Four Enemies

Shaykh Ahmad Ibn Amīr—may Allāh bless his soul—said:

You have four enemies:

1. Shaytan: and his weapons are a full belly, and his prison is hunger.
2. Desire: and its weapon is speech, and it is imprisoned by silence.
3. This world: whose weapon is to meet people, and it is imprisoned by retreat.
4. The self: whose weapon is sleep and it is imprisoned by sleeplessness.

Shaykh Ahmad Ibn ‘Isā az-Zarrūq—may Allāh bless his soul—commented:

“One is required to take the middle path in these four matters, and to begin with the most important. Whoever finds that hunger is more important to him, he should not eat more than he needs, and to whomever silence is more important, he should not speak except about what concerns him. Whoever finds that retreat is more important to him should not meet people, but should keep away from them. Whoever finds that sleeplessness is more valuable to him, should sleep only the amount he needs. Excess is harmful in everything. Too much hunger can spoil reflection. Too much silence can spoil wisdom. Too much sleeplessness leads to insanity, and too much retreat leads to boredom.”

A Caution

A man may persevere in reciting certain surahs, invocations, or prayers, for which promises of immediate benefits have been made, and yet see no results. He should not doubt the soundness of these truthful promises, but should rather blame himself, and attribute to himself a deficiency in certainty and concentration. For a man who recites or invokes is not termed a [real] 'reciter' or 'invoker' according to the religious law unless all the conditions are fulfilled, and the facts is that most people fall short of doing this.

The essential thing which will make this practices effective and fruitful is to nurture a certainty in the heart that the matter is as it has been said, and to have neither doubts about it nor the desire to put it to trial.

One should be truly concentrated, uniting one's outward to one's inward [faculties] in engaging the matter, with one's heart sincerely thinking well of God, and be utterly and attentively oriented towards Him. Rarely do this things come together in a man who is intent on reaching some objective means of verses and invocations—whatever this objective may be—without this quest becoming his to control and manage at will. So let a servant whose determination falls short and whose earnestness and zeal are deficient blame only himself.

And God is never unjust to the servants. [3:182]

-An Excerpt from 'Gifts for the Seeker' by Imam 'Abdullah ibn 'Alawi al-Haddad