our center will—by definition—fade, let us down, or pass away. And our break will occur as soon as
it does. What happens if, while climbing a mountain, you hang on to a twig to hold all your weight?
Laws of physics tell us that the twig, which was never created to carry such weight, will break. Laws
of gravity tell us that it is then that you will most certainly fall. This is not a theory. It is a certainty of
the physical world. This reality is also a certainty of the spiritual world, and we are told of this truth
in the Qur’an. Allah says:
“People, here is an illustration, so listen carefully: those you call on beside God could not, even if
they combined all their forces, create a fly, and if a fly took something away from them, they would
not be able to retrieve it. How feeble are the petitioners and how feeble are those they petition!”
(Qur’an, 22:73)
The message of this ayah (verse) is deeply profound. Every time you run after, seek, or petition
something weak or feeble (which, by definition, is everything other than Allah), you too become weak
or feeble. Even if you do reach that which you seek, it will never be enough. You will soon need to
seek something else. You will never reach true contentment or satisfaction. That is why we live in a
world of trade-ins and upgrades. Your phone, your car, your computer, your woman, your man, can
always be traded in for a newer, better model.
However, there is a freedom from that slavery. When the object upon which you place all your weight
is unshaking, unbreakable, and unending, you cannot fall. You cannot break. Allah explains this truth
to us in the Qur’an when He says:
“There is no compulsion in religion: true guidance has become distinct from error, so whoever rejects
false gods and believes in God has grasped the firmest hand-hold, one that will never break. God is
all hearing and all knowing.” (Qur’an, 2:256)
When what you hold on to is strong, you too become strong, and with that strength comes the truest
freedom. It is of that freedom that Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “What can my
enemies do to me? I have in my breast both my heaven and my garden. If I travel they are with me,
never leaving me. Imprisonment for me is a chance to be alone with my Lord. To be killed is
martyrdom and to be exiled from my land is a spiritual journey.” (Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Wabil, p.69)
By making the one without flaw, end, or weakness the only object of his worship, Ibn Taymiyyah
described an escape from the prison of this life. He described a believer whose heart is free. It is a
heart free of the shackles of servitude to this life and everything in it. It is a heart that understands that
the only true tragedy is the compromise of tawheed (the doctrine of the Oneness of God), that the only