“…Whenever I look to the effects of Ibn Taymiyyah and the effects of Sayyid Qutb on Earth, I come to realize the meaning of {“A good word is like good tree whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches reach to the sky, giving its fruit at all times by the Leave of its Lord…”} [Ibrahim; 24]

Ibn Taymiyyah died in prison in the year 726 H. His books were burned up, and he and Ibn al-Qayyim were paraded around the streets of Damascus with the neighborhood children mocking and clapping behind them. Ibn Taymiyyah would sometimes write in prison, so they took away his pen and paper. So, he began writing on the walls of his cell using a rock. This treatise of ‘al-Hamawiyyah’ or ‘at-Tadmuriyyah’ was copied down from the walls of his prison cell. Ibn Taymiyyah died in 726 H, and the the scholars who competed with him thought that they were finally rid of him. He died in 726 H, and after exactly four centuries, someone emerged in the belly of the Arabian Peninsula who loved the books of Ibn Taymiyyah and learned from them, and he was Shaykh Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Wahhab. Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Wahhab was expelled from ad-Dar’iyyah to here and there, to Iraq, etc. Afterwards, he returned, and Allah softened the heart of Muhammad bin Sa’ud towards him and he agreed to aid his mission, and he did so.

The whole world went crazy, and they moved Ibrahim Basha the son of Muhammad ‘Ali Basha, and a Syrio-Egyptian army moved to tear apart this da’wah and wipe it out from Najd, and they took its leader ‘Ubaydullah bin Sa’ud and imprisoned him. Afterwards, the people thought that this da’wah was finished. About fifty years ago, one of Muhammad bin Sa’ud’s sons, ‘Abd al-’Aziz, took over as leader. During the days of ‘Abd al-’Aziz, the people would wander from place to place until they could find just a tiny date to eat. One of the inhabitants of Najd told me: “One day during the famine, we would dig up ant hills and collect and eat the wheat that the ants would gather. We were unable to eat dates on a daily basis, and we’d have to eat the date one day, and suck on the seed of that date the next.”

They would also take the vines on which the dates grew and wash them. So, the people of Najd would all come with their containers and vessels to collect some of the wash of these date vines. Allah then Willed that petroleum would be discovered inside the Arabian Peninsula, and this country began printing the books of Ibn Taymiyyah – printing and distributing, printing and distributing – and not a single library in the world was left except that it contained Ibn Taymiyyah’s books. Today, if you wish to silence someone, you simply say ‘Ibn Taymiyyah said such and such,’ and the person is silenced: {“A good word is like good tree whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches reach to the sky, giving its fruit at all times by the Leave of its Lord…”}

Sayyid Qutb was the same way. He was executed in prison, not in the street. They executed him inside the prison in a dark room, and nobody knows where his grave is until now. His own family doesn’t know where he is buried. One of his old friends said to me: “If only we knew where his grave is so that we can visit him…” So, I said to him: “His Lord does, you don’t need to know.” The day that Sayyid was executed, six to eight thousand copies of ‘Fi Dhilal al-Qur’an’ were burned in the main streets, in other words 64,000 volumes of the book were burned. Anyone in Egypt who was found possessing any of Sayyid Qutb’s books – especially ‘Ma’alim fit-Tariq’ – was sentenced to ten years in prison. Sayyid’s books were treated like opium! They were actually like opium! They were warned against in the same way that marijuana was warned against.

When Sayyid Qutb was executed, the ‘Voice of the Arabs’ broadcast that he had been executed because he wanted to kill Umm Kulthum and destroy charitable organizations and the radio stations that broadcast the Qur’an, and because he had contacts with Western intelligence, that he was an American agent, a Western agent, etc. So, the announcer on the ‘Voice of the Arabs’ show, Ahmad Sa’id – I heard him myself, and may he go to Hell, and what an evil destination – would say regarding Sayyid Qutb: “To Hell, and what an evil destination.”

