VSincerity — Ikhlas
The gate
If the seeker holds an ulterior motive at the beginning of the journey, the aim of the whole journey is nullified. The book puts this before any practice, because there is no point purifying an organ on behalf of an audience.
The sole aim of this journey is to please Allah, and to achieve success in this world and the Hereafter. If the seeker begins with something else in mind — to attain respect in the eyes of people, to acquire money, to become famous — then on the Day of Judgement he deserves punishment rather than reward. His efforts will bring no fruit, because his worship was for other than Allah, which is a kind of minor polytheism.
The correct intention, the book says, is to believe:
I am performing these good deeds and actions — dhikr, worship, abstaining from sins — to please Allah only, and to save my soul from the hellfire, and to achieve paradise in the Hereafter.
The true and sincere worshipper worships unconditionally, remaining steadfast in seeking His pleasure without fearing the opinion of people — without fearing their pleasure or displeasure, whether they confer respect or disrespect, whether he gains or loses. The true seeker concerns himself only with his journey.
Two narrations, set side by side
How little is enough, and how much is not
Even a modest sum spent, a small good deed, or a few brief moments held with sincerity for the pleasure of Allah alone, will be rewarded many times over — and what one thought was a small act could be sufficient for one’s salvation.
Among the previous nations there was an unchaste woman, whom everyone considered impious and cursed. On one occasion, with full sincerity and goodness of mind, she quenched the thirst of a dog. And Allah became so pleased with this outwardly small act that He rewarded her with eternal salvation.
A man sacrificed his life in a holy war, and on the Day of Judgement he was to be thrown into the hellfire. The reason was that he had sacrificed his life to attain fame, name and glory in the sight of people, and so that society would commemorate his bravery after his death. Allah will confirm to him that he achieved exactly the result he desired in the temporal world — and that there is therefore no reward from Allah in the Hereafter.
We must aim to become the pleasers of Allah, not the pleasers of the people.
An eye-opening incident
“You won’t reach one degree closer to Me”
Many people begin the journey, perform good deeds and real effort, and then — through lack of knowledge — are deceived by Shaytan and the nafs. Devilish thoughts begin to enter: why am I not experiencing the miracles and the supernatural occurrences of the high-ranking friends of Allah, despite all this dhikr and contemplation and following of the Sunnah? The person begins to expect good dreams, visions, colours and lights during worship.
When the experiences do not come, he becomes disheartened, considers himself one of the rejected ones, and abandons the path.
For anyone caught in that web, the book records the following. Imam Abdul Wahaab ash-Sha’rani — a famous imam, a friend of Allah, a practising scholar and a master of the science of self-purification — narrates that on Monday, the 17th of Rajab 931 Hijrah, it came into his mind that he should seek the high stations of the awliya, and the urge became strong in him that he should have the power to see other worlds with his inner eye.
Not possessing such powers, he grieved, considered himself insignificant and worthless, and this thought made his life miserable. His heart became constricted; he was not happy with Allah’s will, and in a way was objecting to Allah’s distribution — why has He not given me such states and stations? He became so worried that he feared he might die without faith, through Allah’s wrath. He lost consciousness, went out to the outskirts of the city in Egypt, to an old dwelling known as Fustat, and sat in front of a garden. And at that moment he entered a state between wakefulness and sleep, and heard a voice, though he could see no one.
O My servant. If I gave you all the knowledge of the universe, so that you could count every grain of sand, and name all the plants and trees and grass, their age and properties and names; and the wild animals and all their kinds and ages; and the birds, and every insect on the earth, and the fish, and every creature, their names and ages and destinies, and the lineage of every living creature from the very beginning of its existence until now; and the angels living in paradise, and the women of paradise, and the heavenly gardens and the palaces of paradise, and whatever is in hell and in heaven; and if you knew every minute detail of everything, and the angels holding the great ‘Arsh; and if by your supplication rain were sent down and the dead became alive; and every miracle I have given to all the saints — I gave them all together to you. Even then, with all these qualities and wonders, you would not reach one degree closer to Me in the state of worship, gratitude, nearness and pleasure.
