Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The Cost of Love

It has been related that a man said, "Oh Messenger of Allah, I indeed love you." He (Allah bless him and grant him peace) replied, "Prepare for poverty." The man then said, "I indeed love Allah (Exalted is He!). He replied, "Prepare for tribulation."

(Reported in Tirmidhi, taken from Ghazali, Kitab al-Mahabbah wa'l-shawq wa'l-uns wa'l-rida' from the Ihya' 'ulum al-din, 6:181)

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:44 PM

    salam alaykom
    what a beautiful hadis. i thank you for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wa'alaykum Assalam wa Rahmatullah,

    Anonymous: Alhamdulillah, thank you.

    Liam: Liamitis :) haha...Sorry, I didn't realize it's been a week since I posted...which speaks for how busy the last week has been at work. Insha'Allah, some updates are soon to come! You updated? I'll be sure to check it out insha'Allah...!

    Barak Allahu fi kum.

    Wassalam,
    Salikah

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous8:00 PM

    as salamu alaikum sister.

    jazak'Allah khair for the reminder.
    if possible, can you please elaborate on this hadith (what exactly it's supposed to convey?)?

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  4. Anonymous8:03 PM

    as salamu alaikum sister.
    jazak'Allah khair for the reminder.
    if possible, can you please elaborate on the meaning of this hadith...what it's supposed to convey?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous8:04 PM

    OOPS! i'm so sorry! i thought my original comment got deleted..and so i had to retype it :P
    apologies...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wa'alaykum Assalam,

    I'm hesitant to say what I take as the meaning of this hadith without first checking what the shuyukh of hadith have said, lest I misrepresent it publically.

    If anyone else knows, they're welcome to share...

    Barak Allahu fik.

    Wassalam,
    Salikah

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous12:41 PM

    To the best of my knowledge, this statement is a reference
    to 'spiritual poverty', which, for the Sufis, is the greatest of all virtues. It is, in fact, that which characterizes our entire human condition: we are the poor and only God is rich. We are 'poor' in every sense of the word: whatever material wealth we have comes from God, and we are all in a state of need, whether we are wealthy or not. We have, as the Sufis like to
    call it, 'ontological poverty', that is, 'poverty by the very nature of our being', since even our being is 'lent' to us from God. If we love His Messenger (upon whom be peace), then we must be prepared for 'poverty', that is, we must be prepared for the spiritual life, which is entirely characterized by poverty every step of the Way. After all, the Prophet said, "Poverty is my pride". We, therefore, must take pride in poverty in every sense of the word. As for 'tribulation', this too is a requirement for the lovers of God: the Way is
    characterized by tribulation and difficulties: "God only tests those whom He loves", and "tribulation is the salt of the believers".

    ReplyDelete