He is Cognisant of Consequence

He is Cognisant of Consequence

In a modern world that often divorces actions from their consequences, the spiritual man stands ever aware and constantly cognisant of the fact that every deed carries its consequence for which he is personally accountable. This awareness is often contrasted with a today’s culture that encourages living whimsically, despite frequent acknowledgments of karmic justice through expressions like "what goes around comes around," “you reap what you sow” and “the chickens have come home to roost.”

Living with the cognisance of consequence is of the most powerful incitements towards good action, of the greatest deterrents from oppression and sin, and the ultimate solace for victims of evil and injustice.

In fact, it is an unchanging Universal Law, from God’s Justice and Wisdom, that the outcome of an action follows the nature of the action itself. To see that an action is divorced from its inevitable consequence is to purposely pull the wool over one’s eyes. Though man is given the volition to sin, he is never ‘free’ from the outcome of his doings.

Often, the outcome of an action appears in a person’s lifetime. Mistreating parents is a good example of this. One can bet that if they scolded their parents or threw them neglectfully into a care home, their children will treat them in exactly the same way. Similarly, how often do tyrants and oppressors suffer the same fate as their victims and how often are

murderers found killed and abandoned, left to suffer the fate of their crimes?

One also notices that after a generation or two of extravagance, materialism and wastefulness comes another of poverty and destitution. This closely aligns with Ibn Khaldūn’s idea of prestige only usually lasting for four generations, as the comfortable last squanders the labour and achievements of the deprived first. In the words of Otto von Bismarck:

“The first generation earns the money, the second manages the wealth, the third studies history of art, and the fourth degenerates completely.”

The hereafter, being a continuation of the existence of one’s soul and its ultimate accountability, is where this meaning is most clearly exhibited. The Prophet ﷺ informs that withholding a Muslim’s yearly charity, the ‘zakāt’, for instance, prompts droughts and the ultimate cessation of one’s own fortunes:

“For their withholding the Zakāt of their wealth, rain will be withheld from the sky, and were it not for the animals, no rain would fall on them.”²¹⁷

The zakāt is an absolute right to the poor and withholding such a right is a grievous injustice. In fact, withholding such

wealth is akin to holding onto a misfortune that one would rather part with. Consider when Allāh says:

“As for those who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend it in the Way of Allāh, give them the news of a painful punishment.” 218

Notice the matching consequence of that hoarding. When asked for their zakāt, many will frown in irritation, turn their face or walk away. Correspondingly, their punishment will be very fitting of that exact behaviour, when those frowning foreheads and turned sides and backs are branded by the heat of the hellfire:

“On the Day (this gold and silver) is heated up in the fire of Hell and their foreheads, sides and backs are branded with it, ‘This is what you hoarded for yourselves, so taste what you were hoarding!’”²¹⁹

The People of (Lot) Lūt overturned their natural disposition, normalising or even broadcasting profound abnormality in Sodomy. Unsurprisingly, and in fitting correspondence to the

modality of that bestial, abhorrent action, the town of Sodom²²⁰ was literally overturned:

“We turned the place completely upside down and rained down on them stones of hard-baked clay.”²²¹

The Pharaoh long mocked at Mūsā’s (ʿalayhi al-salām) speech impediment that he had developed as a child, and which grew with him into his latter days:

“Am I not better than this one (Mūsā) who is despicable and can scarcely express himself clearly?” 222

The Prophet ﷺ tells that when the Pharaoh was tossed and turned in the depths of the sea, Jibrīl (ʿalayhi al-salām) started stuffing his mouth with mud to prevent him from saying anything that would cause the mercy of All āh to reach him. He, ﷺ says:

“When Allāh drowned the Pharaoh he said, ‘I believe that there is no God except the One that the children of Isra’īl believe in.’ So Jibrīl said, ‘O Muhammad! If you could only have seen me, while I was taking (the mud) from the sea, and filling his mouth out of fear that the mercy would reach him.'” 223

Ibrahim (‘alayhi al-salām)

Picture the mighty Messenger Ibrāhīm (ʿalayhi al-salām) sitting patiently, waiting to be launched into a smouldering fire, stripped of his clothes.²²⁴ Imagine the scene, as eyes set on this colossal Prophet while alone and isolated. And now imagine him once again, now clothed whilst the rest, who look towards him are left naked on the Plain of Resurrection. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“You will be gathered, barefoot, naked, and uncircumcised (as Allāh says), ‘As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it.’ And the first human being to be dressed on the Day of Resurrection will be Ibrāhīm.” 225

When Ibrāhīm (ʿalayhi al-salām) patiently endured the sight of the huge fire pit without revoking his commitment to the Creator of the heavens and earth, Allāh saved him from its heat.

