Book of Healing - Healing Throug Knwoledge - Cure By Goodwill
Cure By Goodwill
1. Goodwill is such an unprecedented and miraculous medicine by which many inner diseases can be cured. For it is goodwill which is the root and foundation of every good deed. Contrary to this there is ill-will, whose germs are extremely destructive. In other words, on the one hand there is goodwill in which there is only good, i.e. there are only good works, and on the other, there is ill-will, in which are gathered all evils. God willing, we will try here to explain some of the wisdoms and benefits of goodwill in the light of the noble Qur'an and the noble Hadith.
2. One of the blessed names of the holy Qur'an is Maw`izah (10:57) which means exhortation, goodwill and well-wishing. This reveals the secret that goodwill is the supreme virtue. It is because of this that it is one of the names of the wise Qur'an. Another name of the glorious Qur'an is Dhikr (21:50), which also means exhortation and goodwill. Further, since goodwill is a characteristic of the Prophets (7:68), it is necessary for it to be the characteristic of the mu'min as well (9:91).
3. In both Muslim (I, 74) and Bukhari (I, 48), it is narrated from Tamim Dari that the Prophet said: "Religion is goodwill. We said: Goodwill to whom. He said: To God, His Book, His Messenger, the Imams of Muslims and Muslims in general". There are many other noble Ahadith regarding goodwill. (see al-Mu`jam, which is in seven volumes and has 3750 pages)
4. If the subject of goodwill is the subject of religion itself, let us make our heart aware of this great wisdom, so that it may extend the domain of goodwill as much as possible. For, with this title, the meaning and purport of religion looks extremely easy and pleasant. How excellently the holy Prophet has condensed the countless teachings of religion into the meaning of goodwill with the comprehensiveness of knowledge and wisdom. Glory be to God! This is none other than heavenly help (ta'yid).
5. No word and act of religion is acceptable without good intention and good intention is another name of goodwill. Thus the heart in which there is goodwill, becomes the dwelling place of angels. The devil can neither enter nor stay there. The devil can only stay in a heart where there is the dirt of evil, just as flies buzz only where there is filth and dirt, but cannot stay in the place which is extremely clean.
6. The holy Qur'an indicates, that among the characteristics of the great angels, one is to pray (40:7-9) and prayer is a conspicuous form of goodwill. This characteristic of the great angels is due to their pure-heartedness and knowledge. It is also mentioned in the Qur'an (53:26) that many an angel intercedes for mu'mins, for the great angels, due to their vast knowledge, are always well-wishers. But it is a different matter as to whether man can benefit from this heavenly intercession or not. The mu'min who always has good will is like an angel, which indeed is the praise of goodwill.
7. Every wisdom is not only one good, but also abundant good (2:269). Thus, there is every great wisdom and abundant good in goodwill for mu'mins and Muslims. Goodwill for all people in the light of higher knowledge is the supreme wisdom which can be obtained after knowing and being convinced that as a result of the goodwill and intercession of mu'mins, even the people of Hell will ultimately go to Paradise. For as they were one in azal, the people are going to be one in abad.
8. What does not exist in the Hand of God! There is everything in His Hand. In His wisdom-filled fist, all things have together become a Monoreality. Monoreality has countless names. One of them is "Khayr (Good)" (3:26). Thus the mu'min who is the well-wisher of people in the light of knowledge, will be granted "khayr" by God with His blessed Hand, in which lies the spiritual kingdom and he will be protected from the numerous diseases of ill-will.
9. The heart in which there is no all-inclusive goodwill, many a disease of ill-will are created, due to which man always suffers from mental torment; the peace of heart and mind is wrested from him due to ethical diseases such as, jealousy, rancour, malice and enmity, and he becomes deprived of spiritual delights and the pleasures of knowledge.
10. It is through knowledge and gnosis that the scope of your goodwill expands until it comprises all human beings. For according to the law of the personal world, it is by expanding your own soul that all people are created, therefore without their being enfolded in you (17:104), neither can you be perfect and complete, nor can you reach the presence of God. Thus it is necessary for every mu'min to have goodwill for all mankind, in the light of knowledge and gnosis.
11. Why is man a compound or compendium of three things: intellect, soul and body? It is due to the fact that he belongs to the three worlds: the physical world, the spiritual world and the intellectual world. Thus, in the language of Sufism, we can say that man in Reality (i.e. the world of oneness or the world of intellect) is one only; in the spiritual world he is both one and many and in the physical world, he is scattered in his numerous manifestations (mazahir). Thus when a wise person wishes good for all, in reality, he wishes good for himself. For all people are his parts.
12. Qur'anic wisdom shows that when the holy Prophet, the mercy for the worlds, experienced mi`raj (ascent), then at the place of soul, all souls were with him, but at the place of intellect, all intellects were annihilated in his exalted personality. And you know that annihilation means to become one. It is the glory of the practical guidance of the holy Prophet that potentially he made all people reach God. Now it is obligatory upon every individual to walk on the straight path and attain the recognition of annihilating himself in the Prophet by entering through the door of knowledge and wisdom. The best example of the unification of all people is walking in the light of the exemplary model of the holy Prophet.
13. In order to escape ill-will and to adopt goodwill completely, it is extremely necessary to understand thoroughly the unity and integrity of humanity. That is, in the world of unity, namely, the rank of azal, only one man was created, although today in the world of multiplicity he has numerous manifestations, therefore when he will return to the world of unity he will only be one as in the beginning, and all the people of the world will be merged in and united with him in the intellectual state, as it is said in the Qur'an that they have to go to the presence of God one by one (6:94). But it should be remembered that there are at least three ways of 'becoming one': First, to take one and to leave the rest. Secondly, to take all one by one and thirdly, to take one externally but to unite the rest with him internally, (i.e. intellectually). It is the third way which is fixed for human unity and it is this unity which is mentioned in the Qur'an.
14. For the one who has ill-will for people, due to malice and whose heart is never free from rancour, it is an ethical disease and mental torment and this is the punishment for his bad intention. Contrary to this, the one who has good thoughts for people in the light of religious guidance, is indeed in the paradise of goodwill. Such a person is very fortunate to have good opinions about the Creator and the creatures, as it is implied in the Qur'an that God is He under Whose law of mercy, people are ushered into paradise in two ways: Those who know are ushered in willingly and those who do not know, are ushered in by force (3:83, 23:115). A bright example of this fact is the da`wat or preaching of Islam in which people entered not only willingly, but they were also made Muslims forcibly through jihad. This shows that the way God has willed will ultimately be fulfilled accordingly, when some people will enter among the people of paradise even after being punished in the hell of ignorance. This is the meaning of the cure of many spiritual diseases through goodwill. Praise be to God, the Sustainer of the worlds!
Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai
Karachi
23/1/88
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