Al-Manāzil said,
“He benefits from admonition only after attaining three things: a dire sense of need for it, blindness to the flaws of the preacher, and remembrance of the promise and the warning.”
If one’s remembrance and repentance are deficient, one urgently needs admonition in the form of exhortation and warning. If, on the other hand, one is in the state of remembrance and frequent returning to Allah, his need to learn the commandments and prohibitions is greater.
By exhortation two things are meant: command and prohibition accompanied by exhortation and warning, and exhortation and warning on their own.
What a penitent and mindful person needs most is [the knowledge of ] command and prohibition; what a stray and heedless person needs most is exhortation and warning; and what a quarrelsome denier needs most is argument and debate. These three have been mentioned in His words: “Call to the path of your Lord with wisdom, and beautiful exhortation, and argue with them in the best manner.” [16:125]
He mentioned “wisdom” without any qualification, for it is good in its entirety, and the attribute of goodness is essential to it. As for exhortation, He qualified it with the attribute of beauty, for not all exhortation is beautiful. The same is true of debate; it may be carried out by means that are the best, and it may be carried out otherwise. This also suggests that [the best way to debate] depends on the state of the debater with respect to his anger, gentleness, sharpness, and softness. He is commanded to debate in the state that is the best, and that [his state] should accord with the means that he is arguing with: the best and clearest proofs, demonstrations and words, soundest evidence of what is being argued, and most relevant to what is sought. This verse addresses both.
Some later people have mentioned concerning this verse that it refers to the classes of analogies: wisdom being the way of demonstration, good exhortation being the way of rhetoric, and debate in the best way being the way of dialectics. The first is achieved by mentioning demonstrative premises to one who does not accept or follow except demonstration, and such are the elite. The second by mentioning rhetorical premises that arouse emotions of love and fear for those who are persuaded by rhetoric, and such are the majority. The third by mentioning dialectical premises to the objector who argues back through dialectics, and such are the opponents. This is interpretation of the Qurʾan in accordance with the principles and terminology of Greek logic.
This is false in a number of ways, but this is not the place to mention them. It has been mentioned here only as an appendix to the mention of admonition, and that the penitent and mindful person does not need it as urgently as does the heedless evader. This latter kind is in great need for admonition to remember what he has forgotten and would benefit from a reminder.
As for “blindness to the flaw of the preacher,” if one becomes busy with [the preacher’s flaws] he is deprived of seeking benefit from his admonition, because souls are unlikely to accept good advice from someone who does not practice or benefit from it himself. This is like one to whom a physician describes a remedy to an ailment from which he himself suffers, but the physician does not take it himself. Rather, such a physician is better still than this preacher who opposes what he preaches, for it may be that [the physician] prefers another remedy, or he may be of the opinion that not taking a remedy is more wholesome for him, or he may be content with letting nature do its work, and so on. [He is] opposed to such a preacher, for what he is preaching is the one path toward salvation, which cannot be replaced with another. It is because of this repulsion [that is felt toward such preachers] that Shuʿayb, Allah grant him and our Prophet blessings and peace, said to his people, “And I do not intend to differ from you in that which I have forbidden you” [11:88]. One of the Predecessors said, “If you wish that your command and prohibition be accepted, then when you command a thing, be the first one to do it, and when you forbid a thing, be the first one to desist from it.”
It has been said,
O preacher! Is this preaching
For everyone but you?
You prescribe medicine for those withered from weakness
While you yourself are afflicted
Do not forbid a thing and then do it
A great shame upon you if you do so
Begin with your ego and forbid it its treachery
Only if you avoid it are you wise
Only then will your words have an effect
Your words followed and your teaching profit
Blindness to the deficiency of the preacher, therefore, is one of the conditions of benefitting from the admonition.
As for “remembering the promise and the warning,” it causes fear and caution, and none can benefit from exhortation but one who has believed and has fear and hope.