That generation began asking itself: ‘Who is this man who was executed? What is this book ‘Ma’alim fit-Tariq’ and this book ‘Fi Dhilal al-Qur’an’ that he was sentenced for?’ So, everyone began looking for these books to read them. This happened to the point that a failing Christian publishing company in Beirut was advised by other Christians: “If you want to save your company, print ‘Fi Dhilal al-Qur’an.’” Yes, and he did so, and in the same year that Sayyid Qutb was executed, the book was printed seven times. Seven times! And during his life, it was only printed one and a half times – they did not even complete the second printing. Everyone who read Sayyid Qutb’s books returned to Allah and was affected by him, and the curse of Allah came down on those who had prevented people from reading them before. While they used to pound and whistle and jump up and down in the streets while his books were being burned, you now do not find a group of Muslims on Earth except that his books are with them, as they have been translated into almost every language…”

['Fi Dhilal Surat at-Tawbah'; p. 242-243]

“…you deal with Allah as if you are playing with small children…as Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani said: “They try to trick Allah as if they are tricking a young boy.”

I often stop at this verse: {“Verily, proofs have come to you from your Lord, so whosoever sees will do so for his ownself, and whosoever blinds himself will do so to his own harm, and I am not a watcher over you.”} [al-An'am; 104] and ask myself: ‘How can these hypocrites – I seek refuge with Allah from them – have their hearts so blind from seeing, with the Messenger between them, and the light of the Qur’an between them? How can their eyes be so deluded from seeing while the Prophet – this Prophet who receives Revelation – is not given his proper due from them?’ And this is for no reason except that the heart is blind, and I seek refuge with Allah.

How can the heart be blind? How is it that the heart can be afflicted with blindness? Because of the abundance of sins. The sins start off small! He emboldens himself in front of Allah with a small sin, which leads him to become even more emboldened, and more emboldened, and Allah lets him be, as the Prophet said: “Verily, Allah leaves the wrongdoer, until He takes him and does not let him go.”

Regarding the Children of Israel, He Said:

{“That was because they used to disbelieve in the signs of Allah, and killed the Prophets wrongfully. That was because they disobeyed and used to transgress the bounds.”} [al-Baqarah; 61]

It all began with sins and transgression, and ended with the killing of Prophets and disbelief in the signs of Allah.

Because of this, the Messenger of Allah said: “Allah has cursed the thief whose hand is cut off for stealing an egg.” And does one have his hand cut off for stealing an egg? The scholars are agreed that one is not to have his hand cut off for stealing less than three dirhams’ worth, is this not so? Yes! So, how can one have his hand cut off for stealing an egg? Because when he stole the egg, he then stole the chicken. And when he stole the chicken, he then stole a cow. This is how he ends up getting his hand cut off, and such are the sins.

The heart is like glass – do you not see the lamp? The glass lamp, or the windshield of the car…the windshield of the car has wipers and wiper fluid installed for it. So, whenever it becomes dirty, you press the button, and the fluid comes out, and the wipers clean it: “Follow a bad deed with a good deed, and it will wipe it out.” However, if you splash into a pit of mud, how can you clean your windshield? If a major sin is drowned out by another major sin, which is itself drowned out by another major sin, the heart will become murky. If the servant commits a sin, it will leave a black spot on his heart, followed by another spot, followed by another spot – until it becomes engulfed in blackness. When the heart becomes black, no light can emanate from it, and none is seen from it, and this is what is meant here:

{“Nay! On their hearts is the covering of sins and evil deeds which they used to earn.”} [al-Mutaffifin; 14]

He ends up not being able to visualize things, and one can see nothing from him. He becomes like the lens of a camera: if it is not wiped clean, one can see no pictures from it. Sometimes, he will see things for other than what they are if the dirt and murkiness pile on. So, if they pile on, he will see the good as being bad, and the bad as being good. He has darkened his heart, and has now become unable to distinguish between anything. He has obscured his heart, making it now necessary for his windshield wipers to work continuously, and these wipers will leave the heart clean. However, if the windshield becomes muddy, these wipers will simply spread the mud around. Such a situation requires long term effort, as you would not be able to use the wipers while you are driving. Such a case would require a true and sincere repentance, and a strong return to Allah, and nothing is impossible for you to do.

