16-   Understanding God's Giving and Depriving

You might think that He is giving you, while in reality He is depriving you! And you might think that He is depriving you, while in reality He is giving you!

If through your deprivation, He opens the doors of understanding for you, then this deprivation is exactly a gift. You feel bad about your deprivation because you do not understand. He might open the door of worship for you, but does not open the door of acceptance.

And you might be destined to sin, but this becomes a means to ascension towards Him. A sin that produces humbleness and need is better than an act of worship that produces arrogance and prejudice.

At times Allah gives me and at other times He deprives me. Allah might test me through ‘good’ and ‘bad’, through ‘fortune’ and ‘hardship’, or through bestowing ‘blessings’ on me or ‘depriving me’ from them.

But the reality of each of these could turn out to be different from the way I labeled it and the assumptions I made about it...

http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/refine-your-heart/advice/454833-understanding-gods-giving-and-depriving.html

18-   Ascending in the Levels of Worship

Allah diversified the acts of worship for you because He knows how quickly you get bored. And He did not permit you certain acts of worship at certain times so you do not go to extremes.

The objective is to perfect your prayers not to merely perform them. Not every performer of prayers perfects them.

The word of wisdom under discussion is related to a very important topic in our journey to Allah which is the quality of worship. A believer who is in continuous worship may feel bored at some point.

Allah, out of His mercy, knows that we, humans, could naturally feel bored, even from worship. Therefore, He diversified the acts of worship so we can worship Him in a variety of ways.

http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/refine-your-heart/advice/455009-ascending-in-the-levels-of-worship.html

20-   Certainty of Faith and Indifference of this World

If the light of deep faith shines on you, you will see the Hereafter before journeying to it, and you will see the trappings of this world vanishing before your eyes.

The journey to Almighty Allah in this life is much shorter than the journey to Him in the afterlife.

One should not forget that death is a reality for all of us. All humans, believers and disbelievers, agree that death is the definite end of this life...

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) warned us against striving only for this world. Again, this does not mean that we neglect our worldly affairs under the pretext that we are devoting our life to the Hereafter. What the Prophet meant is that we should not forget the Hereafter...

http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/refine-your-heart/advice/455128-certainty-of-faith.html

22-   Mercy with People's Faults

A person, who learns of people’s secrets and does not have Godly mercy on them, brings upon himself great danger and disaster.

When one's knowledge and awareness increase, he will find himself in situations and incidents where he gets involved in many social matters, and starts to learn about people’s secrets, faults, and problems.

One comes to know people's secrets when he/she is consulted about some problems or becomes an arbitrator in certain disputes on the individual, family, or society’s levels.

Another source of knowledge is experience and insight that one gains with time, which allows one to judge people’s nature and real character based on their outward appearance and what is between the lines of their speech or writing.

Learning people's secrets and their weaknesses is a form of power over them. A believer who happens to learn people's secrets should learn how to deal with them. The Sheikh says here: “A person, who learns of people’s secrets and does not have Godly mercy on them, brings upon himself great danger and disaster”. 

First of all, one should not feel that he is authorized by God to act as a judge or have an illusion of a great mission to establish justice based on the secrets he/she came to know...

http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/refine-your-heart/advice/455336-mercy-with-peoples-faults.html

24-   Keeping Priorities Straight

A sign of following one’s whims is to be active with optional good deeds while being lazy with required obligations.

The next step in our journey to Allah requires sound knowledge and deep understanding.

The Prophet (Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said:

“If Allah wishes to elevate someone, He grants him knowledge (fiqh) of the faith”. (Al-Bukhari)

http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/refine-your-heart/advice/455533-keeping-priorities-straight.html

26-   Satisfaction: A Godly Gift

His most perfect blessing on you is to give you just enough, and to deprive you from what will cause you to do wrong.

When you have less to be happy with, you will have less to be sad about.

This stage of our journey to Allah relates to the issue of providence and how to understand it correctly.

The Prophetic hadith that says: "The little that suffices is better than the abundant and alluring", has been re-worded by the Sheikh in this word of wisdom...

http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/refine-your-heart/advice/455702-ibn-attaa-words-of-wisdom-26.html

28-  A Blessed Life and a Continuous Impact

How often has a long life brought about so little, and how often has a short life brought about so much.

If someone’s life is blessed, he will reach, in a short time, bounties from Allah that cannot be expressed in words or comprehended in descriptions.

In  Islamic terminology, especially in Sufism, there is a lot of attention given to what is called barakah (blessing). Blessing is defined as the divine good displayed in something. When we invoke Allah's blessing in something, this means that we would have favorable results due to the divine blessing.

The Sheikh says in this word of wisdom:

'How often has a long life brought about so little, and how often has a short life brought about so much.'

He wants to say that someone may live for so many years but there is no blessing in his life, and that some other person may live for a short time but there is much blessing and great good in his life...

http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/refine-your-heart/advice/455881-a-blessed-life-and-a-continuous-impact.html