“Don’t worship Allah so He may give you. Rather, worship Him so He may be pleased. For when He is pleased, He will astonish you with His Gifts.”
By the dawn
And the ten nights
And the even and the odd
O you tranquil soul!
Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing
[al-Fajr: 1-3; 27-28]
Loftiness is attained in accordance to one’s struggles,
And whoever seeks nobility, remains vigilant by night.
Whoever wishes to achieve without due effort,
Will waste their life seeking what’s impossible.
You search for glory and yet you sleep at night,
It’s only the seeker of pearls who dives deep into the sea.
– Imam al-Shafi’i, al-Diwan
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The Mother of all evils?
Imam al-Qurtubi mentions in his tafseer (al-Jami’ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an) that a man once saw a drunkard trying to fish the moon (yes, fish the moon) in the heavy drunken state that he was in. The man upon seeing such a despicable condition (and being so ghastly averse to it) made an oath declaring his wife divorced if there was ever anything to enter the belly of the son of Adam which was worse or more evil than alcohol.
As oaths in matters of divorce are binding, he was told to seek a juristic ruling from Imam Malik who was in Madinah. The man came to Imam Malik and told him about his oath, seeking a fatwa from him; should he divorce his wife or not? Imam Malik told him to come back in three days while he looked into the matter.
After the three days passed, the man returned to Imam Malik who then said to him (read carefully):
امرأتك طالق إني تصفحت كتاب الله فلم أر شيئًا يدخل جوف ابن آدم أخبث ولا أشر من الربا
“Your wife is divorced. I searched and studied through the Book of Allah and I didn’t see anything enter the belly of the son of Adam worse or more evil than Riba (interest).”
Ok, other than the lesson to never make such crazy oaths in the first place(!), this just further highlights the dangers and evil of interest. And here we are today surrounded by it, in every place. May Allah save us from it, ameen.