O you, whose idiocy matches that of the silkworm, truly I wonder at you! Have you not benefited at all from the blessing of intellect and reasoning?! Your diligence for this worldly life after growing old is hotter than an ember! Is there any more time to live, O you, who are colder in your insensate numbness than ice! Despite all this, the worldly life is dearer to your heart than your own soul is, even though after you die, you shall become more insignificant than even the ground below your feet.
When you are involved in evil, you are faster than a speedy stallion, but when it is concerning good and charitable deeds, you are slower than a cripple. Your sins are more inglorious than the sun, while your repentance is more concealed than a small dim star, al-Saha. Paying zakat, is heavier on you than the mountain of Uhud, and praying, is as heavy as a boulder laid on your chest. The road to the Masjid in the scale of your laziness, is as the two farsakh distance of too difficult road, Dair Ka'b. And although when talking about worldly affairs, your chest is more expansive than the sea, when the time of worship comes, it becomes tighter than the shape resulting from the circle made by having the index touching the bottom of the thumb, the knot of ninety.
O you, whose oppression is greater than a known Umani saying refers to the king mentioned in Qur’an, in the Surah al-Kahf, the story of Musa and the pious slave of Allah, who used to seize every good ship, this king is al-Jalandi, even the deer of al-Haram, would never trust you. O you who is obsessive in his love for the worldly life, an exegetic of Kufah— because scholars of Kufah were known of their scholarship in the field of Fiqh, when it comes to achieving it, and an ascetic of Basrah, for the people of Basrah are known of their ascesis, when it comes to seeking the hereafter. I wonder at a heart that is weaker than a fly yet more rigid than a rock. It is a heart that finds the poetry of the madman of Layla; a famous eloquent poet who had platonic love with Layla, Qais, unimpressive, the exhortations of ascetic scholars and one of the great characters of the Tabi'In, Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan Yasar al-Basri Abu Sa'id, the freed slave of Zayd ibn Thabit, unmoving, and the poems of coquetry of a famous poet, Jarir, unprovoking. Were it that a person with such a heart would at least have his dream of hope to live long interpreted by Muhammad ibn Sirin, the Imam and Shaikh al-Islam, Abu Bakr al-Ansarl al-AnasI al-Basrl, the freed slave of Anas ibn Malik, the companion and servant of Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ), to wake him up to live reality; for indeed, the lock of such heart is of Roman manufacture and thus too difficult to break.
My brothers, he who observes the vagaries and vicissitudes of time, will take heed; for indeed, what happen to others, serve as lessons for us. The cradle of the child connotes the reality of the grave.The gust of the end of life, breaks apart the clouds of hope to live long; if youth be the fruit of life, then old age is the garment of doom. If the days of youth could be purchased, we would have spent the most precious of wealth for their sake. Upon the onset of gray hair, the star of the selfs desires declines, and when a person knocks the door to his forties, then he is in reality asking permission to enter the house of the ruins. And he who reacheshis sixties, exhibits self-denial, and he who reaches the age of seventy, will start receiving emissaries of his approaching death.
O you, whose youth has been wrapped up and put aside, whose casde is torn apart, whose sailingship has reached the shore of its destination, it is the time for you to stand on the hill of farewell. You have only a few more moments to enjoy, before your grey hair cuts off the necklace of life, so pick up the falling beads and give up on foolish hopes, for it is time to work hard to mend some of these falling beads.Your life melts away like snow melts, and your laziness and indifference is even colder than ice.
You wish to stay, but it is not in your hands; for indeed the wish of the rider, may differ from the wish of his ride; indeed if the rider were to dismount, his animal would fall asleep. A sensible and wise person is he who prepares for contingencies, so how could a person neglect what is known to happen with certainty! The time of irresoluteness is brief, so there should be no hesitation or postponement. I wonder at a person whose life may be in risk of destitution, even if he had surplus possession, so how would it be, if furthermore, he was an idle layabout?! I wonder at a person who publicises his lost possessions, in case somebody finds them, while he himself is lost, and I wonder at a person who is frugal in spending his wealth fearing wastage, although his whole life, he has wasted.
Thallaj’s, the ice seller, only source of income was selling ice, and someday, he had not sold all his ice, so he started calling out as he peddled his ware, 'Have mercy on a person whose capital is melting away!'
Your poverty, in terms of good deeds, is due to your laziness, because whenever a poor person is indolent, he shall never become rich. If you ever had a distaste for slackness, you would have not have accepted humiliation. You have traded night prayers for an extra mouthful of food, and you have drunk from the cup of drowsiness, due to which you missed the company of those who arise from their beds; they supplicate their Rabb in fear and aspiration, and from what He, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, have provided them, they spend.
