praise of one whose praise cannot beautify you and the vilification of one whose censure cannot disgrace you! Instead desire the praise of the One whose commendation contains perfect beauty and the One whose censure contains total disgrace. This cannot be attained except after patience and certainty for when there is no patience and certainty then you are like one who wished to traverse an ocean without a vessel to carry him!
Allaah subhana wata ala said,
"Be patient! Indeed the Promise of Allaah is true and let not those who are devoid of certainty discourage you from conveying (the message)." [al-Rum (30):60]
"We have made from amongst them leaders, guiding under Our Command when they were patient and believed in Our Signs with certainty." [al-Sajdah (32):24]
[Taken from 'An Explanation to Riyaadh as-Saaliheen' Vol1, Trans. Abu Sulaymaan and modified.] Al-Fawaa`id [218-219] of Imaam Ibnul-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, may Allaah have mercy upon him.]
Translated by Aboo Sulaymaan
From Troid
I'm afraid however that there's a mistake in the translation of the quoted hadeeth, where it says, "My being praised is adornment and my being vilified is disgrace," I believe it should say instead: "My praising [a person] is [an] adornment and my vilifying [a person] is [a] disgrace" - this is what is appropriate to be for Allaah alone & is what is clear from the discussion preceding it.
Edit: In the original Arabic text of the article by Ibn Qayyim (rahimahullaah), the hadeeth is mentioned thus:
quote:
كما قال ذلك الأعرابيّ للنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم : إن مدحي زين وذمي شين . Source: http://www.sahab.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=106399
فقال : (( ذلك الله عز وجل )) .
Perhaps, one of the students of knowledge could confirm this - may Allaah reward him.
I would need to review the passage from Ibn al-Qayyim's book to confirm the accuracy of the quoted translation.
ibn John
Richardson
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This phrase has two possible meanings:
a) My praise (when I speak about someone else) is an adornment for him, and when I dispraise someone it puts them to shame.
b) My praise (when someone praises me) is an adornment for the person who praises me (because he has praised someone who deserves praise), and when someone dispraises me it is a disgrace upon himself (nothing against me).
Both understandings could be understood from the words. It seems the Messenger (sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam) understood both possible understandings and replied with his jawaami'al-kalim, short words that carry heavy meanings, words that refute both understandings masterfully.
In Ibn al-Qayyim's passage in the book, al-Fawaa'id, it seems to me that the he explained it according to the second meaning, and thus the translator has done well in capturing the meanings. And Allaah knows best.
ibn John
Richardson
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