O my people! If my speech is not getting through to you, then hear it with faith (iman) and belief (tasdiq). My speech is addressed to the heart, so you must listen to it with your hearts and your innermost beings (asrar), then you will be inwardly and outwardly refreshed and the power of your lower selves (nufus) and your passions (ahwiya) will be broken, and the fires of your carnal desires (shahawat) will be extinguished. Your worst problem is your carnal desires, which make you love this world and dislike poverty and which lead you into dangerous situations.
One of the wise is reported as having said: "The real meaning of pious devotion (taqwa) is that if you were to gather up everything that is in your heart, set it on an uncovered tray, and then walk all around the market with it, there would be nothing there to make you feel in any way embarrassed." O ignorant one, as if it were not enough that you are not pious, when someone tells you to observe your duty to Allah, you get angry, when someone tells you the truth, you treat what you hear as insignificant, and then if someone criticizes you, you feel enraged and take your rage out on him. The Commander of the Believers, Umar ibn al-Khattab is reported as having said, "If a person is piously devoted to Allah, he does not vent his rage. As Allah has said in one of His sayings: "I used to love you when you obeyed Me, then when you disobeyed Me, I hated you."
The Lord of Truth loves you not because He has any need of you, but as a mercy to you, so He loves you for your sake, not for His own. He loves your obedience to Him because the benefit from it accrues to you. You must give your attention and interest to anyone who loves you for your sake, and avoid anyone who loves you for his own.
Note: Extracts from lectures given by Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani in Ramadhan 545 A.H. Reference: The Sublime Revelation (Al-fath ar-Rabbani) Translated from the Arabic by Muhtar Holland.
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