How to attain Ikhlaas
Ikhlass (sincerity) cannot be
combined in the heart together with the love of being praised and
the greed for what other people have, except in the way that water
and fire are combined.
So if your conscious tells you to seek ikhlaas, then turn to greed
firstly, and slaughter it with the knife of despair (i.e. give up
hope in worldly belongings), then turn to the love of being praised
and abandon it like how those who adore the life of this world
abandon the hereafter. If you are successful in slaughtering greed
and in abandoning the love of being praised, then ikhlaas will be
easy for you.
And if you ask: “And what will make slaughtering greed and
abandoning the love of being praised easy for me?”
I reply: As for slaughtering greed, then what will facilitate this
for you is your knowledge with certainty that there is nothing
whatsoever that is desired, except that with Allah alone are its
treasures, none possesses them except Him, and the slave is given
nothing from them except by Him.
And as for abandoning the love of being praised, then what will
facilitate this for you, is your knowledge that no one’s praise
benefits and adorns, and no ones dispraise harms and makes one ugly,
except the praise and dispraise of Allah alone. One bedouin said to
the messenger of Allah (SWT) “Indeed whoever I praise is adorned,
and whoever I dispraise is unadorned.” So he (SAW) said: “That is
[for] Allah (SWT) [alone].”
So abandon the praise of he whose praise does not adorn you and he
whose dispraise does not make you any worse. And seek the praise of
He whose praise has all the adornment and He whose dispraise has all
the ugliness. And it is not possible to achieve this except with
patience and surety, and whenever you lose patience and surety, you
become like one who wants to travel across the oceans without a
boat.”
Allah the glorified said "So be patient (O Muhammad). Verily, the
promise of Allah is true, and don't let those who have no certainty
of faith discourage you from conveying Allah’s message (which you
are obliged to convey)." [Surah: 30/60].
And He, The most high, said "And We made from amongst them (Children
of Israel), leaders, giving guidance under Our command, when they
were patient and used to believe with certainty in Our ayat."
[Surah: 32/24]
Source: Al Fawaa’id by Ibnul Qayyim |
