Treading the Path of Humility

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

We all want Paradise but always remember that entering Paradise is through the mercy of Allah, not through our works.

Imam Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih, that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: "No one of you will be saved because of his deeds."

They (the companions) said: "Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?"

He said: "Not even me, unless Allah bestows mercy upon me. So do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately, and worship Allah in the forenoon and in the afternoon and during a part of the night, and adopt a moderate course, adopt a moderate course (he said it twice) whereby you will reach your target (Paradise)."

We should look at our works as incomplete and none of them is good enough, sincere enough or pure enough to present to Allah. Habeeb Abu Muhammad Al-Ajmi, one of the students of Hasan Al-Basri who was the student of Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with them) used to say, "O my Lord, here I am with nothing whatsoever. My hands are chained up to my neck. I am being led to You like a slave who doesn't own anything whatsoever."

Hasan Al-Basri (may Allah be pleased with him) used to cry from fear of the Hellfire as if the Hellfire was only created for him. He believed that everyone will be safe except him. He was working with that attitude. He thinks goodly of others and he doesn't think goodly of himself and of his works.

Don't ever sit idle, always be prepared for death, for death is right next to you. Don't ever waste time. Have this presence of leaving this world in your mind.

إِنَّ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ فِى جَنَّـٰتٍ وَعُيُونٍ ﴿١٥﴾ ءَاخِذِينَ مَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ قَبْلَ ذَٰلِكَ مُحْسِنِينَ ﴿١٦﴾ كَانُوا۟ قَلِيلًا مِّنَ ٱلَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُونَ ﴿١٧﴾ وَبِٱلْأَسْحَارِ هُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ ﴿١٨

Indeed, the righteous will be among gardens and springs, (15) Accepting what their Lord has given them. Indeed, they were before that doers of good. (16) They used to sleep but little of the night, (17) And in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness, (18)

[Qur'an, Adh-Dhariyat 51:16-18]

The people who Allah talks about are doers of good and they pray tahajjud almost all night and they sleep little but before Fajr comes, they ask Allah for forgiveness, not for reward. We can expect reward for our good works because Allah is generous and we have good opinion of Allah but at the same time we don't take pride in our works and we don't depend on our works because we don't know if they have been accepted by Allah and we know that Allah sent these good works as gifts and He inspired us to do these works. So humble ourselves as what Habeeb Al-Ajmi said, we are His slaves who don't own anything whatsoever.

So, we should never never relax. Even if we are praying tahajjud all night, even if we are reciting Qur'an all the time, we should not depend on our works to enter Paradise, rather we should always depend on Allah alone. But we do the work and we ask Allah for forgiveness and mercy and we ask Allah to accept that work from us.

That's why Prophet Ibrahim and Ismail (may Allah give them peace) after doing something as great as building the Ka'bah, they were afraid that Allah won't accept from them and they asked Allah to accept their work as recorded for us in the Qur'an:

وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَٰهِـۧمُ ٱلْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ ٱلْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَـٰعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّآ ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ ﴿١٢٧

And [mention] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Ishmael, [saying], "Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing. (127)

[Qur'an, Al-Baqarah 2:127]

Until now the reward of a prayer in the Ka'bah is worth 100000 prayers in other places (except Masjid An-Nabawi in Madinah and Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem). This is a sign that Allah accepted their du'a.

Such is the humility of the Prophets and the righteous predecessors. With all the great works they have done and their du'as answered, that did not tempt them to believe they are someone special and that they would be saved in the Day of Judgement.

We love the righteous for the sake of Allah and we ask Allah to make us one of them and it is not difficult for Him.

May Allah grant us contentment, sincerity and humility before Him. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam