Be with the Dead who are Living

Whoever would like to embark upon this journey ^[1], should accompany the dead who are in reality – alive amongst the people. For with their company, he would indeed reach his destination. He must also beware of accompanying the living, who are in reality, dead amongst the people, for indeed they would block his path. For such a traveler, there is no company that is more beneficial, and no disassociation more successful.

One the Salaf said:

What a huge difference;

between a people who are dead, 

but bring hearts to life by remembering them, 

and a people who are living, 

but put hearts to death by mixing with them.

There is nothing more harmful to a person than those he mixes with from his own kind. His foresight is shortened and his drive and initiative are stalled while he tries to emulate them, accommodate them, and follow them wherever they go, even if they entered a lizard’s hole, he would want to enter it with them.

 

So whenever he turns his attention away from their companionship, to the companionship of those who are physically absent, but whose righteous deeds and pleasant influence is present in the world, it would result in a different type of initiative, and different activities. He would become a stranger amongst people, even if he were well known and related to them. 

But he would be a beloved stranger; one who sees how people are living, while they would not see how he is living. He would make excuses for them as much as possible, encourage them with all his energy and effort, all the while, reacting to them with two different viewpoints:

A viewpoint that takes encouraging goodness and preventing evil into consideration. With this viewpoint, he encourages and dissuades them, befriends and disassociates from them, giving them all their rights in full.

The other viewpoint takes Devine Decree into consideration. With this perspective; he shows mercy to them, supplicates for them, seeks forgiveness for them, and seeks different types of excuses for them, so long as it does not lead to a deficiency in a legislated order, or a breach in the legislation. They are all touched by his smile, his mercy, his lenience, his pardoning - in line with the statement of The Elevated:

Accept what is consented to [from speech and action], enjoin what is good, and turn away from the ignorant.

He contemplates over the meanings of this Ayah - from living harmoniously with people, fulling Allah’s right concerning them, and being secure from their evil.

 

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[1] Migration to Allah and His Messenger as was clarified in a previous paragraph.