Contentment with God's decree (rida)

Contentment with God's decree is the last subject al-Ghazali treats in the Book of Love, Longing, Intimacy and Contentment, the sixth book of the quarter of saving things in Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din. ^{4 5} He says he will set out its merit, then its reality and how it can exist in what goes against desire, then what is thought to belong to its perfection but does not, such as giving up supplication and keeping silent about sins. ⁵

Al-Ghazali cites the verses on contentment from both sides, and holds that the utmost of excellence is God's being pleased with His servant, which is the reward for the servant's being content with God. ⁵ He observes that the Qur'an raised God's good pleasure above the Gardens of Eden, as it raised the remembrance of God above prayer, and concludes that the good pleasure of the Lord of paradise is higher than paradise and the final goal of its people. ⁶ He quotes Sahl: the servants' share of certainty is in proportion to their share of contentment, and their share of contentment in proportion to their life with God. ¹

Al-Ghazali says that whoever denies that contentment is possible in what goes against desire, holding that only patience is possible there, does so because he denies love. Once love of God and absorption in Him are established, love produces contentment with the Beloved's acts in two ways: ¹

• The feeling of pain falls away: like the warrior wounded in his anger or fear who does not feel it; the man whose heart is so occupied that the cupper or barber finishes without his noticing; and the lover absorbed in contemplating the beloved. ^{1 7} He holds that love can grow many times over, as pain can, and that no beauty compares with the beauty of the divine presence. He relates that the wife of Fath al-Mawsili stumbled and broke a nail and laughed, saying the sweetness of its reward had removed the bitterness of its pain, and that Sahl used to treat others for an illness he had while not treating himself. ^{8 2}
• The pain is felt but accepted by reason while disliked by nature: like one who asks the bloodletter to bleed or cup him, feels the pain, accepts it and is grateful; or the traveller seeking profit, for whom the hardship of the road is sweetened by love of its fruit. So one struck by affliction who is certain that its reward exceeds what he lost is content with it and thanks God for it. ² He allows that love may grow so strong that the lover's share is in what the Beloved wills and is pleased with, for no further aim. ⁹

Al-Ghazali makes contentment a fruit of love of God, pairs it in the same book with longing and intimacy with God, and counts "the content one" among the states of the poor man in the Book of Poverty and Renunciation. ^{10 1 11}

• Page numbers are from the Shamela file, not the printed book; the verses there have scrambled letters, so nothing is quoted from them.
• Judgements on hadith are attributed to al-Iraqi.