Servitude is Freedom

Contentment with Allah as Lord is an entryway to servitude, as previously discussed. When one is content with Allah, they prioritize Him over themselves, relinquishing their desires in favor of their Master’s will. As some of our [Sufi] friends have said, “The servant exists for their Master and is lost to themselves.” They also said, “True servitude is being in the hands of Allah like a corpse in the hands of the washer, turned as He wills without objection.”
A servant does not harbor objection to Allah’s will. If such a thought arises, they quickly address it through vigilance (murāqabah) or self-accountability (muḥāsabah). The self only achieves this state when it attains the truth of certainty (ḥaqq al-yaqīn), attaining peace and reassurance, confident that Allah is more knowledgeable of their best interests than they are, more capable of bringing about benefit, more merciful toward them, and more deserving of their loyalty in every regard. This state does not come to the self except through Allah’s Grace, persistent contemplation, prolonged practice, disciplined struggle, and perfected worship through emulating the Prophet with excellence. It is further achieved through practical conduct, characterized by good treatment of others and striving for their benefit.
When “lā ilāha illā Allāh” (there is no god but Allah) is perfected with sincerity and singular devotion, it ascends to Allah as pure speech. Supporting this are good deeds, which elevate it: “To Him ascends the good word, and the righteous deed exalts it” (35:10).
The “good word” is lā ilāha illā Allāh, and the “righteous deed” is prayer, which embodies righteous dealings, both with Allah by remaining mindful of Him, and with creation by refraining from harming them, bearing their harm patiently, and being sincere in benefiting them at all times.
“Surely, pure religion is for Allah only” (39:3), meaning religion purified from the whims of the self, which Allah does not otherwise accept.
Since the inclinations of the self are abundant, toward wealth, status, and power, those who renounce such desires minimize their needs, restricting them to the essentials. By doing so, they safeguard the sincerity of their devotion to Allah. They recognize that dependence is a form of bondage and that the more their needs increase, the more they become enslaved to those needs. Thus, they cannot achieve purity for Allah, nor can their religion be pure for Him until they are freed from their traditional masters, habits, illusions, and falsehoods, which make men and women slaves to desires and ambitions.
We have learned that life confronts us with good and evil. Evil manifests in suffering: fear, hunger, illness, and death. Good manifests in pleasure: safety, satiety, health, and life. Fear of pain has driven us to amass pleasure and its means, seeking to place a wide distance and strong barrier between ourselves and what harms us. From this arose the pursuit of wealth and the eagerness to hoard it, as well as the love of life and attachment to power.
However, the long human experience has demonstrated that evil cannot be avoided nor its effects mitigated by accumulating wealth or seeking material security. Death, the pinnacle of all evils, has eluded even the craftiest measures and the most fortified efforts to prevent it.
"Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you should be within lofty towers" (4:78). In Islam, Iblees (Satan) embodies evil, and his progeny spread fear in people's hearts, turning them away from the straight path. Allah says, "Satan threatens you with poverty and commands you to immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing" (2:268). Satan's promise of poverty means he instills fear of the consequences of giving, while his command to immorality signifies incitement to stinginess, greed, and hoarding.
The Qur’an narrates Iblees's role in tempting Allah's servants: "He said, 'My Lord, because You have put me in error, I will surely make [disobedience] attractive to them on earth, and I will mislead them all except among them Your chosen servants.' [Allah] said, 'This is a path [of return] to Me [that is] straight. Indeed, [of] My servants, no authority will you have over them, except those who follow you of the deviators'" (15:39–42).
When Iblees declared, "I will surely make [disobedience] attractive to them on earth," he meant that he would endear the worldly life to them and make them loathe death. This love for life and aversion to death become the roots of all other sins and transgressions. However, he conceded, "except among them Your chosen servants," knowing that his deceptions would not work on those who are truly devoted to Allah. Allah affirmed this by saying, "This is a path [of return] to Me [that is] straight", a truth Allah has made binding upon Himself: "Indeed, of My servants, no authority will you have over them."
Thus, these chosen servants are free from Satan's influence, liberated from his deceit, and immune to his whispers. This freedom from Satan's schemes signifies liberation from the origin of all evils: fear.
"Indeed, those of you who turned back on the day the two armies met, it was Satan who caused them to slip because of some of what they had earned" (3:155). Satan leads people into error by exploiting their fears, pushing them toward disgrace through [the use of] fear’s shadow. Fear is the root of all evil, and Iblees (Satan) is its embodiment.
Islam has made the eradication of fear its central mission. The statement, "The pinnacle of wisdom is the fear of Allah," underscores that the beginning of knowledge lies in consolidating all fears into the fear of Allah alone. As Allah says: "Say, 'Nothing will befall us except what Allah has decreed for us; He is our protector.' And upon Allah let the believers rely" (9:51).
The statement "There is no deity but Allah" (lā ilāha illā Allāh), which is the foundation of Islam, entails unifying one’s fear by directing it solely toward Allah after it had been dispersed toward various sources. This unification of fear carries profound educational value, aligning the self through reliance on the one true source of power and security.
The servant combats their fear of life's hardships by striving for contentment with Allah's Will, as previously mentioned, firmly believing that Allah knows what is best for them. Tribulations, when sent by Allah, are in truth a friend disguised as an enemy, this disguise exists only because of the limitations of human knowledge. Allah says: "Fighting has been enjoined upon you while it is hateful to you. But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you, and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you do not know" (2:216).
When one masters the struggle to achieve contentment, convinced that the severity of the trials Allah sends is like the bitterness of a cure that heals ailments, Allah’s care elevates them. Through the divine outpouring of knowledge and understanding, they are moved to realms where no affliction is conceivable, where they reside within the fortress of contentment, encountering nothing that they dislike. This was alluded to earlier in this message.
The adept knower (‘arif), proficient in divine understanding and treading the path of servitude, fears nothing at all. They do not fear Allah, for to them, Allah is a source of love, reassurance, and the breadth of intimate connection. There may remain a faint shadow of fear when the knower casts their gaze toward the Absolute, but this fear arises from knowledge, unlike the fear born of ignorance discussed earlier. The fear that stems from knowledge represents the highest pinnacle of the knowers’ awareness. It is there that they find eternal bliss, absolute goodness, and unending increase, as the knower experiences the realization of Allah’s words: "Every day He is bringing about a [new] matter" (55:29).
These matters of Allah signify the renewal of existence at every moment, as the knower advances in evolution, gaining ever more perfect intellectual and emotional life. In so doing, they spread goodness among people, just as a fragrant flower releases its sweet aroma.
Servitude is freedom because it is freedom from fear. The means to servitude is worship, and at the apex of worship is prayer.