A Precious Gem: No Place for Contradictions - Ibn Qayyim Jaw

Achieving High Aims by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

Al-Fawa’id

Achieving high aims depends upon having a firm intention and a strong will. Whoever loses them will never attain one’s goals, because when one’s intention is firm, it adheres to the plan, and if one’s will is strong, the servant will walk along the right way that leads to that aim. 


Having a strong will opens the way and a resolute intention focuses one on the aim. If one’s aim coincides with the way that reaches to it, one will be successful.

If one’s intention is weak, one will not have a high aim. If one’s will is not strong, it will (also) not lead one to the aim. The whole matter depends upon the will and the intention of the servant, and they will never be achieved without the following:

• First, neglecting innovations which people make.
• Second, abandoning worldly benefits and vain pleasures, which hinder one from one’s way and aim.
• Third, purification of one’s heart from any vain desires that will distract one’s intention.

Five Types Of Abandonment Of The Qur’aan - by Ibn Al-Qayyim

O Muslims! O Believers of the Qur’aan! Beware you do not fall into those whom the Prophet (saw) will complain about to his Lord on the Day of Judgement:

“And the Messenger (will) say: O My Lord, indeed my people took this Qur’aan as something worthy of being abandoned.” [25:30]

The scholar, Ibn Al Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah (d. 758 AH) said; There are various types of “abandonment” of the Qur’aan:

1) To abandon listening to it and believing in it.
2) To abandon acting upon it, and ignoring its lawful and prohibited ordinances (halaal and haraam), even if one believes in it and recites it.
3) To abandon judging by it, and resorting to it as a judge when there are differences in the essence of the religion or other matters.
4) To abandon pondering over it, and understanding it, and seeking the explanation of it.
5) To abandon using it as a cure in all types of diseases of the heart, and instead to seek to cure these diseases by other means. 

And all of these categories are included in the statement of Allah:
“And the Messenger (will) say: O My Lord, indeed my people took this Qur’aan as something worthy of being abandoned.” [25:30]  

even though some of these types of abandonment are worse than others.