Allah the Most Glorious, at one stage during The Ascension (Me’raj) informed the Prophet (s) the following:
"As for the happy way of living, it is that in which the person is not tired of remembering Me, does not forget My bounties, and does not ignore My rights (on him). He seeks My pleasure day and night. The ever-lasting life is realized when the person works for his spiritual benefit until the world loses its significance for him, and looks small in his eyes. The hereafter becomes great for him.
He gives preference to My pleasure over his own desire; seeks My pleasures; thinks the right of My great bounty; keeps in mind what I have done for him (i.e. for his benefit); remembers Me day and night whenever he is tempted to commit any wrong or sin; keeps his heart clean from that I dislike; hates Shaytan and his whisperings, and does not let Shaytan establish a hold over, or a passage to his heart.
When he acts like this, then I put (My) love into his heart, until I make his heart, as well as his leisure and engagement, and his thought and speech, a part of (My) favors which I have bestowed on those of (My) Creations who love Me; and I open his heart’s eye and ear, so that he hears with his heart and looks with his heart to My Majesty and Greatness; and I make the world straitened for him and make him hate it with all its pleasures; and I caution him of the world and all that it contains, as a shepherd protects his sheep from dangerous pasture lands.
When this happens, he flees from people and transfers from the house of termination to the abode of eternity, and from the house of Shaytan to The Seat of The Beneficent Allah. O’ Ahmad! I adorn him with dignity and majesty. So, this is the good way of living and the eternal life, and it is the status of those who are pleased (with Me).
So, whosoever acts for My pleasure, I give him three characteristics: I teach him gratitude, which is not polluted by ignorance, remembrance, that is unadulterated with forgetfulness, and love that takes preference over the love of creatures. Then when he loves Me, I love him and I open the eye of his heart to My Majesty. I do not keep (My) special beings hidden from him. I converse with him secretly in the dark of night and the light of day, until he ceases talking with and sitting with the creatures.
I make him hear My talk and the speech of My Angels. I make My secret known to him, which I have kept hidden from all (My) creation. I dress him in modesty, until all the creation is awed of him. He walks on the earth (and all his sins are) forgiven. I make his heart hearing and seeing, and I do not hide from him anything of The Garden or the Fire. I make known to him the terror and afflictions awaiting the people on The Day of Resurrection, and about the things I will question the rich and the poor, as well as the learned and the ignorant.
I will make him sleep (in peace) in his grave, and I will send Munkar and Nakeer to question him. He will not experience the sorrow of death, or the fright of the prelude (of the next world). Then I will erect his weighing scale for him, and will unroll his book (of deeds). I will then put his book in his right hand and he shall read it unfolded. Then I will not keep any interpreter between Me and him.
So these are the attributes of the lovers.
O’ Ahmad! Make your concern one concern, make your tongue one tongue, and make your body (i.e. your person) alive that is never oblivious (of Me). Whoever is oblivious of Me, I do not care in which valley he perishes."
~ Al-Taba Tabai (RA) in his book, al-Mizan Volume Two, discusses the way of living that is happier and the life that is more durable. In this narration, al-Daylami narrates in his al-Irshad
Quoted from the Book - Strategies for Concentrating In Prayer | You may Download it as PDF here.
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