Reluctance to Act

Pearl of Wisdom

'I visited the Prophet (SAWA) and he was sitting on a straw mat, so I sat down and saw that he was wearing a loincloth and nothing else, and the mat had made a mark on his side. I saw about a handful of barley there, and a tan hide spread out to one side of the room, and I also saw raw hide hung up, so my eyes gushed with tears. He (SAWA) asked, 'What is making you cry, O son of Khattab?' He said, ?O Prophet of Allah, how can I not cry when this mat has made a mark on your side, and I do not see anything in your storage, other than what I see. And there are Kis ra and the Caesar with their fruits and rivers, and you are a prophet of Allah and His chosen one, and this is your storage warehouse?!' He said, ?O son of Khattab, do you not want us to have the Hereafter and leave the world to them?!'

Umar ibn al-Khattab

al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib, v. 4, p. 199, no. 120

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Library » The Lantern of the Path » Reluctance to Act

Reluctance to Act

A person who feels reluctant to act falls short of what is correct, even if he does right; while a person who acts voluntarily is correct, even if he errs. The reluctant one obtains only contempt in the end, and weariness, toil and misery while he is carrying out the action. The outer being of a reluctant person is showing off, and his inner being is hypocrisy: they are the wings with which he flies. The reluctant person never has any of the qualities of the righteous nor any of the marks of the believers, wherever he is. As Allah said to His Prophet [s],

Say, I do not ask you for any reward for it; nor am I of those who affect [i.e. act with reluctance]. (38:86)

The Holy Prophet said, 'we, the company of prophets, the fearfully aware, the trusty, we disavow the reluctant.' So, fear Allah and do away with reluctance, and it will mark you with the sign of belief. Do not be occupied with something whose garment is affliction, with food which in the end is emptiness, with an abode whose end is ruin, with wealth whose end is to be inherited by others, with comrades whom in the end one must take leave of, with glory which in the end is abasement, with loyalty which in the end is abandonment, or with a life whose end is grief.

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