According to Imam Ghazali, two causes of lifelong hopes exist, they are love of the world and ignorance about the reality.
Love of the World
Love of the world results from familiarity and acquaintance with its delights, pleasures and relationships. This slackens the desire to depart from the world and its pleasures. Man becomes fond and eager for worldly things. He continues to think that he still controls his ego yet his dependency on the world grows and grows. As time passes, his need for wealth, children, home, livelihood, family and friends grows; his attachment to the world becomes ever stronger.
Now if anything appears as an obstacle between him and the world it is disliked. No wonder he dislikes death. If ever the thought of death comes to him, he postpones it and says to himself “You have a long time ahead of you before you get old, then you can repent”. When he grows old, he says “until I become very old”. And when he is very old he tells himself, “As soon as I finish this project” or “free myself of building this or that” or “Until I return from that journey” etc.
He continues to postpone and delay repentance and fails to do good deeds. Day by day more and more new doors open, opportunities present themselves and his attachment deepens with the world. He truly becomes worldly. The root of his long hopes is this love of the world.
Ignorance about the reality
The second cause of long hopes is sheer ignorance. He counts on his youth, expecting it to last forever. Thinking it is far away from death, but he doesn’t realise that death can come to the young as much as the old. He considers death to be far away. His youth and health dupe him to think of death as something quite remote. He doesn’t realise that death is not confined to old age or summer or winter.
However, the love of this world coupled with this ignorance spurs him to develop his long hopes and he walks along the funeral procession but never thinks about his own funeral. Imam Ghazali suggests that the way to tackle the long hopes is to get rid of the love of the world. However, this can only happen if there is faith in the Day of Judgement, the day of reward and punishment. This conviction and certainty will help to diminish the love of the world. Faith in that momentous event will wipe away the love of the inferior.
What is Zuhd?
Bin ‘Ulan says, Zuhd means to be detached from something and despise it. Technically it means “disliking the world and turning away from it.” It is also defined as “passing over worldly pleasures for gaining heavenly pleasures.” Others have said Zuhd is “emptying the heart of that which one doesn’t possess.”
Zuhd develops in three stages:
- By having complete trust in Allah, the only provider.
- By being convinced of receiving Divine compensation for difficulties, which will far exceed the worldly loss.
- By realising that being praised or blamed is irrelevant.
Therefore, Zuhd is a mindset in which you are reliant on Divine providence, Who handles your misfortunes and you are indifferent to praise and blame. It is a mindset where the world is almost despised and looked down upon. So much so that the “Zahid sees everyone better than himself”, says Hassan Basri. Wahb Bin Ward says “Zuhd is when you have no regrets of worldly loss and no joy in gaining something.”
How to develop Zuhd
Several practices can help develop Zuhd. These include:
- Remembering the afterlife and recalling the scenes of standing before the Mighty Judge on the day of judgement. This will help to control the lowly desires of worldly pleasures.
- Realising that worldly pleasures engage the mind are distractions from Allah.
- The humiliation and efforts in earning wealth and prestige, the deceptions, its fleeting nature and how little it is in Allah’s sight. The Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “if the world was equal in value to the wing of a mosquito then Allah would not give a sip of water to a kafir” (Tirmizi).
- The Majestic Quran says “You prefer the worldly life, yet the Hereafter is far better and everlasting” (A’la: 16), and again “The delights of this world are little, while the Hereafter is far better for the mindful” (Nisa: 77).
- Describing the worldly people, the Quran says “They are delighted with worldly life, yet it is only a passing pleasure compared to the Hereafter” (Ar-Rad: 26).
What is the purpose of Zuhd?
Sahl Bin Sa’ad reported a man came to the Messenger (peace be upon him) and said “O Messenger of Allah tell me about a deed which if I did, would endear me to Allah and the people. He replied, “Develop Zuhd of the world and Allah will love you and develop Zuhd of what people have and they will love you” (ibn Majah).
Love of Allah and love of people are two purposes of Zuhd. Since Zuhd of the world shows that a person truly loves Allah. The all-loving and merciful Lord reciprocates by loving the Zahid. Similarly, a person who genuinely cares for others is going to be loved by the people too.
Conclusion
True detachment from the material world is not about abandoning responsibilities but cultivating a heart that remains focused on the eternal rather than the fleeting. By embracing Zuhd, we free ourselves from the grip of worldly desires and turn our gaze toward Allah, finding peace, purpose and genuine fulfilment.
