The benefits of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter, We will increase for him in his harvest. And whoever desires the harvest of this world, We will give him thereof, but he will have no share in the Hereafter”

In this verse: there is an exhortation for a person to desire the Hereafter through his deeds. If someone asks: How does one desire the Hereafter through the deeds of this world? Let us suppose eating and drinking; a person goes to the market to buy bread and food. How does he desire the Hereafter? We say: How is it possible to desire the Hereafter through that? First, he desires to obey the command of Allah, for Allah the Exalted said: ,
and second, he desires to preserve his strength and health, and this is a required matter because Allah says: and He commanded us to eat from the good things and to thank Him. He desires through that the ability to be mindful of Allah in His obedience, because the stronger the body, the more complete the worship. So he desires through his eating and drinking the ability to be mindful of Allah in His obedience,
Fourth: he desires through that to enjoy the generosity of Allah. How is that? Because the Generous One loves for His generosity to be accepted, is that not so? That is, if a generous, noble man gives you a gift, does he rejoice if you accept it and be grieved if you return it, or the opposite? The former; he is pleased if you accept it and grieved if you return it. Our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, is the most generous of the generous, so He loves for His servants to be at ease with His blessings and to enjoy them. So this is desiring the harvest of the Hereafter through the deeds of this world. As for the pure deeds of the Hereafter, such as prayer, fasting, Hajj, and the like, their matter is clear.
So the question now, I repeat it once more: How does a person desire the harvest of the Hereafter through what is of the matters of this world? The answer: That is possible, and we give an example of this with eating and drinking. It becomes clear to us that there are four intentions, all of which the person is rewarded for, although if one who reflects were to reflect, he would find more than this. Good.
And among the benefits of the noble verse: warning against desiring only this world, due to His saying: .
And among the benefits: that whoever desires the harvest of this world is not given all that he desires, due to His saying: And whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter is given all that he desires and more.
And among them is the indication that deeds are by intentions, due to His saying: In it is an indication of the goodness of intention, and that a person should make his intention good, indeed it is obligatory upon him to make it good.
And among them is the refutation of the Jabriyyah from His saying: Because the Jabriyyah say: The person has no will. Glory be to Allah, he has no will? No, he has no will. He cooked the food to eat it, and he said: This is without will. He prepared the household utensils to use them, and he said: This is not by his will.
What do you say about this opinion? This is an opinion contrary to the fitrah, contrary to the most basic fitrah. Even a child knows when he is forced and when he acts by choice. A thief was brought to the Commander of the Faithful, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), and he ordered his hand to be cut off. Cut off his hand, the conditions for cutting were fulfilled. So he said: Wait, O Commander of the Faithful, by Allah, I did not steal this except by the decree of Allah. What does he want? That the hadd be lifted from him, if it was by the will of Allah, meaning I had no choice in it. So the Commander of the Faithful said to him: He was silenced, because he could not say anything. Although the cutting of the Commander of the Faithful's hand was by the will of Allah in the cosmic and legislative sense, and the thief was by the will of Allah in the cosmic sense only, because he was not permitted to steal. So in the verse is a refutation of the Jabriyyah. Good.
And is there in the verse evidence for the Qadariyyah who deny the will of Allah in what the servant does? The answer: No, it is not a refutation of their saying, but it is not an establishment of their saying either. Because the will of the person is from his attributes or not from his attributes? It is from his attributes. He is the one who wills. Is the servant created or not created? Created. So if he is created, his attributes are also created, necessarily. So your will is created by Allah in the sense that you are created, and the attribute of the created is created.
And among the benefits of this noble verse: the perfection of the dominion of Allah the Exalted, due to His saying: .
And among its benefits: establishing the generosity of Allah, and that He, Mighty and Majestic, is more generous than His servant. The servant does a little and is rewarded much.
And among the benefits of the noble verse: establishing the Hereafter. And its establishment is established by the Qur'an, the Sunnah, the consensus of the Muslims, and correct reasoning, meaning intellect. As for the Book and the Sunnah, they are full of establishing the Last Day. As for the consensus, it is established; no one among the Muslims denies the Hereafter, and whoever denies it is a disbeliever. As for correct reasoning, it is due to His saying, the Exalted: and His saying: Have you seen, O my brothers, have you seen if Allah the Exalted created this creation and sent the messengers and sent down the books and obligated jihad, and this one kills this one for the religion of Allah and takes his wealth captive and takes his women captive and takes his wealth as booty, and then the matter returns to being rubble, we are not resurrected? What would this work be? Futility, from which Allah is free. And if it were not for our belief in the Last Day, the strong among us would eat the weak, because he does not expect a reckoning. But intellect necessitates and obligates belief in the Last Day.
And among the benefits of this noble verse: that whoever desires this world with his deed, he has no share in the Hereafter. But is the negation of the share here a complete negation, or does he have no share in the Hereafter with this deed by which he desired this world? The second or the first? The second, without doubt, except if this deed and intention are of what goes beyond the religion, then he has no share absolutely.
Good, for example, if a person desires with his study to obtain the ijazah, meaning the certificate, is he among those who desired the harvest of this world or the Hereafter? According to what is in his heart. If he desired with the certificate to rise to a worldly position, he has desired this world. And if he desired with it to rise to a position by which he can benefit the Muslims by teaching or administration, then he has desired the Hereafter, without doubt. And so, between this world and the Hereafter in this matter is only a hair or less. Do you desire with the certificate to say: You are in the fifth or tenth or hundredth or two hundredth or thousandth or two thousandth rank, or do you desire with it to occupy a place by which you benefit people? The first is a loser, and the second is a winner. Because, unfortunately, now a person is not valued except by the card he has. Knowledge is a paper you take out of your pocket, a doctorate certificate number one thousand. If you give it to him, he says: Where do you want us to employ you? Any place you want. But a man comes in knowledge like Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and says: Employ me in an elementary school. He says to him: You have no certificate, we will not employ you. O man, employ him, try him. He said: No. So now the measure of people's knowledge is by this card. If people have descended to this level, I will follow them, and my intention is known to Allah. My intention is that I want to occupy a place in the nation where I am a teacher, a judge, a head of something, directing people. And success is from Allah.