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IS
LIFE AS SWEET AS TO BE SOUGHT AFTER?
O my
wretched soul, sunk in heedlessness, which sees this life as
sweet and, in oblivion of the Hereafter, seeks it only. Do you
know what you resemble? An ostrich! It sees the hunter, but
cannot escape by flight, so sticks its head in the sand so
that the hunter may not see it. However, its huge body remains
in the open, so the hunter does see it. Only, its eyes are
closed in the sand, and it cannot see him.
O my
soul, consider the following comparison, and understand the
reality!
Considering
only this world changes a great pleasure into a grievous pain.
Suppose there are two men in this village. Ninety-nine out of
every hundred of the friends of one of them have immigrated to
Istanbul, where they are living happily. Only one has remained
here, and he too will go there. For this reason, the man longs
for Istanbul and thinks of it; he desires to join his friends.
When he is told that he can go there too, he will be overjoyed
and go happily. As for the second man, ninety-nine out of
every hundred of his friends have departed from here. He
thinks that some of them have perished and the others have
entered places where they neither see nor are seen. He
imagines that they have all gone to utter misery. This
hopeless man seeks consolation in the friendship of the single
remaining friend who is also about to go. He wants to
compensate for the heavy pangs of separation through him.
O my
soul! God’s Beloved above all, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh),
but also all your friends are on the other side of the grave.
One or two remain here, but they too will depart for there. So
do not be afraid of death, fearful of the grave, nor avert
your attention from it! Look at the grave bravely, and listen
to what it seeks. Laugh in the face of death manfully, and see
what it wants. Beware, do not be heedless and resemble the
second man.
O my
soul! Do not say, “The times have changed, this age is
different, everyone is plunged into this world and adores this
life. Everyone is openly committed to the struggle for
livelihood.” But death does not change; separations do not
end and become eternal unions, nor become eternal
companionships. Man’s intrinsic impotence and poverty do not
change, rather they increase. Man’s journey (from the World
of Spirits to the Hereafter through this world and the grave)
is not cut, it becomes faster.
Also,
do not say, “I am like everyone else.” For everyone
befriends you only as far as the grave. The consolation coming
from sharing the same misfortune with everyone else will be of
no benefit to you on the other side of the grave.
Also,
do not suppose yourself to be free and independent. For if you
look at this guest-house of the world with the eye of wisdom,
you will see that nothing is without order and without
purpose. How then can you be left to yourself outside the
order and without purpose? Know that events in the universe
like earthquakes are not random games of chance.
You see
that, for example, the earth is made to wear extremely
well-designed and finely embroidered clothes, one over the
other, one within the other, with the variety of species of
animals and plants adorned and decked out from top to bottom
with very important purposes. Also you know that the earth
revolves like an ecstatic Mawlawi dervish in perfect order for
most exalted aims. The recent earthquake may be understood as
the earth’s shaking off itself the weight of certain forms
of heedlessness of which it disapproves in mankind, and
especially from the believers. How is it, then, that there are
people who suppose the essential, death-bringing events in the
earth like the earthquake to be without purpose and the result
of chance? How is it that there are people who, by showing the
grievous losses of all those affected by such events as
unrecompensed, as having gone for nothing, they so throw them
into a dreadful despair? Such people are committing both a
great error and a great wrong.
Such
events happen at the command of One All-Wise and
All-Compassionate, in order that the worldly property of the
believers which has been lost because of them might become as
worthy of reward as alms and thereby gain permanence. That
loss is also an atonement for the sins arising from
ingratitude for Divine bounties.
A day
will come when this subjugated earth will see the works of
mankind, which adorn its face, to be tainted with associating
partners with God and devoid of necessary gratitude: it will
disapprove them. Finally, at the Creator’s command, it will
wipe them off its entire face and cleanse it. At God’s
command, it will pour those who associate partners with God
into Hell, and say to the thankful, “Come and enter
Paradise!”
***
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Last Updated on November 14, 2000
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