Whoever leaves someone for Allah

{“…And whoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him out of every difficulty, and He will provide for him where he could never imagine.”} [at-Talaq;2-3]

Hudhayfah bin Yaman narrated that the messenger of Allah said:

“the glance at the woman is a poisonous arrow from the arrows of the devil. Whoever leaves it out of fear of Allah, then Allah will reward him with faith whose sweetness he will taste in his heart.” [Reported by Ahmad in his ’Musnad,’ and it is authentic]

Malik bin Dinar said: “The Gardens of Delight are between the Gardens of Firdaws and the Gardens of Eden. In them one has servants mad out of the roses of paradise. They will be inhabited by those who were about to engage in a sin, but then remembered Allah- the Mighty and Exalted- and stopped themselves from doing so, and bowed their necks out of the fear of Allah.”

Al-Hasan al-Basri narrated: “there was a fornicating woman who had exceeded the people of her ere in beauty, and would not let any man sleep with her unless he paid her one hundred dinars. One day, a man saw her and was attracted to her, so he went and worked until he earned the one hundred dinars and came to her. She told him: pay it to the man at the door so that he may count it and weight it. ”when he did this, she told him to enter. She had a luxurious home and a bed made of gold. She told him: “come to me. ”when he was about to have intercourse with her, he suddenly remembered his standing before Allah on the day of Resurrection, so it was as if he was struck with lightening and his desire was put out. He said to her: allow me to leave you, and you can keep the money.” She replied: “How can you do this now, when you saw me and was attracted to me, and went and worked hard to collect the one hundred dinars, and when you are finally with me, you do what you did?” He told her: “Let me leave.” She said: “No, not unless you promise me that you will marry me!” he said: “I cannot do anything until I leave first.” She then said to him: “You must promise Allah that if I come to you where you lived, then you will marry me!” He said: “It might be so. We will see.” So, he put on his clothes, left her, and travelled back to his land. She later travelled to his land with all that she owned- regretting the circumstances under which they had met each other- until she arrived and asked about him. When she arrived at his home, it was said to him: “The queen herself has arrived and asked about you!” When he saw her, he was in such a state of shock that he collapsed and died. His body fell into her arms, so she said: ”As for him, then I have missed out on the chance to be with him. Does he have any close relatives? “It was said to her: “yes, his brother, but he is a poor man. “So, she said to him: “I will marry you out of my love for your dead brother.” She married him and bore for him seven righteous sons.” [’at-Tawwabin’ by Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi; p.41-42]

On a related note, I recently came across this interesting observation by Ibn al-Qayyim regarding the wisdom behind the Mahdi being from the descendants of al-Hasan, rather than al-Husayn: most of the Ahaadith indicate that the Mahdi will be from the descendants of al-Hasan bin Ali, and this contains a beautiful hidden wisdom, and it is that al-Hasan abandoned the Khilaafah for the sake of Allah, so, Allah made it so that his progeny would carry the Khilaafah in the future – the right that includes the responsibility to spread the justice that must fill the Earth – and this is the sunnah of Allah with His servants: that whoever leaves something for His sake, then Allah gives him – or his descendants – what is better than it. This is opposite to the situation of al-Husayn, as he was eager for it (due to his own wisdom), and was therefore not successful in it, and Allah Knows best.”