'They are people with high status prestige' (qasida 15:48)

This is the motto of this section, which is for talking about the companions and beloved ones to our prophet Mohammad [PPBUH].

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This is how the prince of believers used to get advice

Advice to the Prince of Believers [AAH]

In the early times when both the advisors and the advisees were great, came Imam Umar ibn Abdel-Aziz to follow the footsteps of his grandfather, Imam Umar ibn al-Khattab, and to fix when his preceding, not so good, caliphs spoiled. He filled earth with justice after it was filled with injustice and unfairness.

Asram al-Kharasany, narrating from Mohamed ibn al-Husain, said: The prince of believers Umar ibn Abdel-Aziz once asked Imam Al-Hassan Al-Bassry for an advice, so the Imam Al-Hassan wrote him back the following:

O prince of believers, know that this worldly life is a land of traveling, it is not a place of settlement. Adam was punished when he was brought down to Earth from Heaven, yet some people who do not know what a reward from Allah is, might think that this worldly life is a reward. Others who don’t know what a punishment from Allah is, might think that it is a punishment. It has a rage from time to time, and these rages are not alike. It insults whoever honors it, humiliates whoever treasures it, and it strikes down whoever prefers it. It has victims all the time, because, like poison, who does not it, eats it while it has his death. From this worldly life, what to take is abandoning it, and being rich is by being poor. O, Prince of believers, be patient with it as if you are treating your wound and have to endure the medicine for fear of long affliction. You have to endure for short time to avoid what you hate for a long time. People of virtues spend their lives in this world saying the right things, walking with modestly, eating only what is good and Halal, and closing their eyes off the unlawful. Their fear from Allah is the same in land and in sea, in sorrow and in joy. If it was not for their fated death times, their souls would have left their bodies from fearing Allah's punishment and longing to His rewards. Their Creator is so glorified in their hearts that creatures became so small in their eyes.

O, prince of believers, thinking leads to good deeds, regretting evil deeds leads to abandoning it. However big what makes you rich, does not deserve preferring to what lasts for the hereafter, no matter how hard it was to get. Enduring the transient hardship that is followed by a lasting comfort, is better than a transient rest followed by an everlasting hardship and a long remorse. So be ware of this killer deserting worldly life, which is decorated with deceive, killing with conceit, and deceiving with hopes, until it became like a brightened bride, eyes are looking at her, heart are infatuated by her, and souls are loving her, yet she is killing all her husbands. Living people do not learn from the dead ones. No one learns from what it did to the others, nor listens to what knowledgeable people say about it. Hearts will only love it and souls will only adore it. Whoever adores something will not be inspired by anything else, will not understand anything else, will die seeking it, and will always prefer it to anything else. These deceived ones will be one of two hard seeking lovers:

- The first is the one who got what he needed from the worldly life. Then he was conceited, became tyrant, forgot, and became heedless of the beginning of his creation, so he lost what he would return to in the afterlife. No matter how long he stays, how bad his status was, and how high his hopes were in this worldly life, it will not be too long until his foot slips and his life comes to its end. Then his regret will be great and his remorse will be so much with the agony of death. His agony will compile with his anguish and his will shock on the regret of loss. His condition will be indescribable.

- The second is the one who died before he could get what he needed from the worldly life. So he died with his grief and heartache for he did not get what he sought, although he could not rest from the drudgery, sweat, and even the play.

They both went out of life with nothing to use in the hereafter, and they will find no flat land to walk on.

So be very cautious of this worldly life, because it is like a snake; smooth when touch it, but kills you with its poison. So turn away from it because very little is what you can get from, and put down what you carry of its worry, as you know for sure that you will eventually abandon. Make what you take best from it is hoping of what comes after. Take your most causation when you are best pleased with it, because people of worldly life, the more they are assured of and pleased with its company, the more it will be pleased to hurt them. The more they get of what they love from it, the more it turns its back to them with what they hate. What pleases, from it to its people, is deceiving and what is useful from it became harmful. Its welfare is connected to its affliction and its existence leads to extinction. Its pleasure is mixed with its sorrow. Whoever has its luxury, is spoiled.

O prince of believers, look to it as ascetic departing one not as loving adoring one. Let it be known to you that it stops the moving with the staying. whatever leaves you will never get back, whatever is waiting will never miss you, and what is clear will only be followed with what is troubled. So be ware of it, as its wishes are false, its hops are untrue, its living is embittered, and its clearness is troubled. You are always endangered in it with either vanishing luxury, afflicting ordeal, gross calamity, or ending death. Its living will be troubled for whoever has mind, as he knows that he is in danger from its happiness, in anticipation of its troubles, and with certainty from his death. If Allah, Blessed His name, did not tell us about it, gave us its examples, and ordered us to renounce its pleasures, it would still awake the asleep and warn the heedless. So what about when He, Almighty, gave us restraints and warnings from it? He told us that, for Him, it has no weight or value, it is less than a pebble or a pip. Allah did not create anything which He does not like worse that this worldly life and He never looked at it ever since He created it. It was offered to the Prophet [PPBUH], with all its treasuries and keys and without losing his rank or stature with Allah, but he turned it down. The Prophet knew that Allah does not like it, so he did not like it either and he knew that Allah does not value it, so he did not either. If the Prophet accepted it it would have been a sign that he loved it, he [PPBUH] hated to like what Allah does not, or to value high what Allah valued low.

Mohamed ibn al-Husain said that this advice ended with:

Do not feel safe that these words will not be used as evidence against you. May Allah avails you and us with the advice. And peace and mercy of Allah be upon you.

The source of the narration is the book of the news of Abi-Hafs Umar ib Abdel-Aziz by Abi-Bakr Mohamed ibn al-Husain (360 Hijri).

Edited by Salem Ghanem

Translated by Shayma

Whoever wants to read more about the great companions, can browse the companions pages in al-Ahbab site.

Editors Team