The Book of Aphorisms: Being a translation of Kitab al-Hikam by Ibn ‘Ata’illah al-Iskandari

Author:Ibn ‘Ata’illah al-Iskandari [al-Iskandari, Ibn ‘Ata’illah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Islamic Book Trust
Published: 2015-06-26T07:00:00+00:00

15

Ward off people’s accolades

People praise you for what, according to their supposition, is yours; so you must blame yourself for what you know of those praises.

A true believer thinks too little of people’s praises and admiration for his deeds, because he knows well he does not deserve any credit for them. He thinks that Allah is the real cause of everything and only He deserves praises from any source. He blames himself for people’s admiration for him and wants to be away from it, as he considers himself an unworthy recipient.

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When a believer is lauded, he feels ashamed in front of Allah of being praised for an attribute that he cannot perceive in himself.

A believer who is praised by people is really ashamed of himself when he confronts Allah, because he has got credit for something which he does not deserve at all. He feels guilty because he knows himself better than others do and he believes that he was erroneously given credit for what Allah has done.

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The most ignorant one is he who forgoes his certitude for people’s suppositions.

One should not allow himself to be drawn by people’s opinions about him. He knows himself better than people; and people’s opinions about him stem from their suppositions and imaginations, while his opinion about himself comes from his certitude.

When he suspects his certitude about himself and Allah and accepts people’s suppositions about him, he is doing injustice to his own conscience.

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When He makes people praise you for what you do not deserve, praise Him for what He deserves.

A believer cannot enjoy people’s praising him, as he is disturbed by accepting what he does not deserve. In order to get rid of this distaste, he praises Allah, who deserves all praises and admiration for what he did.

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When ascetics are lauded, they are contracted because they perceive the praises hailing from creatures; but when gnostics are praised, they are expanded because they perceive it coming from the real King.

There is an obvious difference between how ascetics and gnostics consider praises and admiration from people. Ascetics (zuhhād) are averse to the praises of people, as they are afraid that it may adversely affect their relationship with Allah. They are expecting everything from Allah and nothing from people. So accepting anything from people, they fear, will affect what they are going to get from Allah. On the contrary, the gnostics, who are in a more elevated position and enjoy a closer relationship with Allah, are least concerned by what people think about them. They don’t think that anything can weaken their strong relationship with Allah. They take a different stance to people’s admiration and consider it to be coming from Allah. Whenever people praise them, it does not create any difficulty for them, as they consider it an opportunity to understand Allah more and more. For them, everything comes from Allah and nothing other than Allah is not in the picture.

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If something given to you expands you, and if something denied to you contracts you,

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