The benefits of hoping for the best
17/02/2021| IslamWeb
Hope in Allah the Almighty bears fruit to the following:
• It makes one strive more and exert greater effort in performing acts of worship.
• It makes one even more inclined to be constantly obedient to Allah The Almighty.
• It makes one enjoy drawing closer to Allah The Almighty and makes one experience the thrill of supplicating to Him.
• It makes one express his servitude to and need for his Lord, and makes him realize that he cannot do without the favours and kindness of his Lord, even for a moment that is as rapid as the blinking of an eye.
• Allah the Almighty loves that His slaves ask favours of Him and supplicate to Him; He is angered by those who shun supplicating and asking Him. The one with hope usually supplicates much more than others who are not, and Allah The Almighty is angry with those who do not harbor any hope in the mercy and kindness of Allah The Almighty. Thus having hope rescues one from the wrath of Allah The Almighty.
• Hope is what makes the person enjoy his journey towards Allah The Almighty and the Hereafter; it makes him steadfast upon the path because had it not been that people hoped for Paradise and that their rewards be multiplied, then nobody would have been able to continue on their path towards Allah The Almighty and the Hereafter.
• It makes one increase in his love for his Lord, because the more he gets what he asked and hoped for, the more his love for his Lord will increase and the more grateful he becomes to his Lord – which is one of the implications of the state of servitude.
• Hope makes one reach the state of being thankful; which is what servitude is all about.
• Hope makes one research more into the Names and Attributes of Allah The Almighty.
• Hope is interconnected with fear of Allah the Almighty because the one who hopes for the mercy of Allah The Almighty and His Paradise will fear that he may not be doing enough to be worthy of them; this is indeed a wonderful relationship between the two different states of the believer’s heart: hope and fear.
• When one hopes for something and Allah the Almighty grants it to him, this encourages him to ask for more and strive harder to please Allah the Almighty which consequently increases his level of faith and brings him close to the All-Merciful.
• The more hope that slaves harbor during this life, the more they will rejoice when attaining what they have hoped for in the Hereafter, and the best and highest of all causes for rejoicing is seeing Allah The Almighty and attaining His pleasure.
Furthermore, Allah The Almighty wishes that His slaves fulfil the other ranks of servitude, such as humbling themselves before Him, relying on Him in everything, seeking His support, fearing Him, persevering through His decrees and thanking Him for His bounties. Thus, Allah The Almighty decreed that people sin in order for him to fulfil these ranks, so His slaves seek the forgiveness of Allah The Almighty and humble themselves before Him in order to be forgiven. If people did not sin, they would not feel the need to humble themselves before Him or seek His forgiveness, nor would they repent to Him; this is why Allah The Almighty tests people with these sins, in order to purify their hearts by this humility and seeking His pardon. Thus, a very important aspect of servitude is fulfilled.
After the slave sins, he humbles himself before Allah the Almighty and then begins to have hope that Allah The Almighty will forgive his sin. This results in the slave’s heart becoming more attached to his Lord.
There are three types of hope, two of which are praised and one dispraised:
1. The hope of an obedient person who hopes for the reward from Allah The Almighty.
2. The hope of a sinful person who hopes for the forgiveness of Allah The Almighty.
3. The hope of a negligent person who continuously sins and then hopes for the forgiveness of Allah The Almighty, without exerting any effort to attain His forgiveness. This is a false hope and wishful thinking, which deceives no one but the one who harbours it; it is by no means considered to be real hope in Allah The Almighty.