Many of the people were highway robbers. al-Fudayl bin ‘Iyad was a highway robber, and one night, he came up to a house that he wanted to rob, only to find its owner standing up at night in prayer, reciting:

{“Has not the time come for the hearts of those who to be affected by Allah’s Reminder and that which has been revealed of the truth, lest they become as those who received the Scripture before, and the term was prolonged for them, and their hearts were hardened? And many of them were sinners.”} [al-Hadid; 16]

He then said: “Yes, the time has come!” And he repented on the wall of the very house he was about to rob, and became al-Fudayl bin ‘Iyad, the greatest of worshippers and ascetics, and from the greatest of scholars and Muhaddithin!

…It is within the person’s capabilities to repent. However, he must make his repentance true and sincere! As for one disobeying Allah one day, followed by Allah making him taste the pain of his sin, followed by his repentance at the end of the day, and by morning, he returns to the way he was before repenting? No, no, no…it must be a true, sincere repentance, and the true and sincere repentance means that you a) completely detach yourself from the sin, and b) you make the most intense effort to never return to it again, and c) you truly regret what was done, and d) that you sooner or later patch up the rights of others that you violated. Only then will Allah take your repentance into consideration…”

['Fi Dhilal Surat at-Tawbah'; p. 322-324]

“…the heart is the machine that drives all acts of worship. It is what moves the entire body! As long as the heart is alive, then the limbs will be alive, and the soul will open itself up to worship. However, if the heart becomes diseased, then worship will become too heavy on the soul, leading to it eventually disliking and hating – and we seek refuge with Allah from this – worship. Because of this, Allah – the Glorified and Exalted – said, regarding the prayer:

The prayer is heavy, because one’s legs and hands are not what get up for the prayer. What gets up for the prayer are the heart and the soul.

{“Verily, the hypocrites seek to deceive Allah, but it is He Who deceives them. And when they stand up for the prayer, they stand with laziness and to be seen of men, and they do not remember Allah but little.”} [an-Nisa'; 142]

Because of this, it is the heart that stands up for worship. The limbs are simply slaves of this heart, carrying out what it commands them. If the heart is alive, then the soul will be alive, and worship will become beloved and sweetened to the hearts and the souls, and they will open up for it.

However, if the heart becomes diseased, then worship becomes too heavy on it. The heart is like the digestive system: right now, the most beloved thing to you is meat. However, if you develop an ulcer somewhere in your digestive system, then the meat – along with its fat and oil – becomes the most hated thing to it, since it is diseased. Sweets are also something that are beloved to the soul. For example, if you were fasting right now and were to break your fast on some desserts, then your soul would become satisfied with that, right? However, if one were to be stricken with diabetes, then he would not be able to handle these sugary foods, even if they were beloved to him.

The heart is like this: it must be strong so that it can handle worship that is strong. The stronger your heart becomes, then throw as much worship upon it as you wish. You would get up to pray at night, and you would cherish this prayer and consider sleep to be your enemy:

{“Their sides forsake their beds, to invoke their Lord in fear and hope…”} [as-Sajdah; 16]

He begins to forsake it because an enmity develops between him and his bed. He prays behind the imam, and he says to himself: “If only he would make the prayer longer,” so that he would increase in his opening up to this worship, and his tasting of its sweetness.

At times, I would pray a normal prayer with the people behind me, so I would elongate the prayer. The youth would then come to me and say (the hadith): “Whoever leads the people in prayer should go easy on them,” – the youth! And there was an old man behind me who was between 90 and 100 years of age – his face filled with light – and he would say to me: “Keep making the prayer long and do not answer them.” A man of 90 years getting pleasure out of a long prayer, and a youth of 20, who probably practices karate and judo, cannot handle the same prayer.

Why?

If he went to the soccer field and spent two hours playing there without becoming bored, then why would he become bored from hearing the Qur’an for five minutes? The difference between a short prayer and a long prayer is simply five minutes, so why does he become bored from these five minutes of Qur’an, yet he does not become bored from two hours of soccer? Why does he not get bored from standing for two hours staring at an inflated piece of leather, his heart attached to it?

Because, what stands up to pray is the heart, and what stands up for sports are simply the body and muscles.”

['At-Tarbiyah al-Jihadiyyah wal-Bina''; 1/220]