What has brought you here?

What has brought you here?” I said: “The desire to befriend you.” He answered: “I don’t think that one, who befriends Allah, befriends anyone except Him.” I told him: “Give me a piece of advice!” He said: “O Ibn Hayyan! When you fall asleep, consider death under your pillow, and when you get up, consider it in front of yourself. Do not pay attention to the smallness of your sin; rather pay attention to Allah’s greatness, before whom you have committed the sin.

Because if you consider your sins small, it is as if you consider Allah small!” Remoteness from Allah’s Closeness It has also been said that the great “tribulation” may be remoteness from Allah’s closeness - the position that is obtainable by belief, good deeds, and good morality. This position contains Allah’s pleasure and would lead to accompanying the prophets, martyrs, and the pious in the Hereafter.

Those who are always far from this position would eventually reach a position in which there are Satans and savages, but no humanity, belief, good deeds and morality. That is a place where human does nothing but oppression, wrongdoing, transgression, and immorality. On the other hand, those who are always seeking the nearness position benefit from Allah’s especial blessings; hence they engage in worshipping the Almighty and serving His servants, in a joyful and blissful state.

In this engagement, they have no job but as a sincere servant, and no desire but reaching Allah’s nearness. Their hearts continuously gain blessings from Allah and leads it to all aspects of their beings. Joseph, the truthful, seeking the route to Allah’s nearness, turned his diminutive house in Kan’an into a sincere worshipping and serving site. At the very beginning of this spiritual route, he dreamed of the future, seeing his high position.

He made the deep darkness of the well his prayer place. He made the palace of the Egypt’s king, which was a falling place for Zulaykha (Potipher’s wife), his rising place to piety. He also turned the prison into a place of worship for himself and a place of guidance for others. He performed wisely and trustworthily as the treasurer of Egypt and sincerely served Allah’s servants as Egypt’s king. He thus reached the position of Allah’s nearness.

Ignorance It has been said that “tribulation” means ignorance, which is the root of all difficulties, deprivations, and eternal misfortune. The Commander of the Believers (as), in a tradition about ignorance, states: اَلجَهْلُ دَاءٌ وَعَيَاءٌ.