Subject: Walk on Water - The Wisdom of Jesus
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2008 16:27:28 -0000
Walk on Water-The Wisdom of Jesus
By: Hamza Yusuf
Zaytuna Institute - Zaytuna.org* -
12/21/2007 - Religious Interfaith Education - Article Ref: ZI0712-3463
Number of comments: 4
Opinion Summary: Agree:4 Disagree:0 Neutral:0
http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=ZI0712-3463
The following sayings of Jesus (peace be upon him) from traditional Arabic
sources are excerpted from Walk on Water, a forthcoming book by Hamza Yusuf:
According to Ahmad, Jesus peace be upon him was known to have said, "Virtuous
action does not consist in doing good to someone who has done good to you -that
is merely returning a favor. Virtuous action consists in doing good to those
who have wronged you." (Ahmad)
According to Malik b. Anas, Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "Do not speak much
without remembering God, for by doing so, you harden your hearts. Surely a hard
heart is distant from God though you are unaware. Do not, like lords, look at
the faults of others. Rather, like servants, look at your own faults. In truth,
humanity is comprised of only two types, the afflicted and the sound. So show
mercy to the afflicted, and praise God for well-being." (Muwatta of Malik)
According to Hilal b. Yusuf, Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "If a day of
fasting comes upon one of you, let him oil his hair and beard; let him moisten
his lips lest others know he is fasting. If he gives alms with his right hand,
let him conceal that from his left; should he pray, let him draw the curtain
across his door. Surely, God apportions praise to people just as provision is
apportioned."
( Ibn al -Mubarak )
According to Salim b. Abi al-Ja'd, Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "Work for
God and not for your stomachs. Look at the birds: they rise up at dawn and
enter into the evening having neither planted nor harvested, yet God provides
for them. Now if you say to me, 'Our stomachs are so much larger than those of
birds,' look then at the oxen, the wild beasts and the donkeys; they neither
plow nor harvest the earth, yet God provides for them as well. Beware of the
luxuries of this world, and fear them, for the luxuries of this world are filth
in the sight of God."
( Ibn Al -Mubarak )
It is related that Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "It is of no use to know
something if one does not act upon it. In truth, an abundance of knowledge only
increases one in pride if one does not act accordingly." (Ahmad )
Once someone asked Jesus, "How are you able to walk on water?" Jesus replied,
"With certainty." Then someone said, "But we also have certainty!" Jesus then
asked them, "Are stone, clay, and gold equal in your eyes?" They replied,
"Certainly not!" Jesus responded, "They are in mine." (Ahmad )
Jesus, the son of Mary, was known to have said, "Love of this world is the
source of every wrong action, and there is much harm in wealth." They asked,
"What is its harm?" Jesus replied, "Its possessor is never safe from pride and
arrogance." They said, "What if he is free of those two? Is there still harm?"
Jesus responded, "Yes, for by nurturing his wealth, he is diverted from the
remembrance of God." (Ahmad )
Once Jesus and his disciples were outside the temple of Solomon, and the
disciples said, "O Messiah of God, look at the House of God! What could be
ï¬ner?" Jesus replied, "Amen. Amen. But I say to you that God will not leave
one stone of this House standing. Indeed, God will destroy it because of the
misdeeds of its people. God does not build anything of worth with gold or
silver, nor even with these stones. Righteous hearts are more beloved to God
than these stones. For God cultivates the earth with righteous hearts; and, in
their absence, the earth is destroyed." (Ahmad )
Jesus, the son of Mary, was accustomed to say, "O my God, surely I have
entered into the morning unable to neither forestall what I fear nor hasten
what I hope for. The whole affair is in another 's hand. I have arisen bound to
my deeds. There is no one poorer than me. Do not make me the cause of my
enemies being cursed, nor make me the reason any harm should come to a friend.
Do not place tribulation in my spiritual path, nor empower anyone over me who
shows me no mercy." (Ibn Abi Al-Dunaya)
Once Jesus met Iblis [Satan ]and Iblis said, "Is it not true that only what
has been decreed will happen?" Jesus replied, "That is true." Then Iblis said,
"So throw yourself down from the top of this mountain, and let us see if you
live or not!" Jesus answered, "The servant does not test his master; rather, it
is the master who tests his servant." (Abu Na 'im )
Some people once said to Jesus, "O Spirit of God inform us about the nature
of wealth." He answered, "The possessor of wealth always has one of three
qualities: he either gains it by unlawful means, obstructs it from reaching the
one who deserves it, or by accumulating it is distracted from worship of his
Lord." (Ibn Abd Al-Barr)
Sufyan al- Thawwri relates that Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "Love of this
world and love of the next world can never reside in the heart of a believer
simultaneously, just as ï¬re and water cannot be contained in a single vessel
at the same time." (Ibn Kathir )
Ubayd Allah b. Muslim relates that Jesus once said, "Woe to the possessor of
this world, since he must die and leave the world behind. He places his hope in
it and is deceived. He trusts it and is forsaken.
Woe to the deluded ,for this world shows them what they detest. In the end,
they must abandon what they love, and depart for that which they were promised.
Woe to the one whose constant preoccupation is this world and whose grave
mistakes are his very actions. What shame they will cause him soon enough!"
(Ibn Abi Al Dunya)
Jesus said, "You will never obtain what you desire except through patience
with what you despise." (Al Ghazzali)
According to Salam, Yazid al Dabi reported that once a woman said to Jesus,
son of Mary, as he was working, "Blessed be the womb that bore you, and blessed
be the breast that suckled you." Approaching her, Jesus said, "And blessed be
someone who, having read the Book of God, acted in accordance with what was in
it." (Ahmad )
Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "God has given me the power to give life to the
dead, sight to the blind, sound to the deaf; but He did not give me the power
to heal the fool of his foolishness." (Al- Razi)
(The names in parentheses indicate the hadith scholar in whose collection the
hadith is found.)
Hamza Yusuf is an American convert to Islam who studied for several years
under leading scholars in the Muslim world. He is the co-founder of the Zaytuna
Institute in California and has translated into modern English several
classical Arabic texts and poems, including the latest rendering of the
thirteenth-century devotional poem, The Burda: The Poem of the Cloak (2002).
His most recent works include The Creed of Imam al-Tahawi (2007), the first
text in the Zaytuna Curriculum Series; The Content of Character (2005), a
collection of sayings from the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, regarding
the essence of character and behavior; and Purification of the Heart (2004), a
translation with commentary of a nineteenth-century text that examines the
spiritual conditions and treatments of the heart.
. . .The beginning of knowledge is the intention,
then listening, then understanding, then action,
then preservation, and then spreading it. . . .
[Imam Abdullah ibn Mubarak (r), Tartib al-Madarik]
. . . . Knowledge without action is insanity
and action without knowledge is vanity. . .
[Imam al-Ghazali (r), Ayyuhal walad]
ABDUL WAHID OSMAN BELAL
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