“We said, ‘Fire, be coolness and peace for Ibrāhīm!’”²²⁶

When he migrated from his homeland, Allāh gave him residence in the blessed land of Palestine. He also built the first place of worship for mankind, which is the only house in which circumambulation (tawāf) is legislated. As a consequence for this gift, the Messenger ﷺ saw him reclining on al-Bayt al- Ma’mūr (the visited house in the seventh heaven) around which 70,000 angels circle every day.²²⁷

Khadijah (rady Allāhu ‘anhā)

See this meaning exhibited in the life of the Prophet’s remarkable wife, the mother of the believers Khadījah (rady Allāhu ʿanhā). She was the Messenger’s home and the jewel of his eye and his champion and support, having believed in him without a moment of hesitation, debate or objection. She stood beside him in the three-year siege enforced by the Quraish until she died from fatigue.

When the Prophet withdrew to the Cave of Hirā’ for a purpose not necessarily obvious to her, she would climb behind him on the 270m rocky terrain. Imagine her, standing fatigued with the Prophet’s plate of food, at the mouth of a dark, desolate cave, accepting and content that her beloved husband and Messenger of God seclude himself for moments otherwise spent with her. Picture Jibrīl (Gabriel ʿalayhi al-salām) visiting the Prophet with news of a reward personally tailored to this extraordinary woman:

“Here is Khadīja coming to you with a dish of food or a tumbler containing something to drink. Greet her with Salām (peace) on behalf of her Lord and on my behalf, and give her the glad tidings of having a palace of hollowed pearls in Paradise wherein there will be neither any noise nor any fatigue (trouble).”²²⁸

Maryam (Mary ʿalayha al-salām)

Standing as the greatest woman ever, she, the mother of Jesus was a symbol of guarded purity and chastity, and dedicated her life to her creator. Such was her modesty that when Jibrīl (ʿalayhi al-salām) stood at a distance, in the form of an ordinary, strange man, bearing her the news of a child:

“She said, ‘I seek refuge from you with the All-Merciful if you have God-consciousness (taqwā).’”²²⁹

So Allāh gave her a child without a man, the word of God, ‘Isa (‘alayhi asalām), speaking on her behalf in the cradle, defending her purity and chastity and promising that he will be dedicated to her service:

“And (Allāh made me) dutiful to my mother. He has not made me insolent or arrogant.”²³⁰

Āsia (ʿalayha al-salām)

Āsia was Pharaoh’s wife and amongst the elite in her society. She had an exquisite home and abundant wealth, but she lived a life tainted by the miserable company of a tyrant who tortured her for her belief in Allāh and in Mūsā (ʿalayhi al- salām). Her fitting reward reflected what she suffered. As a consequence of bearing the company of a tyrant, she was given a home in Paradise in company of the Most Merciful.

“My Lord, build for me in Your presence a house in Jannah.”²³¹

Consequence in Everything

Other deeds and sins can likewise be seen through the lens of this universal law, that actions are tied to their inevitable consequence, and the spiritual man is ever cognisant of this reality. Take arrogance; it is a trait that incapacitates its holder from seeing the status or size of others, causing him to trample over their value and advice. The Prophet ﷺ tells that:

“The arrogant will be gathered on the Day of Judgement resembling tiny particles in the image of men. Humiliation will surround them from everywhere.” 232

Fornicators relished their undressed communion, enveloped by the heat of sin. They will likewise be in each other’s company but undressed in a baking pit. Each time the fire ignites beneath them, they will scream.²³³

The usurer bathes in the poverty of his victims, enriching himself by the ruin of wealth and livelihoods. In the Hereafter, he will be made to swim in a river of blood. Each time he nears

its banks, an angel will hurl a stone into his mouth, forcing him back to paddle on without end.²³⁴

The backbiter, who enjoyed besmirching the reputation of his siblings in faith, in their absence will find himself grazing his own face in the hereafter. With regards to him the Prophet ﷺ said:

