Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi

Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi — Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi

Extend not thine eyes to what We have given pairs of them to enjoy, the flower of this world's life so that We may entrance them thereby; and thy Lord's provision is better and more subsisting. This is another balm that He lays on the hearts of the poor. He is showing the insignificance and feebleness of this world to people, exposing its defects and blemishes, and holding His friends back from seeing and loving it. He is saying, “the flower of this world's life so that We may entrance them thereby”: This world is a blossom whose moisture, freshness, and comeliness will last a few days. Then it will wither and become nothing, but its entrancement will remain in the heart. Why are you in love with the loveless one who took Alexander's life? Why are you passionate for the friend to whom Darius lost his kingdom? [DS 53] “The rich turn back to this world and the poor turn back to the Patron. How far apart are these and those!” Whatever happens to the rich, they come back to this world. In every state the heart of the poor is with the Patron. From here is known the eminence of the poor over the rich. Junayd considered poverty more excellent than wealth. In contrast, Ibn ʿAṬāÌ considered wealth more eminent than poverty. One day there was a debate between the two. Junayd argued that God's Messenger said, “The poor of my community will enter the Garden one-half day before the rich, and that is five hundred years.” He said that someone who goes into paradise is more excellent than someone who remains five hundred years in the reckoning. Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, “No, it is more excellent to remain in the reckoning, for the person in paradise has the pleasure of blessing, but the person in the reckoning has the pleasure of the Real's rebuke. Talking with the Friend, even in the station of rebuke, is beyond being occupied with other than the Friend, even if that is in the station of blessing. This is because being tried by the Friend is sweeter than being in the Friend's blessing without the Friend.” Junayd answered, “Even if the rich man has the pleasure of rebuke, the poor man will have the pleasure of apology.

Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi — Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi

And command thy family to the prayer, and have patience therein. We ask thee for no provision. We shall provide for thee. And command thy family to the prayer, and have patience therein. He is commanding the servant to teach and telling him to manifest servanthood and constancy in obedience. So long as the ser- vant is not worthy and approved, He will not accept him in service at His threshold and will not give him access in the prayer to the presence of secret whispering. There is no good fortune beyond the fact that five times a day, by the decree of bounty, He sends the baggage-steed of the court of union at the hand of the stirrup-holder of gentleness to the hut of the servant's incapacity and records this exalted sigil on the edict of his good fortune: “I have divided the prayer between Me and My servant into two halves. When the servant says, 'Praise belongs to God,' God says, 'My servant is praising Me,'” and so on. He kept Moses the speaking companion waiting for forty days at the promise of whispered prayer. When the turn of this community arrived, He took away the tablecloth of waiting and, five times a day, again and again, He placed the goblet of whispered prayer in the hand of the cupbearer of gentleness: “Prostrate thyself and draw near” [96:19]. This is not a bestowal of eminence on the communities over the prophets, but rather, “The weaker someone is, the gentler the Lord is to him.” The Lord of the Worlds takes care of the work of the weak such that all the strong are in wonder. A hundred thousand proximate angels dove into the ocean of bowing and prostrating, and no one talks about them. But this penniless beggar wakes up from sleep and says, “Oh, it's late.” In the splendorous scripture the Lord of the Worlds wrote this inscription of exaltation on the cape of his secret whispers: “Their sides shun their couches as they supplicate their Lord in fear and want” [32:16]. We ask no provision of thee, and it is We who shall provide thee. Whenever someone believes that the provider in reality is the Lord and that all provision comes from Him and that the second- ary causes are by His predetermination, his mark is that his heart trusts totally in Him and he cuts himself off from others.