RENAISSANCE AUGUST 2020

Faith & Beliefs 49 Monthly Renaissance August 2020 and whatever he has is due to his own privilege, or becomes despicable and abject, believing that God has abased and forsaken him. He thus loses the self respect that could provide him the status of a dignified and honourable person in society. This imbalance is the result of the mistake a person makes when he begins to believe that the blessings of God are due to his own privilege and the fruits of his own ability and efforts. This idea is an idolatrous idea. The monotheistic concept is that hardship and good times, times of prosperity and poverty, all come from God; that all are challenges for him. He should believe that prosperous times are for him to give thanks and times of poverty are a challenge for his perseverance. A servant is assessed on the scale of faith in both these situations because faith is the totality of both gratitude and perseverance. If a person has this idea, his inner self will be balanced. He will neither lose heart when faced with problems, nor will he become proud and arrogant during times of wealth and prosperity. When he is surrounded by enemies and there are huge rewards for his head, then when the last danger is upon him, he will console his only companion in these words: “If ye help not [your leader], [it is no matter]: for Allah did indeed help him, when the Unbelievers drove him out: he had no more than one companion; they two were in the cave, and he said to his companion: ‘Have no fear, for Allah is with us.’ Then Allah sent down His peace upon him, and strengthened him with forces which ye saw not, and humbled to the depths the word of the Unbelievers. But the word of Allah is exalted to the heights: for Allah is Exalted in might, Wise.” (9:40); and when he might be mistaken for a great king within his vast clouds of armies, his forehead is prostrating to his God on the saddle of his horse. The Qur’ ā n has used the term nafs e mu ṭ ma’innah for such a soul: [To the righteous soul will be said:] “O (thou) soul, in [complete] rest and satisfaction! Come back thou to thy Lord, well pleased [thyself], and well-pleasing unto Him!” (89:27-30) ( Translated by Nikhat Sattar ) ـــــــــــــــــــــــــ