The Exalted said, “Indeed in that is a sign for those who fear the chastisement of the Hereafter” [11:103]; and, “He who fears shall remember” [87:10]; and also, “They ask you about the Hour: when will it come? In what [position] are you that you should mention it? Its term is your Lord’s [business]. You are only a warner to him who would fear it” [79:42–45].
Even more direct is the saying of the Exalted, “Remind, then, by the Qurʾan anyone who fears My warning.” [50:45]
Thus, belief in the promise and warning and its reminder are conditions for benefiting from admonition, signs, and lessons; it is impossible to attain that without these.
[Al-Harawī] said,
“Lessons are learned only with three things: life of the intellect, knowledge of the days, and protection from interests.”
Lessons can be recognized, witnessed, and brought to benefit only if the intellect is alive. The [linguistic] meaning of al-ʿibra is “consideration,” and its reality is crossing over from the judgment of a thing to the judgment of its like. When one sees someone being afflicted and tested because of something he committed, he learns that whoever does such a thing is judged in the same way. The life of the intellect means soundness of perception, strength, and quality of understanding, and actualization of seeking benefit and harm from something. It is a light that Allah reserves for whomever He wills from His creation; people differ in their intelligence, understanding, and perception, in accordance with the strength and weakness or presence and absence of that light. It is to the heart what the physical light is to the eye.
According to some seekers who have experienced and recorded this, whoever adheres to the saying “O Ever-living, O Sustainer, there is no god but Thee,” He bequeaths to him life of the heart and the intellect.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya, may Allah sanctify his soul, was extremely devoted to this. One day he said to me, “In these two names, the Ever-living, the Sustainer, there is great effect in giving life to the heart.” He used to suggest that these two comprise the Greatest Name [of Allah]. I heard him say, “Whoever perseveres upon saying ‘O Ever-living, O Sustainer, there is no god but Thee, I seek help in Thy mercy’ forty times every day between the two Sunnas and the obligatory units of the predawn prayer, he shall obtain the life of the heart, and his heart shall not die.” [This part of a hadith is graded ḥasan by Ibn Ḥajar in al-Futūḥāt al-Rabbāniyya. Saying it a certain number of times is Ibn Taymiyyah’s personal practice.]
Whoever knows the devotions of the Beautiful Names, the secret of their connection to [Divine] creation and command, and the desired goals and needs of the servant, and supplicates through them, shall know and obtain [his goal]. Every sought after goal is asked through the Name appropriate to it. Consider the supplications of the Qurʾan and Prophetic tradition and you shall find them thus.
As for “knowledge of the days,” it is possible that he means by it the days [or part thereof] that you set aside [for devotions] and what occurs to him by way of increase or decrease, and to know how few [his days] are, that his breaths are numbered and bound to end, and every breath here is worth thousands and thousands of years in the Abode of Eternity. There is no comparison of these passing days to the days of eternity. The servant passes his time, being driven either to the Bounties or the Fire. In the view of those who possess intelligence and an alert heart, they are no more than the time one spends in sleep.
It behooves him to not waste a breath except in the most beloved of things to Allah. If he spends it in what [Allah] loves rather than what Allah loves more, he should be considered deficient. What, then, if he spends it in what has no benefit? What, then, about things that his Lord dislikes? Allah alone is sought for help.
It is also possible that he means by “the days” the days of Allah that He commanded his Messengers to remind their people of, as He said, “And We certainly sent Moses with Our signs, [saying]: Bring out your people from the darknesses into the light and remind them of the days of Allah” [14:5]. “The days of Allah” have been explained as His bounties, and as punishment for disbelievers and the wicked; the first is the interpretation of Ibn ʿAbbās, Ubayy b. Kaʿb, and Mujāhid, and the second is the interpretation of Muqātil. The correct opinion is that it means both, for these are the calamities which befall His enemies and bounties that come to His allies, and these great bounties and chastisements, which are much talked about by the people, have been called “days” because they contain them (these events). The Arabs say, “Such-and-such is an expert in the days of the Arabs or the days of the people,” that is, of the great things that happened in those days. Knowledge of these days brings the servant discernment of the lessons, and his ability to seek lessons and admonition is proportional to his knowledge of these. Allah the Exalted said, “There surely was a lesson in their stories for those who possess intelligence” [12:111]. This cannot obtain except if one is safe from selfish interests, which is the following of desire and obeying the commanding self, for obeying the desire snuffs the light of intellect, blinds the sight of the heart, obstructs the way of the truth, and diverts from the straight path. Such a one can never heed lessons, his opinion and perception are corrupted; his ego shows him what is beautiful as ugly and what is ugly as beautiful, and he conflates truth with falsehood. How far he is from heeding lessons, contemplation, or admonition!
