The Best Thing to Do

One problem many of us face is that we want to do so much at once, and thus become
overwhelmed in our thoughts trying to establish exactly what we should be doing and
what our obligations are at a given point in time. This leads us to focus on what we can’t
accomplish moreso than what we can accomplish. This can be well and good, and as Ibn
al-Jawzi said, a person can be rewarded for his intentions more than for his actions.
However, the point of intending is to be productive and extract something physical from
that intention.

Part of being productive is to have a methodical approach as to when to focus on what.

For example, if your worship and intentions for specific efforts are organized and you
properly place your focus where and when it should be, you’ll find yourself
accomplishing much more as a Muslim, no matter if you’re a scholar who teaches, a
caller to Allah who motivates, or a general worshipper who simply wants to get closer to
your Lord.

Without wanting to get into immense detail, I thought it sufficient to present a few words
to to illustrate this that Ibn al-Qayyim had written in ‘Madarij as-Salikin’ (1/188):

“…They say that the best worship is to do what will please the Lord at every time in
accordance with what that particular time calls for.

So, the best acts of worship during the time of Jihad is Jihad, even if this leads to
abandoning certain rituals such as night prayer, fasting, etc. In fact, this applies even if
you are to not pray a complete obligatory prayer as you would in times of safety and
calm.

And the best thing to do when you have a guest, for example, is to see to his rights as a
guest and to preoccupy yourself with that instead of the recommended rituals you would
usually engage in at the time.

Such is also the case in fulfilling the rights of your wife and family.

The best thing to do during the early morning hours is to be preoccupied with prayer,
Qur’an, supplication, remembrance of Allah, and asking His Forgiveness.

The best thing to do when teaching a student or ignorant person is to completely turn
your attention towards teaching him.

The best thing to do during the call to prayer is to leave whatever rituals you are engaged
in and to occupy yourself with repeating after the one making the call.
The best thing to do during the five prayers is to try your best in carrying them out in the
best possible manner and to rush to perform them right away, and to go out to the mosque
– even if it is far – is better.

The best thing to do when someone needs help physically or financially is to busy
yourself with helping that person, relieving his distress, and to place this as a priority
over your private worship that you’d usually be engaged in.

The best thing to do when reciting the Qur’an is to have your heart and mind present in
order to reflect over and understand it as if Allah is personally addressing you with it. So,
to have your heart present to understand and reflect over it and to have the zeal to
implement its commands is greater than the attentiveness of the heart of one who has
received a message from the ruler to that message.

The best thing to do when standing at ‘Arafah is to exert yourself in being humble before
Allah, supplicating, and remembering Him instead of fasting.

The best thing to do during the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijjah is to increase in worship,
especially saying ‘Allahu Akbar,’ ‘La ilaha illa Allah,’ and ‘al-hamdu lil-Lah.’ This is
better here than the Jihad that is not an individual obligation.

The best thing to do during the last ten nights of Ramadan is to stay in the mosque and to
seclude yourself in it without mixing with others and being distracted by them. This is to
the point that it is better than teaching them and practicing the Qur’an with them
according to many of the scholars.

The best thing to do when you have a brother who is sick or dying is to visit him, attend
his funeral, and to prefer this over your private worship or social activities.

And the best thing to do when a disaster befalls you or people hurt you is to fulfill the
obligation of having patience while continuing to interact with them and not running
from them, since the believer who mixes with people and is patient despite their harm to
him is better than the believer who doesn’t mix with them and isn’t harmed by them.

And the best thing you can interact with them in is whatever is good, and this is better
than to seclude yourself from them in such a case. As for bad things, it is better to seclude
yourself from them in such a case. However, if you know that mixing with in this case
will help remove or reduce the bad, it is better to mix with them than to abandon them.

So, the best thing to do in every time and situation is whatever will please Allah at that
particular time and situation and to focus on the foremost obligation at that particular
time and whatever it necessitates and requires…”

So, while Ibn al-Qayyim’s words above mention specific actions, you hopefully get the
point. The attitude he is promoting here is to focus on what’s in front of you and needs to
be done then and there, as this is the best way to please Allah in that particular situation.
If you employ this attitude in your day to day activities in general and your service to
Allah and Islam in particular, you’ll find that you’ll get much more out of yourself.

