name him by his name. This is a mother’s tenderness and compassion toward her child. How wondrous our case! We have not kept to what God commanded us of His obedience, nor have we been granted success or fulfilled what we saw of this mother’s character, tenderness toward us, and love.
The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said, “This world is an excellent mount for the believer: upon her he reaches good, and through her escapes evil.” He describes her caution for her children: she reminds them of evils and flees with them from them, adorns good for them, and makes them long for it. She travels with them, carrying them from the place of evil to the place of good. This is through her intense watchfulness concerning the divine commands God sends down within her, called revealed laws. She loves her children to uphold them so that they attain felicity. He, may God bless him and grant him peace, thus describes her with the best attributes and makes her a place of good things.
Those of watchfulness should begin entering into the acquisition of this attribute by watching their mother’s states. A child opens his eyes only upon his mother and sees none other, naturally loving her and inclining to her more than to his father. He recognizes only one who nurtures him. Her acts should be followed.
(This World’s Jealousy in This Representation)
If you ask, “Why, then, is she jealous of the Hereafter?”[29] we say: since the ruling is hers and her obedience has this standing, while the Hereafter has no
Notlar
[29]
(The author continues the representation of this world as mother and the Hereafter as co-wife. The aim is to explain the ruling of the two abodes in this inward application, while returning good and evil to the acts of legally accountable persons.)
