The 365 · Tazkiyah · Day 333 · Dunya
Ṭūl al-Amal · Long-Stretching Hopes
The disease
طُولُ الأَمَلِ
Ṭūl al-Amal
The story
Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said: 'I never saw certain death deceived by hope like the children of this Ummah by their hopes.' The Sahaba understood; we have forgotten.
Why it's named first
Ṭūl al-amal is the close cousin of ghurūr. Where ghurūr denies death, ṭul al-amal admits death but pushes it far enough that today's choices remain unaffected. The Companions named this the deadliest after-the-deceit-of-dunyā. ʿAlī said: 'The two things I fear most for you are following whims (hawan) and stretching hopes (ṭul al-amal); the first turns you from the truth, the second makes you forget the next world.'
In the Qur'an
ذَرْهُمْ يَأْكُلُوا وَيَتَمَتَّعُوا وَيُلْهِهِمُ الأَمَلُ ۖ فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ (الحجر 3). 'Leave them to eat and enjoy and be distracted by [false] hope; they will come to know.' (al-Ḥijr 15:3)
In the Sunnah
«يَهْرَمُ ابْنُ آدَمَ وَتَبْقَى مِنْهُ اثْنَتَانِ: الحِرْصُ وَالأَمَلُ». 'The son of Adam ages, but two things remain young in him: greed and hope.' (Bukhari 6420)
The cure
Replace 'someday' with 'today' for the soul's most important moves. Today's tawbah for that sin. Today's call to the parent. Today's qiyam, however brief. Today's wudu before sleep. The Sunnah refuses the indefinite future.
What is at stake
Today's tawbah, postponed, becomes tomorrow's regret. The Day will reveal what was always within reach but always deferred.
A du'a for this day
«اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِن طُولِ الأَمَلِ». 'O Allah, I seek refuge in You from prolonged hopes that defer my return.'
The door of mercy
Al-Ḥakam (the Final Arbiter). The accounting will not wait for your delayed plans.
A reflection to carry
Hope is good when it is hope IN ALLAH; hope is disease when it is hope IN MORE-TIME-LATER. Differentiate carefully.
Read the longer reflection
There is a deep theological distinction in the Sunnah's pedagogy. Rajāʾ (hope in Allah's mercy) is encouraged. Amal (stretched hope in the dunyā's continuation) is condemned. They sound similar; they are opposites. Rajāʾ moves the believer toward Allah; amal pulls him further into dunyā. The cure is to notice which is in play. When you postpone goodness 'until things settle,' you are in amal. When you supplicate sincerely trusting Allah's mercy, you are in rajāʾ. May Allah strengthen our rajāʾ and shorten our amal.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
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