Hadith al Qudsi
Compiled by an unknown author, translated by Yasin T. Al-Jibouri.
He (S) said,
“Lord! What is the beginning of adoration?”
The Almighty said,
“The beginning of adoration is silence and fast.”
He (S) said,
“Lord! What is the legacy of fast?”
The Almighty said,
“Fast lets one inherit wisdom; wisdom lets one inherit knowledge and knowledge lets one inherit conviction. Once a servant reaches conviction, he does not care about how he starts his day, whether in hardship or in ease, and when such a servant is in the state of dying, angels stand at his head:
In the hands of each angel is a cup of the water of al-Kawthar and a cup of wine. They give his soul to drink till his stupor and bitterness are gone, and they convey to him the greatest glad tiding and say, ‘Good, you are, and good is your abode! You are going to the most Great One, the Wise, the Near One!’ His soul will then fly away from the hands of the angels and ascend to Allah Almighty faster than the blinking of an eye, and no veil, nor a curtain remains between it and Allah Almighty, while Allah, the Great, the Sublime, is eager to receive it.
It sits at a spring near the Arsh, and it is said to it, ‘How did you leave the world [behind]?’ It will say, ‘My Lord! By Your Greatness and Honor! I know nothing about life! Since You created me, I remained fearful of You!’ Allah Almighty will then say, ‘You, O My servant, have said the truth; your body was in life while your soul was with Me. You are in My view, I see what you hide and what you reveal; ask Me and I shall give you, and make a wish, and I shall be generous to you by granting you this Paradise of Mine which you desire, and this is my neighborhood, so live in it.’
The soul will then say, ‘Lord! You made me know You, so I was enriched by it and did not need besides it any of Your creation. By Your Greatness and Honor! Had Your pleasure been that I should be cut to pieces and be killed seventy times in the most severe way whereby people are killed, achieving Your Pleasure would have been more dear to me. How can I like myself while I am helpless unless You honor me, vanquished unless You grant me victory, weak unless You strengthen me and dead unless You give me life through Your remembrance? Had it not been for your covering, I would have been scandalized the very first time when I disobeyed You. Lord! How can I not seek Your Pleasure while You have perfected my reason till I came to know You, to know right from wrong, bidding from forbidding, knowledge from ignorance and light from darkness.’
Allah, the most Great and the most Honored, will say, ‘By My greatness and Honor! I shall not have a veil between Me and you at any time; thus do I fare with the ones that I love.’
O Ahmad (S)! Do you know which living is the most pleasurable and which life is the most enduring?”
He (S) said,
“No, Lord, I do not.”
The Almighty said,
“As for the pleasurable living, it is that of one who never ceases remembering Me, nor does he forget My bliss, nor is he ignorant of My right. He seeks My Pleasure day and night.
As for the enduring life, it is that of one who labors for [the good of] his soul till life becomes worthless in his eyes and diminishes while the Hereafter becomes magnified; he favors what I desire over what he desires; he seeks what pleases Me, respects the right of My greatness, remembers that I know all bout him, so he remains vigilant in the night and the day whenever he does anything wrong or commits any act of disobedience. He purifies his heart from anything that I hate. He hates Satan and his hissings and not permits any path for Satan to his heart.
Once he has done all of that, I shall let his heart be occupied by love, so much so that his heart becomes Mine when empty and when full, and I will then be his main concern. His speech will be of the blessing which I bestowed upon those whom I love from among My creation. I shall open the eyes of his heart and of his hearing till he hears with his heart and looks with his heart at My Greatness and Honor, and I shall let life be straitened on him and let him hold this life in contempt and hate every pleasure in it. I shall warn him against life and everything in it just as the shepherd warns his flock against the places of perdition. When he becomes as such, he shall flee away from people and be transported from the abode of extinction to the everlasting abode, and from the home of Satan to the home of the most Merciful One.
O Ahmad (S)! And I shall decorate him with awe and greatness, for such is the pleasurable living, the enduring life and the status of those who are pleased. If anyone acts upon My pleasure, I shall let him stick to three merits:
(1) I shall acquaint him with appreciation that is not mixed with ignorance,
(2) Remembrance that is not mixed with forgetfulness, and
(3) Love wherein he does not prefer to love creatures over loving Me.
When he loves me, I shall love him and open the eye of his heart to see My Greatness, and I shall not hide from him the elite from among My creation. I shall address him in the darkness of the night and in the light of the day till his talk with the creatures stops, and he stops keeping them company.
And I shall let him hear My speech and the speech of My angels and inform him of the secret which I kept from My creation. And I shall outfit him with the outfit of modesty till all beings become shy of him, and he shall walk on the earth forgiven, his heart aware and seeing, and I shall not hide anything from him, whether of felicity or of torment, and inform him of the horrors and hardships which people will have to endure on the Day of Judgment, how I shall hold the rich and the poor to account as well as those who are ignorant and those who know. I shall let him sleep in his grave and send him Munkar and Nakir to ask him, and he shall not see the adversity of death or the darkness of the grave and the tomb, or the horror of leaving the grave. Then shall I install the scales for him and spread his record, and I shall place his book in his right hand; he shall read it wide open, and I shall not let between Me and himself any interpreter, for these are the merits of those who love Me.
O Ahmad (S)! Let your worry be only one; let your tongue be only one, and let your body be alive so you may not be oblivious of Me. Anyone who is indifferent to Me, I shall not care in what valley he shall perish.
O Ahmad (S)! Use your mind before it is gone, for anyone who uses his mind does not err, nor does he oppress.
O Ahmad (S)! Have you not come to know for what thing I have preferred you over all other prophets?”
He (S) said,
“No, Lord, I do not.”
The Almighty said,
“I favored you with conviction, with good manners, with being outgiving, with being a mercy to the beings; so are the pillars of the earth: They did not become pillars except thus.
O Ahmad (S)! If a servant feels hungry, and if he safeguards his tongue, I teach him wisdom even if he may be an unbeliever; his wisdom will be evidence against him and perdition. If he is a believer, his wisdom will be light for him, proof, healing and mercy; so, he shall know what he did not and see what he could not. The first that I shall let him see will be his own faults so he will be distracted from the faults of others, and I shall let him see the minute things of knowledge so Satan may not enter upon him.
O Ahmad (S)! No part of adoration is dearer to me than silence and fast; so, whoever fasts but does not safeguard his tongue is like one who stands for prayers but does not recite anything [any verses from the Qur’an]. I will then grant him the rewards of standing but not those of the worshippers.
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