Ihyaaud Deen An Effort to Revive Deen in Totality
In response to the question of a certain aalim, Hazrat Moulana Ashraf Ali Thaanwi (rahimahullah) once mentioned the following:
If a person falls ill, and the people around him notice that he is not concerned about his health and about getting treatment, then they will begin to scold and reprimand him from all sides. Their scolding will cause the person to worry about his health. Hence, for such a person, there is hope of him recovering and his health improving.
Actually, the person whose condition is most worthy of being pitied is (not the person who is physically ill and people urge him to seek treatment, but rather) the person who is regarded by the whole world to be healthy while he is really sick (spiritually sick), but on account of people regarding him to be healthy, he himself begins to feel that he is spiritually healthy (and thus does not see the need to look for spiritual treatment). In regard to such a sick person, there can be no hope of him recovering his health (as he is complacent of his spiritual health being good while he is actually suffering from spiritual ailments such as pride, malice, anger, jealousy, etc.).
I say, in all truth, that when I show any person his spiritual ailment and correct him, then at that time, I am not negligent of my own condition. I do not correct others while feeling that I am not in need of any correction myself. Rather, at the very moment when I am correcting the next person, I continue to think to myself that my correction should not exceed the bounds, and the person being corrected should not suffer any inconvenience in the least. However, on account of me correcting people’s mistakes, I am labelled as being a strict and harsh person.
Yes, it is a different matter if I make an error in judgment (when prescribing a treatment to correct a person’s weakness). In this regard, I do not deliberately or intentionally do this to any person. Hence, I have hope that Allah Ta‘ala will regard me as excused and overlook my error.
(Malfoozaat Hakeemul Ummat 1/160-161)
