A brilliant explanation of “thoughts” by Ibn Qayyim rahmatullahi alaih

Imam Ibnu Qayyim (r.alaih) has written very fine and valuable words on “thoughts”. How correct and appropriate they are! You should ponder over these words of his, try to understand them and memoriza them because of their value. I am quoting them for you – despite their lengthiness – with the hope that you would ponder over them. In them, there is good for you in your religious and worldly life. He says:

“You should repulse a thought. If you do not do so, it will develop into desire. You should therefore wage war against it. If you do not do so, it will become a resolution and a firm intention. If you do not repulse this, it will develop into a deed. If you do not make up for it by doing the opposite thereof [the opposite of that evil deed], it will become a habit. It will then be very difficult for you to give it up.”

“You should know that the initial stage of every knowledge that is within your choice is your thoughts and notions. These thoughts and notions lead you to fantasies. These fantasies lead towards the will and desire to carry out [those fantasies]. These wills and desires demand that the act should be committed. Repeatedly committing these acts cause them to become a habit. So the goodness of these stages lies in the goodness of thoughts and notions, and the wickedness of these stages lies in the wickedness of thoughts and notions.”

“The goodness of thoughts lies in watching their master and deity [Allah SWT], climbing towards Him, revolving around His pleasure and what He loves. This is because all goodness is in the hands of Allah SWT. From Him is all guidance. Through His inspiration is all rectitude. Through His befriending of His servant is every protection. And by the servant’s turning away from Him is all deviation and wretchedness.”

‘You should know that all that is connected to thoughts and evil whisperings leads to pondering. This pondering leads towards reminding. This reminding leads towards the will and intention [to do something]. This intention leads towards physically doing something and committing an [evil] act. When this becomes firmly established, it becomes a habit. Repulsing all this from the very beginning is easier than trying to sever it after it has completed its course and become fully entrenched within you.”

“It is well known that man has not been given the power to kill his thoughts nor the strength to sever them. They invade him just as his breathing invades his body. However, the strength of iman and intellect helps him to accept his best thoughts, to be pleased with them and to experience peace and tranquility from them. It also helps him to repulse his most evil thoughts, to dislike them and to recoil from them.”

“Allah SWT created the soul similar to a grinding stone that goes round and round – which does not stop, which always needs something which it can grind. If seeds are placed therein, it will grind them. If soil or stones are placed therein, it will [still] grind them.”

“So the thoughts that revolve in the soul are like a seed that is placed in a grinding stone. That grinding stone is never left idle. Something or the other has to be placed in it. So from among people are those whose grinding stone grinds seeds which comes out as flour which he and others derive benefit from. But most of them grind soil, stones, straw and so forth. So when the time of making dough and baking comes, he sees the reality of what he ground!” [1]

[1] Ibn Qayyim: al-Fawaid, p. 31 and 173-174 (Egyptian print, 1344 A.H.]


[Dipetik dari Risalatul Mustarsyidin (The Sunnah Way of the Sufis), Imam Harith al-Muhasibi, disyarah oleh Shaikh Abdul Fattah Abu Ghuddah, Zam Zam Publishers, 2006. m/s 82-84. ISBN 9789699145124]