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Choose and reveal the strength of your intellect.
Nurayn
12/11/03 at 19:24:59
Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi (994-1064 AD):


I say to my soul, "Crystal-clear, not at all obscure.
The fact is that all people are born to die,
Being the sons of others who were born to die.
Keep yourself away from anything that may disgrace you;
Refuse all lusts; lust is the key that opens the gate to disaster.
I have observed that lust is easy and sweet at the beginning
but bitter at the end and hard to negotiate.
No matter what the pleasure, they are all followed by death,
even if a man lived twice as long as Noah, the son of Lamech.
Do not be tempted by the attractions of this world wich will
only last for a short time;
Death always hovering near us, warning us that this world will pass away.
It is not possible to rise above the attractions of this world unless you
start by being greatly attached to it and have many possessions.
Many have already attempted to rise above the world but their minds
are still firmly fixed on it.
A man who renounces hopes and pride in an empty world wich has been
sucked dry,
Is not like one who leaves it when it is like a milch cow with heavy udders.
A man who remembers the things that he shall receive in the world to come,
desiring them with a lover's passion and a holy mind,
Is most worthy in Paradise where he shall be furnished with a footstool
and canopy.
Anyone who has a certain knowledge of his own desires will see that
everything in other people's hands is mean and insignificant.
Anyone who has a sure knowledge of God would never disobey His commandments
even if he were given all the kingdoms of the world.
The best of all ways in life is the way of piety and asceticism and the person who
chooses this way is wise and the best of people.
But anyone who misses this path will find himself always in trouble
And have no enjoyment from his life, since he has not obeyed the commandment
to be pious.
Paradise is for those who march towards it light in spirit and virtuous in
character.
They are purged of the soul's grudges and have been granted the privilege of
feeling as powerful as kings and as carefree as beggars.
They lived as they wished, and they died as they desired,
And they won a lasting abode wich is spacious and blessed.
They disobeyed the call of their bodies in every aspect of pleasure,
lit by their spirit wich dispelled the darkness of strong lusts.
Were it not for their mortal bodies one might think they were living
the life of angels.
O God, grant them the best position and increase their goodness;
Shower them with mercy wherever they are, and bless them.
If people thought deeply about the reason for their creation,
nobody alive would laugh.


The heart refrained from amusement and pleasure,
It abstained in its appetite for love and liquor,
It did not desire to drink wine, nor to hunt gazelle.
The time had come for the heart to awaken and cast
away the covering veils  of darkness;
Its attention was drawn away from all that it usually
admired from fear of the day when God will reveal all secrets.
O soul! Work hard, gird your loins,
Abandon the empty quest of lust wich exhausts you.
Hasten towards salvation and work to be delivered from
passion's anxiety and eternal punishment.
It is possible that I may be victorious and escape from
its flames and hardship.
You trifler! Time is rushing past,
Are you not afraid of the pain of destruction?
After all the admonishments, it should be enough for
you just to see
The amazing invention of Time and what it does to people.
Abandon the place that provides no reliable pleasures.
Do not worry about gaining money wich is only bringing
ridicule upon you; in this world
No one is so sure-footed that he never slips;
The world is taken from under his feet and he is left in his misery.
Anyone who knows God in the real sense will refrain from disobeying Him,
And the fear of God will be deeply seated in his heart.
The transitory world is not like the everlasting one,
And true piety is not like an assumed garment.
A pious man is not like the impious.
True words are different from lies.
Even if we feel secure from God's punishment,
And have no fear of His anger, or of the hellfire wich He created
For wrongdoers who tell lies and amass sins,
Obedience to God should still be incumbent on us and help us to beat
back the temptations of lust.
We have seen how the world treats its own.
It is like fire making ashes.
How many of those who wear out their bodies in the service of God
And found their pleasure in hardship and trouble
such as no one would wish upon himself.
A man working hard to snatch the rosebuds of this world is
suddenly snatched by death and loses everything.
How many who achieved their desires, captured good things
they longed for,
Then found themselves facing what they always feared.
A man striving his hardest after his desires may in fact
be chasing his own ruin.
Sometimes when we see someone at the peak of society,
the next moment we see him brought low,
Having lost all his position and ranking,
Like a field of strong wheat, ready fro harvesting,
suddenly trampled underfoot.
How many there are who nearly kill themselves from longing
and lusting after some rapidly dissapearing object.
Is this not a wonderful word of warning to the wise,
confirming the merit of their way of life?
Hellfire awaits the wrongdoer if he turns aside from the right path.
In the day of final reckoning, Allah will expose him
and reveal all his secrets.
As for those whom God has favoured with unending
mercy and ever increasing bounties,
But from ignorance they have misused God's gifts in ways that are
condemned by the holy books,
Do they not deserve God's punishments on the Day of Resurrection,
To be cast into His wrath and fire?
Give thanks to the Lord God whose gentle might works in us as near
as the jugular vein,
Who has sustained all the people who have ever lived
in this world, wether Arabs or not,
And praise be to Allah for the favours He bestowed on us,
Who is the master of time and its vicissitudes.
He subjected to us earth and heaven and whatever is
in the air, the water and stars.
Listen (to Allah) and leave the sinner in his sin, for each of us must carry his own load.


This mortal world that gives us such lovely things
always takes them back again.
We flourish in our prime, then wither and decay.
Can a prudent man wish for anything so shortlived
And always followed by death?
How can eyes enjoy one hour of sleep
When they have observed the transience of everything?
How can the soul settle in a place known to be transitory?
How can it find time on earth to think when it does not know
where it will be after death?
How can it feel secure in a stronghold wich can be overthrown?
One hour of pleasure leads the ill doer to the eternal fire;
The soul is constantly goaded towards a destination it gave no
thought to.
The soul was created for one purpose and yearns after a
different one;
It does not know where its true happiness lies,
And chases after the wrong goal.
It rushes towards something that will eventually torture it,
And has no thought for God's punishment.
It neglects her obligations towards God;
It busies itself with trifling things.
An arrogant ruler goes too far in oppressing his people,
Blind to the fate that awaits his soul, happily working
towards its ruin,
Turned away from all that would bring true success.
His soul turns away from God's guidance and chases
the elusive pleasures of this world.
Wake up, arrogant people, and hasten back to God!
God has an abode full of unending fire.
Do not choose transitory things and lose something that lasts forever.
A man chooses and thereby reveals the strength of his intellect.
Re: Choose and reveal the strength of your intelle
se7en
12/12/03 at 04:10:53

as salaamu alaykum,

wow masha'Allah!  could you please tell me where this is from?
Re: Choose and reveal the strength of your intelle
Nurayn
12/12/03 at 19:17:38
wa alaykum Salaam se7en,

I copied this from a book that is so wonderful to read, i've read it so many times that the book has completely fallen apart, lol, it's called "In Pursuit of Virtue(The moral theology and psychology of Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi)" by M. Abu Laylah. It's a translation of Ibn Hazm's book Al Akhlaq wa'l-Siyar. It's divided into 12 sections, wich deals with the characteristics of the soul, company of friends, different kinds of love, morals and behavior, etc... Although Ibn Hazm lived in the 10th/11th century, his writing really speaks to your heart and you hardly get the feeling that he isn't a contemporary. I definately recommend this book. Hope you love it as much as i do!


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