LEVELS OF STRIVING AGAINST THE SOUL | IBN AL-QAYYIM
Imām ibn Al-Qayyim – may Allāh have mercy on him – states:
“… thus, striving against the soul (Jihād-un-Nafs) is of
four levels:
The first of them: that he strives against it (his soul)
upon learning guidance and the religion of truth, without which there is no
success and no happiness for it (his soul), not in this life nor in the
hereafter, and when this knowledge is absent from it, it is wretched in both
abodes.
The second: that he strives against it in acting (upon that
knowledge) after learning it. Otherwise knowledge alone without action, if it
does not harm it, it will not benefit it.
The third: that he strives against it in calling to it (i.e.
guidance and the religion of truth), and teaching it to whoever does not know
it, otherwise he will be from those who
conceal what Allāh has revealed of guidance and clear proofs, and his knowledge
will not benefit him and it will not save him from the punishment of Allāh.
The fourth: that he strives against it upon being patient
with the hardships of calling to Allāh and the harms from the creation, and
that he forbears all of this for the sake of Allāh.”
Zād Al-Ma’ād (3/9)
Tower Hamlets Dawah