He said,
“The fruit of contemplation is reaped only with three things: brevity of hope, reflection on the Qurʾan, and minimizing mingling, wishing, attachment to other-than-Allah, excessive eating, and sleeping.”
He means that in the station of remembrance, the fruit of contemplation is reaped, because the former is higher than the latter. For every station’s fruit is reaped in the one above it, especially according to what he declared in the opening of his book,
Every station corrects those before it.
Then he mentioned that this fruit is reaped by means of three things: first, brevity of hope; second, contemplating the Qurʾan; and third, avoiding the five corrupters of the heart.
As for the brevity of hope, it is the knowledge of the nearness of the time of departure, the quickness with which the time of life expires. This is the most beneficial thing for the heart, for it prompts man to seize the days and the opportunities that are fleeting like the clouds, approaching the time when the scrolls of deeds will be rolled up. It stirs the unmotivated toward the Abode of Eternity to gather up his belongings for the journey, to make up for what has been missed, to think little of this world and turn to the afterlife. There enacts in his heart—if he adheres to curbing his hopes—a spectacle from spectacles of certitude which shows him the evanescence of the world, the quickness of its expiration, the brevity of what is left of it, [as if the world] has left him and shown him its back already. Nothing is left of it except like the dregs of a drink when it is finished with, or like what is left of the day when the sun is just above the hills. It shows him the longevity and eternity of the afterlife, and that its time is near, its conditions and signs have come, and it is as close to meeting it as a man who set out to meet his friend, who has also left to meet him, and they may run into each other any moment.
Sufficient for brevity of hope is [to consider the words of Allah]: “Then have you thought that if We gave them enjoyment for years, and then there came to them that which they were promised? It will profit them little that they enjoyed what they were provided” [26:205–207] “And the Day He will gather them together: [It will be] as if they had lived only an hour of a day—just getting to know each other…” [10:45] “The day when they see it, it will be as if they had lived but for an evening or its morning.” [79:46]
He will say, “How long did you remain on earth in number of years?” They will say, “We remained a day or part of a day; ask those who keep count.” He will say, “You stayed not but a little—if only you had known.” [23:112– 114] “The day when they see that which they are promised [it will seem to them] as though they had lived for but an hour of daylight. A clear message. Shall any be destroyed save the transgressors?” [46:35] “The Day the Horn will be blown. And We will gather the criminals, that Day, blue-eyed [in terror]. In whispers will they consult each other: You lived not longer than ten [Days]; We know best what they say, when the fairest of them in course would say: You lived for not more than a day!” [20:103–104]
Once the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, addressed his companions when the evening was drawing near and the sun was barely above the mountains, saying, “What is left of this world compared to what has passed of it is no more than what has been left of this day compared to what has passed of it.” (Tirmidhī #2191)
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed by us while we were repairing a hut of ours, so he said, “What is this?” We said, “It has become feeble, so we are repairing it.” He said, “But I think that the matter is approaching faster than that.” (Tirmidhī #3333)
The brevity of hope is built on two things, certainty of the passing and parting of the world, and certainty of the afterlife and its longevity and eternity. Then the two matters are compared and the one more preferable is preferred.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Madarij al-Salikin Ranks of the Divine Seekers Vol 2 p26-38
honey for the heart 