Salman ibn Fahd al-'Awdah
It would be good to ask ourselves why so many Muslims are so heedless of the relationship between cause and effect. How is it that they are able to disregard the numerous verses of the Qur'ân that attest to the genuineness of that relationship with respect to world matters and to the attainment of the Hereafter?
We find in unquestionable terms, Allah says: “So he followed a cause.” [ Sûrah al-Kahf : 85]
Allah also says: “It will neither be according to your desires nor those of the People of the Scripture. Whomsoever works evil will have the recompense thereof, and he will find neither protector nor helper besides Allah. And whoever, male or female, performs works of righteousness as a believer, they will enter Paradise and not an iota of injustice will they suffer. ” [ Sûrah al-Nisâ' : 123-124]
This same meaning reoccurs in the sacred texts thousands upon thousands of times. These are the texts that all Muslims hear and recite throughout their lives, and that they possibly also understand. However, rarely are they seen to apply the dictates of this meaning to the reality of their lives.
Some people might understand this concept with respect to certain aspects of their lives; however they refuse to apply it with consistency to their lives in general.
Though the simplest of Muslims can understand why a door will refuse to open if the wrong key is inserted into the lock, he will not apply this simplest of concepts to the rest of his affairs.
Consider the situation of a Muslim who is steeped in a life of sin and wishes to be free of it. However, you find him to have completely surrendered himself to his lusts and appetites and driven to indulge them. He has a desire to somehow turn penitent in a moment of inspiration, whereby his whole personality will suddenly make an about-face; he will close his eyes, and when he opens them he will be a new man with a new heart. He will, in that instant, start to love the very obedience that had all along been so burdensome to him and start loathing the sin that had always been so pleasurable and familiar to him all of his life. In that brief moment, every aspect of his past, his personality, his mindset, and even his physical being are supposed to undergo a complete and utter transformation.
He could wait forever for that moment to arrive. And very well it might never arrive, since he has made no effort and taken no practical steps to bring it about.
As for showing some initiative to take the first, small step in the right direction – maybe nothing more than to sincerely ask Allah for forgiveness or to nurture in the heart a true willingness to change and to translate this into some good action or a resolve to make today a little better than yesterday or tomorrow a little better than today – this is something that many people either do not believe in or simply do not have the patience for.
A person should look upon himself as a set of scales, with the right pan being for good deeds and the left for sinful deeds. He should see the way forward as being a perpetual effort to add weights to the right pan and remove them from the left, so that he may tip the scales heavily in favor of righteousness. Abû Bakr said: “The scale upon which nothing but truth is placed deserves to weigh heavily upon what is right.” This is a concept that many people have not been conditioned to accept. They regard it as a long, difficult, and tedious path to tread.
The human mindset is an exceedingly complicated affair. A person accustomed to a life of sin carries with him a program of deep experience, long-standing memories, and familiar habits. His sins, with the passage of time, grow and spread through his personality like weeds; they become taller and thicker, their roots sinking deeper, becoming ever more difficult to eradicate from his personality. They steadily choke out his resolve and his willingness to change, which grow weaker and weaker by the day.
For a person to all of a sudden undergo and complete transformation for the better, though possible by Allah's grace and mercy, is not to be expected when we consider the natural causes and the norms that generally accompany such a change.
Even when such a sudden change is possible, a responsible person will show some initiative to condition and prepare himself to receive such a blessing. Allah says: “Surely Allah's mercy is near to those who do good.” [ Sûrah al-A`râf : 56]
Why won't a person take that first step so he can find Allah's help waiting for him? The Prophet (peace be upon him) relates to us that his Lord has said: “If the servant draws near to me a handspan, I draw near to him the length of a forearm. If he draws near to me the length of a forearm, I draw near to him the span of two outstretched arms. If he comes to me walking, I go to him at speed. [ Sahîh al-Bukhârî ]
Why won't a person do what that man did who killed a hundred souls, then repented and went forth to go to a town where righteousness dwelled and died on the way, with his heart set on that town. He found forgiveness, as related to us in Sahîh al-Bukhârî and Sahîh Muslim .
This is the positive spirit that is needed; a spirit that does not belittle any valuable effort and does not believe in quick fixes and instantaneous change. This is the spirit that is in conformity with the laws of cause and effect that Allah has placed in His creation.
By possessing such a spirit, millions of people will find the wherewithal to effectively change their lives for the better. With the help of Allah, they will be able to improve themselves, their moral character, their worship, and their lives.
Waiting around for a sudden change to take place is the dream of the lazy student who repeatedly meets with failure while waiting to be endowed with a stroke of genius. It is the dream of the poor man who does nothing to earn his daily bread, but longs for gold and silver to rain down on him from the sky and sits about planning how he is going to divvy up all that wealth. It is the dream of the ignorant fool who knows nothing and does nothing to improve himself, but who aspires in his heart to one day be regarded as the sage and scholar of his generation.
We must not confuse the righteous hopes that a person is supposed to have and by virtue of which he will be blessed with the false hopes and empty aspirations that lead to nothing but indolence and listlessness.
There is nothing wrong with hopes that are accompanied by action. What is important is for a person to take the initiative, have the proper resolve, and bring his life in order with his aspirations.
Allah describes for us what is blameworthy when He says: “Then they were succeeded by an evil generation who inherited the Book but chose for themselves the vanities of this lowly life, saying: ‘We shall be forgiven.' And if the likes of those vanities would come their way again, they would (again) take to them. Was not the covenant of the Book taken from them that they would not say about Allah anything but the truth? And they had studied what is in the Book? And the abode of the Hereafter is better for those who fear Allah. Will you not then understand?” [ Sûrah al-A`râf : 169]
The notion of instantaneous change can be very tempting. Some people might mistake it for righteous hope, while in fact it is nothing but the abandonment of real effort and the neglect of effective means. It is a way of deception that, by providing people with empty hopes that have no bearing upon reality, keeps them from exerting themselves and from making the steady progress that they need to make.
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