30 Days of Guidance: Signposts Towards Rectification and Repentance

COMPILER’S INTRODUCTION

A

ll praise is due to Allaah alone, we praise Him, we seek His assistance and we ask for His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Him from the evils of our souls and the evils of our actions. Whoever Allaah guides, no one can lead him astray and whoever is caused to go astray, there is no one that can guide him. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allaah alone with no partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His worshiper and Messenger, peace and salutations be upon him, his household, his Companions, and all those who follow his guidance until the day of Judgment. To proceed:

consider how is your life being spent

Al-Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allaah the Most High have mercy upon him, one of the well known scholars who has several works related to self rectification upon the pure Sunnah, said, [1] [1]

“Every single individual from among the people has a rich bounty in their very life which they must be aware of and realize that it is in fact possible to exchange it for and purchase with it a treasure from the treasures which do not end, whose blessings continue on and on never ceasing.

However, so many people lose out and waste this bounty of life. Or even worse, they take this tremendous bounty of life and exchange it and spend it for that which will only lead to their own eventual destruction and their own severe loss! This is despite that being something which no one with any sense would knowingly permit to happen, except for the most ignorant and foolish of people, those lacking in any good understanding at all.

But, without question, this severe ruin and their loss will eventually be made apparent and plain to him on that final day of mutual loss, as Allaah says, ﴾On the Day when every person will be confronted with all the good he has done, and all the evil he has done, he will wish that there were a great distance between him and his evil. And Allaah warns you against Himself (His Punishment) and Allaah is full of Kindness to the (His) slaves.﴿- (Surah Aal-Imraan: 30)

He, may Allaah the Most High have mercy upon him, explains that the Messenger of Allaah, may the praise and salutations of Allaah be upon him, taught his Ummah that being successful in this life means first purifying our hearts and actions by opposing our desires and truly calling our souls to account as to how we are living as Muslims ,

“...What is intended here is the mentioning of the cure for the ailment of the heart by the individual taking control over it and what it constantly urges and incites towards, and this has two specific cures:

Firstly, calling of the heart to account through self-examination and, secondly, opposing its desires. As the destruction of one’s heart is caused by heedlessness and inattention towards self- examination as well as one’s simply conforming to and following its desires.