‫و بال التوفي‬

The Secret in Having Your Supplication Answered

“…And I often find that people supplicate with certain prayers and have their prayers
answered, and they couple their supplication with their neediness and turning towards
Allah, or a good deed they carried out that caused Allah to respond to this supplication
out of gratitude for this good deed, or they happened to supplicate at a time in which it is
more likely to be accepted, etc. So, his supplication was answered because of this.

One might think that the secret was in the specific wording of his supplication, and might
therefore approach it simply from this angle while ignoring all of these other things that
were coupled with it by the person supplicating. This is like someone who uses beneficial
medicine at its proper time and in the proper manner and it benefits him as a result, and
someone else thinks that simply using this medicine regardless of these other factors will
bring about the same benefit. This person is wrong, and this is where many people fall
into error.

An example of this is when a needy person supplicates near a grave. So, the ignorant one
thinks that the secret of his supplication being answered lies in this grave, and he doesn’t
know that the real secret is in his neediness and full dependence on Allah. So, if this
happens in a House from the Houses of Allah, this would be better and more beloved to
Allah.

And supplications and prayers of refuge are like weapons, and a weapon is only as
effective as the one using it, not just based on how sharp it is. So, as perfect and flawless
a weapon is, as strong as the arm is that is using it, as much as there is nothing to nullify
its effectiveness – the more damaging it will be against the enemy. And whenever one of
these three elements is absent, the effect will be held back.

So, if the supplication itself is not good, or the one supplicating does not have both his
heart and tongue present when making it, or there is some element present to prevent it
from being answered, it will have no effect…”
['ad-Da' wad-Dawa''; p. 40-41]

Ibn ‘Umar: The Most Disciplined Youth

One of the Companions I feel the most affinity for is ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar. Besides his
position as the son of ‘Umar and one of the major jurists among the Companions, one
cannot help when reading of him but to come away with the image of a man who is
reserved, knowledgeable, serious, and avoided anything that would waste his time and
not involve benefit to himself or others – and this was witnessed from his youth to his
death. All in all, he is someone that we would all love to be.

Some narrations collected in adh-Dhahabi’s ‘Siyar A’lam an-Nubala‘‘ (4/346-373) and

Ibn al-Jawzi’s ‘Sifat as-Safwah’ (1/214-222) give a taste of Ibn ‘Umar’s character:

1 – His Discipline as a Youth:

Ibn Mas’ud said: “From the most disciplined youth of Quraysh in the face of the dunya
was ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar.”

Jabir bin ‘Abdillah said: “None of us experienced the dunya but that it affected him,
except Ibn ‘Umar.”

Nafi’ said that Ibn ‘Umar presented himself to fight in Uhud when he was fourteen years
old, and the Prophet (‫ )صلى ال عليه و سلم‬refused to allow him. He then presented himself
during the Battle of the Trench when he was fifteen, and he was allowed to fight.

2 – His Discipline as an Adult:

Ibn Shihab said that Ibn ‘Umar was about to curse one of his servants, and said: “O
Allah, cu-” without completing the word, and he said: “I don’t like to say this word.”

3 – His Love of Imitating the Prophet in Everything:

Zayd bin Aslam said: “Ibn ‘Umar would dye his beard with saffron until his clothes were
colored with it. He was asked about this, and said: “I saw the Messenger of Allah (‫صلى ال‬
‫ )عليه و سلم‬dye his hair with it.”"

Hisham bin ‘Urwah said: “I saw Ibn ‘Umar’s hair reaching down to his earlobes,” and
Anas reported that the Prophet’s hair also hung down to his earlobes.

‘A’ishah said: “I never saw anyone holding tighter to the original affair than Ibn ‘Umar.”

Malik said that someone informed him: “Ibn ‘Umar would imitate the Messenger of
Allah (‫ )صلى ال عليه و سلم‬and follow his traces and lifestyle and be very keen in this, to the
point that we feared for his sanity because of his keenness in this.”

Nafi’ said: “Ibn ‘Umar used to follow the traces of the Messenger of Allah (‫صلى ال عليه و‬
‫ )سلم‬in every place he prayed. This was to the point that there was a tree that the Prophet
would sit under, and Ibn ‘Umar would frequent this tree and water its trunk so that it
wouldn’t weaken.”

Nafi’ said that Ibn ‘Umar told him that the Messenger of Allah (‫ )صلى ال عليه و سلم‬told
him: “If only we could leave this door (of the mosque) for the women.” So, Ibn ‘Umar
never used that door until the day he died.

Muhammad al-’Umari said: “I never heard Ibn ‘Umar mention the Prophet without
weeping.”

Nafi’ said that Ibn ‘Umar was once on his way to Makkah, and stopped the animal he was
riding and said to it: “Maybe my footsteps will fall where his footsteps did,” meaning the
footsteps of the Prophet (‫)صلى ال عليه و سلم‬.

Tawus said: “I never saw anyone praying like Ibn ‘Umar who was stricter than him in
facing the Qiblah with his face, hands, and feet.”

4 – His Friendliness With People:

Ibn ‘Umar said: “Sometimes, I go out for no reason or need except to greet people and
have them greet me.”

Abi ‘Amr an-Nadabi said: “I went out with Ibn ‘Umar once, and he didn’t leave a single
young or old person except that he greeted them.”

5 – His Care to Look and Smell Good:

‘Abdullah bin Waqid said: “I saw Ibn ‘Umar praying. If you saw him, you’d see him
shivering about, and I saw him putting some musk in cream and rubbing it on himself.”

6 – His Humility:
Nafi’ said: “Ibn ‘Umar and Ibn ‘Abbas would sit with the people when the pilgrims
arrived, and I would sit with one of them one day, and the other the next. Ibn ‘Abbas
would answer every question he was asked, and Ibn ‘Umar would refuse to answer most
of the questions he was asked.”

7 – His Lack of Eating:

Ibn al-Jawzi said that he would sometimes go an entire month without even tasting meat.

When ‘Abdullah bin ‘Adiyy (a servant of Ibn ‘Umar’s) came from Iraq, he greeted him
and said: “I brought you a gift.” Ibn ‘Umar said: “What is it?” He replied: “Jawarish.” Ibn
‘Umar asked: “What is jawarish?” He replied: “It helps you digest your food.” So, Ibn
‘Umar said to him: “I haven’t filled my stomach in forty years. So, what will I use it for?”

8 – His Generosity:

Maymun bin Mahran said: “Ibn ‘Umar was given 22,000 dirhams in a gathering. He did
not get up from that gathering until he had given it all away.”

Maymun bin Mahran said that Ibn ‘Umar’s wife would complain about him, saying:
“What can I do? I never cook any food for him without him inviting others to eat it. So, I
sent some food to the group of poor people who would sit in the road on his way from
the mosque and fed them with it,” and she had told them not to sit in this road that Ibn
‘Umar took anymore and to not respond to his invitations. When Ibn ‘Umar finally got
home, he said: “You don’t want me to eat supper tonight,” and he refused to eat that
night.

Mujahid said: “I accompanied Ibn ‘Umar, seeking to serve him. Instead, he would serve
me even more.”

Nafi’ said: “Ibn ‘Umar did not die before freeing at least a thousand slaves.”

Abu Bakr bin Hafs said: “Ibn ‘Umar would never eat food except in the company of an
orphan.”

9 – His Defiance in the Face of a Tyrant:

Ayyub said: “I asked Nafi’ how Ibn ‘Umar died, and he said: “He was injured between
two of his fingers by a supporting beam in the middle of the crowd during the stone-
throwing of the Hajj, and this made him sick. So, al-Hajjaj came to visit him, and Ibn
‘Umar closed his eyes. al-Hajjaj spoke to him, and he would not reply.”"