8-Belief and Islam - Hakikat Kitabevi

sa’îd in eternity will get the lot of having îmân and correcting his
bad habits by undergoing riyâda. The 125th âyat of the sûrat al-
An’âm declares, ‘Allâhu ta’âlâ places Islam into the heart of
a slave of His whom He wishes to guide to the right path.’ A
person who was shaqî in eternity, that is, who was predestined
to go to Hell, is given the thought, ‘There is no need to perform
’ibâdât. It was predestined in eternity whether a person would
be sa’îd or shaqî.’ He does not perform ’ibâdât because of this
thought. His not performing ’ibâdât because of this thought
shows that he was determined to be shaqî in eternity. Likewise,
a person whose ignorance was predestined in eternity is given
the thought, ‘Everything was predestined in eternity. Reading or
learning will be of no benefit to a person if he was predestined
to be ignorant.’ Thus he does not study or learn anything. He
remains ignorant. If it was predestined for a person to farm and
get crops abundantly, he is given the lot of ploughing his field
and sowing seeds. So is the case with those who were
preordained as sa’îd in eternity to have îmân and to worship
and those who were preordained as shaqî to disbelieve and
disobey. Idiots, unable to understand this, say, ‘What do îmân
and ’ibâdât have to do with being sa’îd in eternity, or disbelief
and disobedience with being shaqî?’ With their short reason,
they try to comprehend this relation and to solve everything with
their own intellect. But the human reason is limited, and it is
stupidity or idiocy to attempt to understand the things beyond
reason’s comprehension with reason. Those who think so
should be judged to be stupid. ’Îsâ (’alaihi s-salâm) said, ‘It was
not difficult for me to make the congenital blind see, nor even to
resuscitate the dead. But I could not explain the truth to any
idiot.’ Allâhu ta’âlâ, with His Infinite Knowledge and Wisdom
(Hikma), promotes some of His slaves to the grade equal to that
of angels, even to a higher grade than that. And some others
He demotes to the grade of dogs or swines.”
Hadrat Sheref ad-dîn Ahmad ibn Yahyâ Munîrî wrote in his
76th letter:
“ ‘Sa’âda’ means ‘deserving Paradise.’ And ‘shaqâwa’
means ‘deserving Hell.’ Sa’âda and shaqâwa are like Allâhu
ta’âlâ’s two warehouses. The key to the first warehouse is
obedience and ’ibâda. The key to the second warehouse is
sinfulness. Allâhu ta’âlâ destined in eternity whether a person
would be sa’îd or shaqî. [We call it destiny.] A person who was
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