The Benefits of Refraining from Sin and Disobedience

The Benefits of Refraining from Sin and Disobedience

by imam Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allaah have mercy upon him

“If there were nothing in abstaining from sins and disobedience except establishing honour; preserving dignity; keeping nobility; protecting the wealth that Allaah has made a means of rectifying the dunya and aakhira; loving the creation; maintaining speaking among them [the creation]; rectifying the material life; tranquillity in the body; strength of the heart; goodness of the soul; bliss of the heart; opening of the heart; peace from the frights of the evildoers; relief from worries and depression; strengthening of the soul that could possibly be subdued; preservation of the light of the heart that can be extinguished by the darkness of disobedience; the opening of a way out when the evildoers and sinners apply pressure; ease of subsistence from whence was never conceived; ease of that which is difficult for the heads of sin and disobedience; ease of [further acts of] obedience; ease of acquiring knowledge; the good praise of the masses; the abundant making of dua for those who abstain; the sweetness their sublime face has in the hearts of the people and their support and protection of them [those who abstain from sins] if they are harmed or oppressed or slandered by those who slander; the speed at which their dua is accepted; the lack of loneliness [due to that which is] between them and Allaah; the proximity of the angels to them and the distance of the devils of mankind and the jinn from them; the people hastening to help them and do favours for them; the people proposing [marriage] for them due to their love for them; the masses’ befriending them; the lack of fearing death but rather being happy with it due to their going toward their lord, meeting Him and going towards Him; the insignificance of the worldly life and the significance of the Hereafter; their determination for the Great King and great success in abstaining from sins; the tasting of the sweetness of Imaan; the supplication of those who carry the Throne and the surrounding angels for them; the joy of those who write their deeds and their prayers for them at all times; increase in their intellect, understanding, knowledge and Imaan; the attainment of Allaah’s love for them and His dedication for them; like this He rewards them with happiness and contentment in a manner that they will not gain through sinning in any way at all.

These are some of the benefits of abstaining from sins in the worldly life. And when they die, the angels meet them with glad tidings from their lord of the Jannah – that they should not fear, nor be saddened as they are travelling from the prison of the worldly life, with its constraints, to a garden from the gardens of Paradise in which they will taste bliss until the Day of Standing. And when it is the Day of Standing, the people will be in heat and sweat, while they will be in the shade of the Throne. And when they leave the presence of Allaah, He will take the people of the right with His pious awliyah and His successful group – and that is the excellence of Allaah, that He gives to whomsoever He wills, and Allaah indeed has much virtue.”

From the book al-Fawaa’id by Ibn al-Qayyim.

Translated by shakhe Akeel Ahmad