The Greatest Blessing

Written by the martyred Shaykh, Abdullāh bin Muhammad Ar-Rashūd

May Allāh have Mercy upon him

At-Tibyān Publications

My Mujāhid Brother:

The Muslim feels much happiness with the blessings that Allāh causes to transpire to him and motivate him and remind him of the greatness of Allāh’s bounty upon him. And although not every blessing is a blessing in reality – for it might be a trial for the slave and an enticement for him, or other than that – there remains the blessing of the honors that are indisputably nothing but the Grace which our Lord, عزّ وجل, bestows upon the best of His creation, and the most beloved of them to Him was our Prophet Muhammad, صلى الله عليه وسلم.

Indeed it is the blessing of “maintaining steadfastness” and not being affected by the misguidance and deception of those who are astray, as Allāh Ta’ālā says,

وَلَوْلاَ فَضْلُ اللّهِ عَلَيْكَ وَرَحْمَتُهُ لَهَمَّت طَّآئِفَةٌ مُّنْهُمْ أَن يُضِلُّوكَ وَمَا يُضِلُّونَ إِلاُّ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَضُرُّونَكَ مِن شَيْءٍ وَأَنزَلَ اللّهُ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَعَلَّمَكَ مَا لَمْ تَكُنْ تَعْلَمُ وَكَانَ فَضْلُ اللّهِ عَلَيْكَ عَظِيمًا

Had not the Grace of Allāh and His Mercy been upon you (O Muhammad), a party of them would certainly have made a decision to mislead you, but (in fact) they mislead none except their own selves, and no harm can they do to you in the least. Allāh has sent down to you the Book (The Qur’ān), and Al-­Hikmah (the Prophet’s Sunnah), and taught you that which you knew not. And Ever Great is the Grace of Allāh unto you (O Muhammad) [1]

And in the Chapter that follows it, Allāh عزّ وجل says, warning His Prophet about these misguided pursuers of Fitnah:

وَأَنِ احْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ اللّهُ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءهُمْ وَاحْذَرْهُمْ أَن يَفْتِنُوكَ عَن بَعْضِ مَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ إِلَيْكَ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْاْ فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللّهُ أَن يُصِيبَهُم بِبَعْضِ ذُنُوبِهِمْ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ النَّاسِ لَفَاسِقُونَ

And so judge (you O Muhammad) between them by what Allāh has revealed and follow not their vain desires, but beware of them lest they turn you far away from some of that which Allāh has sent down to you. And if they turn away, then know that Allāh’s Will is to punish them for some sins of theirs. And truly, most of men are Fāsiqūn (rebellious and disobedient to Allāh) [2]

And despite the fact that the believer of all time periods understands the greatness of this virtue, it is the believer during the period of estrangement (Ghurbah) that [reaches] the highest degree of absorption and understanding of the greatness of this Divine blessing, especially when he sees the plenitude of those around him who lapsed without attaining what [they] sought after – and there is no Might or Power except with Allāh. So these situations increase the believer in faith and in deference, and they increase him in his turning to and his need of Allāh, and they increase him in contempt and scorn for himself.

Exactly as the Companions, may Allāh be pleased with them, used to act.

So you see, for example, the guided and directed Imām, the legal expert, [the one] who was given the glad tidings of Paradise and Deliverance – ‘Umar Bin Al-Khattāb, may Allāh be pleased with him, was copious in his weeping over himself and his fear over himself from the sources of hypocrisy, so he would say to Hudhayfah, may Allāh be pleased with him, “I ask you by Allāh, did the Messenger of Allāh count me as one of the hypocrites?”

And Ibn Abī Mulaykah said, “I met thirty of the Prophet’s companions, صلى الله عليه وسلم, and all of them feared for himself from hypocrisy.”

So because of this, they were, may Allāh be pleased with them, the best of the people in action, and the most copious of them in fear, and the most severe of them in accounting themselves due to the glorification of Allāh that was established in their hearts, and their knowledge of His being entitled to a hundred times the worship and submission that the slaves perform.

And due to this Divine consciousness in their hearts, may Allāh be pleased with them, the Messenger of Allāh, صلى الله عليه وسلم, made their methodology the standard next to which no other is acknowledged. So in the Hadīth, “‘And this Ummah will divide into 73 sects, all of them in the Hellfire except one.’ So they [the Companions] said, ‘Which one is it, O Messenger of Allāh?’ He said, ‘Those who were upon what I and my companions are upon today’” [3]. And because of this, the one who seeks to take an example should take them as an example, may Allāh be pleased with them, especially if the strangeness of the Religion heightens and the helpers and the supporters are few in number.

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