Everything listed there is bestowed upon a servant by his Lord, with no contribution or input from the servant at all. A person actually attains His closeness when he performs an act for His pleasure only, in conformity with the prophetic way.
So how then?
Two qualities the seeker must adopt
First, inwardly — instil within the heart and mind the continuous presence of Allah, by deeply believing that Allah the Exalted is with me, watching me, and listening to me.
Second, outwardly — apply the Sunnah and Shariah in all actions, in daily life, from the smallest act of worship all the way up to financial dealings. And perform good deeds, and be compassionate upon the creation of Allah.
If supernatural occurrences then happen, take comfort in them and become more steadfast in practising and preaching. As long as one does not aim for them, and the reaction is to become more steadfast, one is unlikely to come to harm.
An honest objection
But I do want to be thought well of
The book does not pretend this desire away. It is true that human beings have an innate wish for their good qualities and deeds to be known, appreciated and honoured. A person’s yearning to be known is similar to the way a person feels hunger for food. Both are primarily faultless, natural desires — basic ingredients of human nature.
They become condemnable in the same way hunger does: not by existing, but by being fed unlawfully. A person who satisfies hunger with haram food or drugs has not sinned by being hungry. Likewise there is no evil in the essence of wanting to be known — the inclination becomes sinful when one fulfils it by seeking honour and praise in the sight of people rather than with Allah. Such a person worships Allah outwardly while worshipping the creation inwardly.
And it can be fed lawfully. If a person fulfils the desire to be known and appreciated by thinking that Allah the All-Seeing is seeing me, the All-Hearing hears my every word and whisper, the All-Knowing knows my thoughts and circumstances and deeds — and that Allah as-Shakoor, the Most Ready to Appreciate, will appreciate and reward every deed in a way no one else can — then the person is rewarded immensely, because he fulfilled the desire in the correct and lawful way.
How ikhlas is actually acquired
Not by reading about it
Sincerity does not enter a person by reading books or chapters about it. What enters by reading is merely the knowledge and awareness of sincerity — not sincerity itself. To be adorned with it, the seeker must go one step further and practise its levels, vigilantly, in everyday life.
Its central principle is to believe, with the depths of one’s heart, when performing a good action: that the creation of Allah cannot benefit or harm without Allah’s permission; that the deed is performed only for the pleasure of Allah; and that honour or dishonour, profit or loss, life or death all lie in the hands of Allah the Most High.
Level one, and the ninety days
The first level is to check and refresh one’s intention at the beginning, in the middle, and towards the end of every major act of worship. If one fails to do this, there is no guarantee the deed will be sincere and rewardable.
The book explains it with a cake. A deed is like a cake, which requires baking to be fit for eating. If the dough is defective from the beginning, the outcome will be poor. If it burns midway through, the result is again unsatisfactory. And even if the baking was exemplary at the beginning and in the middle, if the dough overheats towards the end, the concluding result is very poor and the cake unsuitable to eat.
The seeker holds himself to account on this for ninety consecutive days using the sheet of sincerity. After completing level one, he may proceed to level two, and onwards to level seven.
The seven levels
- In all major good deeds — the five daily prayers, one's dhikr — perform them for the pleasure of Allah and in order to attain salvation and reward in the Hereafter. Check and refresh the intention at the beginning, the middle and the end.
- When performing any worship, be in the presence of Allah, and pay no heed to your feelings or desires. Sometimes one feels like doing good deeds, and at other times one does not — and listening to that is the wrong concept. Say instead: 'I am doing this because I am the servant of Allah, and my Lord has commanded me to do so.' Three consecutive cycles of thirty days.
- Perform your deeds only for the pleasure of Allah — and not even for Paradise.
- Perform them for Allah because He is Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. Not even for His pleasure or a high spiritual ranking, because in those there is still some 'want' left. Purely for Him, for who He is.
- To worship Allah purely for His sake, because the decisions about Hell, Paradise and its ranks have already been made in the knowledge of Allah.
- To worship Allah for whom He is, without any motive and without any cause.
- To believe: 'I am still trying to achieve ikhlas, and will keep trying and striving until death.' Not to consider that one has achieved ikhlas — because that is attributing a lofty station to yourself.