REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Hope of course there is no harm. However, it does not mean that it is infallible, man strips the essence of hope itself.
Ibn Athaillah in the book of Al-Hikam explained that it is natural for every human being to have hope. However, it is worth remembering that real hope is the hope that can encourage a person to be serious in work or charity.
He said: “Ar-rajaa-u maa qaaranahu amalu wa illa fahuwa umniyyatun,”. Which means: “A hope must necessarily be accompanied by action. If not, then it is nothing more than wishful thinking.”
Hope without action is called wishful thinking. Therefore, said Ibn Athaillah, the one who hopes for something will certainly try to make it happen. As for a person who is afraid of something, then he will avoid it.
When a hope is not followed by real action, even the culprit feels lazy and reluctant to work, or even that hope encourages virtue and sin, then, according to scholars, it is not a hope. Rather it is mere wishful thinking that is misleading.
Wishful thinking, he said, is one sign of competence. This is as Allah says in the Quran Chapter Al-A'raf 169:
فَخَلَفَ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِمْ خَلْفٌ وَرِثُوا۟ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ يَأْخُذُونَ عَرَضَ هَٰذَا ٱلْأَدْنَىٰ وَيَقُولُونَ سَيُغْفَرُ لَنَا
“Fakhalafa min ba'dihim khalfun waritsuul-kitaaba ya'khudzuna aradha hadzal-adnaa wa yaquluuna sayughfiru lana,”.
Which means: “Then came after the generation (the wicked) who inherited the Torah, who took away the treasures of this lowly world, and said: 'we will be forgiven',”. Ibn Athaillah explained that an intelligent person is one who constantly feels humiliated, and he does charity for the period after death.
As for lust, a fool is one who follows lust. He hoped for God with false hopes.
