Imaam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allaah have
mercy on him) stated:
The strongest of people regarding their religion
are the greatest in protective jealousy! The Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi
wasallam) stated in an authentic hadeeth: “Are you surprised at Sa‘d’s high sense of jealousy? I have
a greater sense of jealousy and Allaah is more jealous than I.”[1]
Whosoever loves Allaah
and His Messenger will have protective jealousy regarding Allaah and His
Messenger to the extent of his love and reverence for them; but if his heart is
devoid of protective jealousy for Allaah and His Messenger, then he is
completely devoid of love (for Allaah and His Messenger) even if he claims to
be one of the lovers.
Anyone who claims to love a person among the
people and sees someone else violating the sanctity of his beloved, striving to
hurt him, making him angry, disdaining his right, and belittling his command
without feeling any sense of jealousy is a liar; his heart is rather calm. So
how can it be true of a servant who claims to love Allaah that his mind is
bereft of any sense of jealousy when His prohibitions are violated? He is also
bereft of emotions when His rights are wasted!
The least class is for the individual to be
jealous for Him over himself, his desires and his accompanying devil. So he
should have the sense of jealousy for his beloved when His rights are neglected
and His prohibitions violated. If this sense of jealousy leaves the heart, then
love will go away from it. In fact, the religion will leave it even if its
traces still remain in it. This sense of jealousy is the foundation of fighting
in the way of Allaah, enjoining what is right and forbidding wrong because it
serves as motivation towards that.
Hence, in the absence of this mindset, he will
not strive in Allaah’s way nor enjoin what is good and forbid evil, because having
protective jealousy towards Allaah and His Messenger is the only thing that
brings about that…
Source: Rawdah al-Muhibbeen wa Nuzhah al-Mushtaaqeen, by Ibn Qayyim
al-Jawziyyah, translated by Abdus-Samee Abdus-Salaam.
