The Sermon of The Pious (part 9)
51. They have endurance in hardship.
They tolerate hardship and difficulty. They are patient in distress and by relying God, they persist straitened circumstances. When a person resists erotism and difficult situations he/she imprisons the spirit from carnal appetite and to force him for obedience. All the good behaviors are related to patience. A positive and important action cannot happen without a dissenter. Freedom, independence, faith, virtue, acquiring knowledge, and etc. cannot exist without difficulty.
Patience is a guarantee for all good deeds. With patience, one can achieve great aims.
52. They Search for the lawful.
The pious seek permissible goods. They never seek ill-gotten gains. Even when they receive a gift, they attempt to find out how it is obtained. God has only prescribed Permissible sustenance for the human beings. Although everything belongs to Him, but God has allowed us to the lawful and agreeable goods. Only by doing good deeds we can use the lawful. Our spirit is influenced by what we eat.
53. They have pleasure in guidance.
Their speech and appearance is vivacious and it is sprightful for others. Their faces are sources of joy and glee. Whoever sees them will become joyful and be freed from boredom. This joy is for the rewards that they have been promised. This vivacity is because of the great and honored purpose. Vivacity is due to the harmony between human’s spirit and action. If human’s spirit is attracted to an action, that action will be done with joy. But if a person does not have a specific purpose or faith in the purpose, inconveniency will appear in his/her worshipping. Laziness is sometimes due to bodily and spiritual tiredness. Whatever we do should be conjugated with vivacity.
Worshipping God should be done with joy. The purpose of worshipping is the purity of soul. If worshipping is done without sprightliness, it will cause tiff.
54. They have hatred from greed.
The pious are away from greed, greed means the attraction of the soul towards something which is the result of lust. There are two types of greed: Praised greed and dispraised greed. The former is like greed in God’s forgiveness or mercy and clemency. The latter is like greed that a person has towards other people’s possession which is very unappealing. This kind of greed ruins religion and destroys man. Those who covet humiliate their souls and nothing else. Such greed is the source of great immoralities for it causes jealousy, enmity, hatred, humiliation, backbiting, hypocrisy, and disgrace.
55. He performs virtuous deeds but still feels afraid.
The pious are afraid, although they do meritorious deeds. What are they afraid of? Fear of the refusal of their deeds and their intolerancy becomes of not having the veracity and acceptable conditions of their deed. The pious fear their deeds to have duplicity. They fear self-conceit. Duplicity, self- conceit, fame and uselessness of actions are evils which ruin the good deeds of the pious. Human being will traverse perfection if he accepts his imperfectness. If he/she will not attempt for becoming perfect.
56-57. In the evening he is anxious for offering thanks (to Allah).In the morning his anxiety is to remember (Allah).
At night the God- fearing attempts to thank God for what he has given him during the day and for what God has deprived him of. In the day he tries to remember God so that God remembers Him and provides him carnal and corporal Perfection. The extolment of God is for Him to remember them (the pious) and give them bounty. When you thank God, He will give you a reward. Thanking God increases the bounties. Remembering God is always an effective way to attract the divine attention to the self, so that He always remembers us and immunes us from dangers and errors.
The most effective remembrance is the one which has perseverance and is done with attention. By doing so, Allah is placed in the heart of the pious and His Glory and Divine light dominates his heart. Consequently Comfort and relief is achieved and this is the purpose of worshipping.
By Fahimeh Mahdavi
To be continued...
Other links:
The Sermon of The Pious (part 1)
The Sermon of The Pious (part 2)
The Sermon of The Pious (part 3)
The Sermon of The Pious (part 4)
The Sermon of The Pious (part 5)
The Sermon of The Pious (part 6)
The Sermon of The Pious (part 7)
The Sermon of The Pious (part 8)
