Ibn al Qayyim beautifully illustrates the example of trees in the heart
So oh possessor of a heart! Grow your tree on a ground fed with the love of your creator & seeking his pleasure!
And know that bitter fruits await the disobedient seekers of the pleasure of the creation!
Imām Ibn Al Qayyim Al Jawziyah – Rahimahullah – stated
in his book of benefits, ‘Al-Fawāid’:
•The year is a tree, the months are its branches, the days are its
smaller limbs or branches, the hours are its leaves and the breaths (that you
take) are its fruits.
Whoever’s breaths are spent in obedience (to Allah) then the fruits
of his tree will be good. And whoever’s breaths are spent in disobedience (to
Allah) then his fruits will be bitter.
The time of harvest (of your fruits or rewards) will be the day of
return (the day of judgement). At the time of harvest the sweet fruit will become clear or distinct from the bitter
fruit.
•Sincerity and Tawhīd (Monotheism) is a tree in the heart, its
branches are actions, and its fruits are a good existence in the Dunya (the
world) and an everlasting bliss in the hereafter.
The fruits of Jannah (paradise) are not
limited to seasons and their supply is never cut off, likewise the fruits of
Tawhīd and sincerity in the Dunya are the same (i.e. they are never cut off).
•Shirk (polytheism), lies and Riyā’
(showing off ones actions of worship to the people) is a tree in the heart, the
fruit of which is fear, anxiety, distress or grief, tightening of the chest
and darkening of the heart.
Its
fruit in the hereafter are Zaqqūm (the fruits of its
stalks are like the heads of devils) and an
everlasting punishment.
And Allah has mentioned these two trees (the two trees
that exist in the hearts, the tree of Tawhīd and
the tree of Shirk) in Surah Ibrahīm.1
(‘Al Fawaid’, page 240-241 ; Dār Ālim al-Fawāid, third
edition, 1438H)
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1See
Surah Ibrahīm: Ayah 23-27
Translated
by Abu Affān, HakĪm bin Bilāl Davis
@hakeemibnbilaal/status/1235611435838746625
8:01 PM . Mar 5, 2020
