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Do Not Despise the Servants of God by Ibn Arabi

 
“Help your brother, wronging or wronged.” Help the wronger since he is wronged. Satan has wronged him by what he whispered to him in his breast to cause him to wrong another person. So help him by assisting him in repelling what satan has cast into him which makes wronging another person seem attractive so that he becomes “a wronger”. You only help him because he is wronged by the one who whispers in his breast and bars him from the guidance which is his property. Satan bought it from him for misguidance and he purchased misguidance for guidance and became called a wronger. So you should explain to him with your advice and edict (fatwa) that this sale is invalid and not permitted legally and so it is not binding. The deal is corrupt and the trade is unsuccessful. So help him even though he is a wronger so that he refrains from his wrongdoing and repents. That is the abrogation of the sale. God says about the like of these, “Those are the people who have sold guidance for misguidance. Their trade has brought no profit; they are not guided” (2:16).

Therefore be careful not to dissapoint the one who asks for your help. Although He has no need of you, He says, “If you help God, He will help you” (47:7). So He asked you to help Him, and that is only this. Do not wrong him. “Injustice will be darkness on the Day of Resurrection.” Whoever runs in darkness does not know when he will fall to his death or what reptiles might harm him or kill him on his way. I advise you not to despise any of God’s creatures. God did not despise it when He created it.

Do not despise the servants of God.
They have worth, even if you possess all the stations.

So God does not show concern by bringing into existence the one He brought into existence from nothing for you to despise it. That entails deprecating and despising the One who brought it into existence. We seek refuge from God from being among the ignorant! This is one of the greatest of major wrong actions. All are blessings of God by which He nourishes the servants of God, whoever they are. The Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) said, “No one should look down on a gift from her neighbor, even if it is only a sheep’s trotter.” Despising is pure ignorance. So do not be a curser nor someone abusive nor someone who shouts. Anyone who curses a believer is like someone who kills him. When Jesus (peace be upon him) met a pig, he said to it, “Be saved with peace.” He was asked about that and said, “I do not want to accustom my tongue to anything except good speech.” It is an excellent Tradition (hasan hadith). I said on that:

People are all speech,
so be the best words heard.
When a thorn pierces you from them,
be the strongest shield in repelling it.
When you are like that with them,
then you, by God, are a beneficial leader.
The candle harms itself
while it is a blazing light to the onlooker.
The blame which you recognize
is a blessing in the hand a person who is deprived.

Muhyi din Ibn al-‘Arabi, The Mysteries of Bearing Witness