The Story of the King and Hassan
“Whoever submits his or her whole self to God and is a doer of good has indeed grasped the most trustworthy handhold; for with God rests the final outcome of all endeavors.” (Qur’an 31:22)
There once was a king who had many young and beautiful servants, but preferred his oldest servant Hassan over all the others. When asked by a guest why Hassan was his favorite, the King replied by saying, “Because of his sincerity. But let me show you what I mean through a demonstration.” The king summoned all of his servants. The king then called his guards to open the large golden doors that led to the priceless treasures of the palace and told his servants to go inside and take whatever they saw or desired. The servants trampled over one another as they entered the treasury stuffing their pockets with gemstones, pearls, and gold. Everybody crowded the treasure chamber except for Hassan who stood next to the king calmly washing the greedy commotion of the servants. The king then turned to Hassan and said, “Why don’t you go inside the treasury and take what you desire for yourself or your family?” Hassan replied to the king, “I do not want anything, but to serve you. You are the only one I want to please. You own my heart, and your approval of me is the only reward that I seek.”
This story is not about a king and a servant it is about Allah and us. We are not called to serve Allah because we seek to attain a reward we are called to serve and love Allah because our loving of Allah is the reward. As Imam Ali says there are three types of people who worship God: There are those who worship God out of fear of punishment and there worship is like that of slaves and there are people who worship God seeking for a reward and their worship is like that of traders or those doing commerce and then there are those who worship Allah for the sake of Himself because His Love deserves to be honored and that is the worship of the free because they are not tied to punishment or reward. The true lovers of Allah, love Him for lovings sake. They are free in their worship because they are tied to nothing but Allah.