The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 57
Faith, Certainty and Insight 57. Rather, he beholds only one Being and one Power and one Benefactor and one Hand. Then he views the favours of God Almighty clearly without the least obstruction resulting from associating means with the Benefactor. This view is so clear and certain that in his worship of the true. Benefactor he does not contemplate Him as being absent but conceives Him as being present. Such worship is designated by the Holy Qur'ān as Iḥsān. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has himself attributed this meaning to Iḥsān, as reported in Bukhārī and Muslim. . There is yet another grade above this, which is: إيْتَائُ ذِي الْقُرْبى 45. It means that when a person continues to view Divine favours, without the association of material means, and worships God conceiving Him to be present and to be the direct Benefactor, he begins to have personal love for. God. . The continuous contemplation of beneficence necessarily generates in the heart of the beneficiary love for the. Benefactor, Whose unlimited favours surround him on all sides. In such a situation he does not worship the. Benefactor merely out of an appreciation of His bounties, but out of personal love for Him like the love of an infant for its mother. At this stage he not only views God at the time of his worship but is also filled with delight like a true lovers. This is the grade which God Almighty has designated to be like beneficence between kindred, and this is the grade which is indicated in the verse: 46 فَاذْكُرُوا اللهَ كَذِكَرِكُمْ أَبَاء كُمْ أَوْ أَشَدَّ ذكرًا 4 45 "Giving like to the next of kin. '-Al-Naḥl, 16:91 [Publisher]