The Prophet’s Ihtisab “Seeking Allah’s Blessings”: Ranks, Degrees and Rewards

Abstract

All praise is due to Allah, and Allah's Peace and Blessings be upon His Final Messenger. Seeking Allah`s Blessings, or seeking the reward from Allah, in the Age of prophet Muhammad did not have one way to be applied, because the prophet "peace be upon him" applied his ‘ihtisab for Allah blessings to those who committed vices and sins. Furthermore, seeking Allah only has important rankings, degrees and rewards which should be highlighted and clarified. The ranks of changing vices fall in degrees, have characteristics which should be applied to reap their fruits. This is what we will explore in the current study.

The rationale for the current study is seen in the following:

It is important to know that the seeker of íhtisab, its jurisprudence, and the fact that it does not fall in one grade, especially in our times when understanding íhtisab has been muddled up.  

We need to take Prophet Muhammad’s acts as a model to follow in seeking Allah`s blessings, which can be achieved only by highlighting the Prophet’s examples and extracting what is to be learned from them.

There is a need to collect what is related to the understanding of the prophet’s seeking for Allah`s blessings from the prophet’s biographies and Sunnah literature in one volume.

The current study aims at the following: first getting acquainted with the aspect of the Prophet’s life which relates to the ranks, grades and fruit of seeking Allah’s blessings. The second aim is to clarify the Prophet’s seeking of Allah’s blessings in changing vices, illustrating that he did not follow one grade or one case but a number of ranks and degrees.