The Bedouin's answer when he was asked: How did you come to know your Lord?
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The Shaykh : This is why it was said to some of the Bedouins, for whom "Glory be to Allah" is sometimes a natural response. He was asked, "How did you come to know your Lord? How did you come to know your Lord?" One of them said, "The tracks indicate the journey, and the dung indicates what? "the camel. So the sky with its constellations, the earth with its broad paths, and the seas with their waves—do they not indicate the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing?" Allah is the Greatest. These Bedouins may not have known [scripture], but they used their intellect to reason that these great things must indicate a Creator who creates them and manages them. Yes, by Allah.
As for the second, he was asked, "How did you come to know your Lord?" He said, "By the frustration of firm resolutions and the turning away of desires." "By the frustration of firm resolutions and the turning away of desires." How is this? A person resolves to do something, and then his resolution is frustrated without any apparent cause. Who frustrated it? The one who frustrated the resolution is the one who originally placed the resolution in him, and that is Allah, Mighty and Majestic. As for the turning away of desires, a person may intend to do something and even begin to act on it, but then he turns away. So we say that this hadith contains evidence that a person may say, "I will do such and such," as a statement of what is in his heart, not as a certainty that he will do it, because the future belongs to Allah. But if you inform people of what is in your heart, there is no blame on you. And success is from Allah.
As for the second, he was asked, "How did you come to know your Lord?" He said, "By the frustration of firm resolutions and the turning away of desires." "By the frustration of firm resolutions and the turning away of desires." How is this? A person resolves to do something, and then his resolution is frustrated without any apparent cause. Who frustrated it? The one who frustrated the resolution is the one who originally placed the resolution in him, and that is Allah, Mighty and Majestic. As for the turning away of desires, a person may intend to do something and even begin to act on it, but then he turns away. So we say that this hadith contains evidence that a person may say, "I will do such and such," as a statement of what is in his heart, not as a certainty that he will do it, because the future belongs to Allah. But if you inform people of what is in your heart, there is no blame on you. And success is from Allah.