“When I was taken up to heaven I passed by people who had nails of copper and were scratching their faces and their breasts. I said, ‘Who are these people, Jibrīl?’ He replied, ‘They are those who were given to back biting and who trampled on people’s honour.’”²³⁵

What of those who covered their eyes from seeing, their ears from hearing and even their hearts from inclining towards what displeases the Almighty? Suitably, their reward is something they have not before seen, heard or could have imagined. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“Allāh says, ‘I have prepared for My pious servants that which no eye (has ever) seen, no ear has (ever) heard and no human heart has ever perceived.'” 236

Others sacrificed their sleep, leaving their warm beds for moments of solitude and secrecy with their Creator. In keeping with the hidden nature of this intimate devotion, He tells us that their reward is likewise concealed, reserved in such a way that it befits none besides them to behold it.

“Their sides forsake their beds as they call on their Lord in fear and ardent hope. And they give of what We have provided for them. No self knows the delight that is hidden away for it in recompense for what it used to do.” 237

They held off from food and drink during Ramadān and at other times in the year. Their thirst unquenched, not due to the scarcity of water, but the abundance of their trust that the Creator will determine great consequences for their dedication. For the uniqueness of their deed, they will enter Paradise through a gate unto their own. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“For those who fast there is a gate in Paradise called al-Rayyān, through which no one but they will enter. When the last of them has entered it, it will be closed. Whoever

enters through it will drink, and whoever drinks will never thirst again.” 238

They guarded their limbs from what displeased their Lord, so He safeguarded their strength and longevity. Ibn Rajab al- Hanbalī relates that the renowned Shāfiʿī scholar of Baghdad, Abū al-Tayyib al-Tabarī, retained remarkable mental acuity and physical vigour well into old age. On one occasion, late in his life, he leapt energetically from a boat. When gently reproached, he replied:

“We protected these limbs in our youth, so Allāh protected them for us in our old age.”²³⁹

And there are those who will be shaded under the throne of Allāh on a day when there is no shade but His. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“There are seven persons whom Allāh will shade on a day when there is no shade but His. They are a just ruler, a young person who grew up in the worship of Allāh, a person whose heart is attached to the mosques, two persons who love each other and who meet and depart from each other for the sake of

Allāh, a man whom a beautiful woman of high status seduces but he rejects her by saying ‘I fear Allāh’, a person who spends in charity and conceals it such that his right hand does not know what his left hand has given, and a person who remembered Allāh in private and he wept.”²⁴⁰

In light of connecting the action to these specific consequences, Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali mentions:

“These seven on the exterior did different actions, but each gather under a single meaning. This is their struggle against their own selves, and their opposing their desires. This firstly needs intense practice alongside prevention against what one’s desire, irritation or greediness calls towards. Enduring this inflicts severe hardship on oneself and immense pain. Rather the heart almost burns from the fire of desire or rage when it billows, if it is not extinguished by carrying out what it needs.

“Without doubt the reward of being patient when the heat intensifies in that standing (the Day of Judgement), when there is no shadow in which people can shade themselves and find protection from the sun, those seven will be in the shade of Allāh. Correspondingly, they will not experience pain as a

result of that day’s heat, as a reward for their patience when they experienced the fire of desire or rage in the Dunya.”²⁴¹

From a Reversed Perspective

When the spiritual man recognises that the life to come is one of eternal comfort and without stress or concern, it befits this transient world to be strenuous and implies that it requires arduous effort and sacrifice. Though submitting oneself to his Creator draws the sweetest spiritual experience, it cannot be confounded with expectations of utter physical and mental relaxation.

Washing with cold water before dawn, walking to the in the cold and dark to attend the prayer, fasting the long summer days, giving up one’s wealth, nurturing a household of virtue, honouring and taking care of the parents in their old age, lowering the gaze, covering oneself with the Hijāb and standing out, or remaining resolute despite being jeered at as a Muslim, is trialling. But patience in the face of many of these inevitabilities is what necessitates the appropriate, corresponding outcome, one that reflects the nature of that effort.

If man tires, he will relax, if he fears, he will be safe, and if he is deprived, he will be given in abundance. Sweetness is greater tasted with a soured mouth.

“Be on your guard that the commodity of Allāh is precious. Verily the commodity of Allāh is Jannah.”²⁴²