Jeremiah 11:20 Meaning But

Al-Ḥakam: the one who settles the case Among the names of God, this one means the ruling is final and no court sits above it. Someone wronged by people with standing often has nowhere on the ground to appeal, since the same people would hear the complaint. Naming a judge above the whole situation moves the case somewhere nobody can reach in and fix it.

Ibtilāʾ: being put to the test Sufi teachers use the word for hard stretches that bring out what a person is made of. Under threat, everything sitting quietly inside comes up at once: fear, the itch to hit back, the hunger to be proved right. Al-Ghazali's point is that trouble uncovers what was already in a person rather than putting it there.

Ikhlāṣ: sincerity Sincerity means one motive under an act, with nothing else riding along. Someone can be completely right about the harm done to them and still be half in love with being the injured party. When the inside gets looked at, the facts of the case matter less than what they hope to get from winning it.

Beware the prayer of the wronged, since nothing stands between it and God: the cry of the injured gets through The Prophet said this to a man being sent off to hold authority over others. For someone harmed in secret by respectable people, the silence is the worst part: no proof, no witnesses, nobody who believes them. The saying tells them their account has already reached the one place it needed to reach.

Ṣabr: holding steady The word covers staying put under pressure without breaking and without hitting back. The hardest stretch comes after a person hands the matter over, when nothing happens and the old plan for getting even is still available. Al-Ghazali describes patience as what keeps someone from snatching the matter back into their own hands.

Tafwīḍ: handing the matter over The word means giving your case to God completely, the outcome included. In the Quran the phrase belongs to a believer who warned a hostile court and then left everything that followed to God. Once someone does that, they stop rehearsing the defense and stop drafting the payback, because the matter is no longer theirs to work on.