The Invocation Of God By Ibnu Jawziyya

This book entitled The Invocation of God was written by Ibnu Jawziyya in which his real name is Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr. He was famous with name Ibnu Qayyum Jawziyya because his father was the principal of the school al-Jawziyyah in Damascus. He was born on 7th of Safar in the year 691H and died on 13th of Rajab in the year 751H. He was well known as Arab Sunni Islamic jurist, commentator on the Qur'an as well as theologian. He had written about 25 books and one of his thoughtful contribution was The Invocation of God.
Based on my reading, this book consist of the details on the blessings that we can get through the remembrance of God. It also discussed on the nature of the body, the ephemerality of the world, the levels of prayer, fasting, charity,
In this chapter, he stated that the heaven of this world is in our breast. One who does not conquer the heaven in the world will never be able to enter the heaven in the next world. He criticized people who are really wasteful for chasing the worldly matters for happiness without testing the sweetness of the heaven in this world. People can only taste the greatness of the heaven in the earth by submitting their heart for the blessings of the God solely. When their heart are mostly conquered by the remembrance of God, the heaven in the next world will pleasurably waiting for them. From my point of view, I agree with his argument as our actions are mainly started with our soul. The heart or soul act as a king that control our behavior, attitude and intention. If we manage to take care of our soul, we basically has achieve the ultimate purpose of our life which is to be blessed in this life as well as the life in the next
In fact, Ibnu Qayyim also had provided several Quranic verses in every of his arguments to make it clearer. As for example, when he answered the questions about deeds, he provide along the verse from surah Al-Nur in which “Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that - then those are the defiantly disobedient”. [24:55]. This quranic verse makes his argument stronger that people who are doing good deeds will attain permanent succession from God. As stated by Ibnu Qayyum in his book, being a morality person and give total submission to God are the key to get closer to Him. God loves who make effort to remember Him and be closed to Him. Thus, He promised the His blessings and guidance to face this fade world happily and