You have filled your belly with food, then as if the creditor of the bed, came to collect from you his debt of sleep, so he put a veil over your ears, until you slept as deeply as, but not for the end as, the seven sleepers. However, as you have been intoxicated by the wine of sleepiness you drank, the watcher caught you and punished you by preventing you from night prayers. And thereafter, the story of the night you spent, ended with the onset of Fajr, and you were among those who were satisfied to be with those who stay behind, and their hearts were sealed over, so they do not understand.
O you, whose time is fully occupied working to gain this worldly life, although this life is actually enslaving you, why do you collect that which separates you from your Rabb and join that which tears you apart?! Woe to you! You are focused on building a palace, while, in fact, you are demolishing a country! Seek advice so that you may recognise the shortcomings of this life.
The malady of human beings is vain desires, and its treatment is found in firmness. When an ailment has already reached a very advanced stage, then cauterisation is the best course of action; you cannot prevent the harm of a bad neighbour, simply by shunning him. Money is like water; the more you have of it, the more you shall drown in it.The spider suffices with a corner in the house to build its home, but the assiduity of the fly to take it, ended with its becoming food for the spider. All the while, the voice of exhortation tells you; though people make effort to seek their provision in this life, but many a time, it is the provision that seeks out and lands on the doorstep of its rightful owner instead.
Woe to you, divorce your false hopes so you can become the heir to your own wealth. The most deprived ones are those whose hard work benefits only others without benefiting themselves.The greatest good deed that a miser may do is to give charity, because by giving charity, he actually combats two devils; the smaller of the two being Shaytan and the greater being his desires and its troops among whose ranks are the lion of covetousness, the dog of desires and the swine of gluttony. How long does a beggar stand on your door in humiliation with his tears flowing down his cheek, but you rebuke him by saying, 'All what you say is nonsense!' Indeed, the words of the starving on the ears of the one with a full belly will sound like nonsense! Woe to you, did you not know that charity is the mahr of Paradise! So stop piling up bags upon bags of money and be amongst those regarding whom Allah said,
مَنْ ذَا الَّذِيْ يُقْرِضُ اللّٰهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا
'Who is it that would loan Allah a goodly loan ....' [QS. Al-Hadid (57):11]
And if you give charity, beware of saying or doing what may offend or hurt the beneficiary of your charity; the longer your wishful hopes live, the more the deaths among the poor.
I wonder at those who greedily amass wealth, only to be dispossessed of it in a single stroke of misfortune! O you with a grieving heart, the agitation of your innermost self, is apparent to the onlooker, because the secret emotion of your heart manifests itself through the expressions of your face. Had you heard my words with your heart, you would have paid heed at the time, but my words only reached your ears, and there is a big difference between two. The example of the former is Tha'labah who jealously guarded his wealth, while the example of the latter is Abu Bakr, radiyallahu 'anhu, who forsook all his wealth for the sake of Allah. Indeed there is difference between miserliness and forsaking worldly pleasures for the sake of Allah.
My brothers, this life is like a farewell assembly, so be patient over its pleasures, for one day it will cease to exist, and beware of its evil, for it even succeeded in casting a spell upon the magicians of Babylon.
Know that great good, lies in bearing with patience what you dislike.
Indeed, the things that people are averse to doing in this life, are actually to be found in the branches of the beloved i.e. the things you dislike are often the ones that draw you near to your beloved. Everyone who felt secure from its evil, ended up in state of fear regarding its outcome.
You have spent all your life seeking the pleasures of this life, and yet you have not gained from it anymore than what the hand of Qais could gain from Layla. They never married or met, but their love remained only expressed in words. A person will not achieve anything out of it as Qais could not marry the one he loved.
When you are in the assembly at which sermons and religious reminders are given, you awake from the intoxication of this worldly life briefly, but it is not long before, you start to crave again for the heat of its wine. Indeed, there is no joy in sighting the flashes of lightning, if you are walking through the darkness.
You rein yourself back in with awakening, but by the time you leave the assembly your nature becomes unleashed again, back to its previous state of worldly indulgence. Your nature prevents you from changing yourself; because although you are present in body, your heart is completely absent; though you desire attaining the reward of the Hereafter, your endeavors are only focused on obtaining this worldly life.
This worldly life is a land unsuitable for settling down; it is only when the harvest has been reaped that it is taken to its place of final setllement.
I wonder at a person standing at the foot of a bridge for so long that he forgets the name of the town across it, which he was meaning to get to. Woe to you, though the pleasures of this worldly life are sweet and tempting, know that the questioning over it will be strict and severe. The time at which a woman conceives is one of playfulness, but the actual hardship that awaits her is at the time of her delivery. This life is like a promiscuous woman who does not settle for one man; those who sought after it are shamed and condemned.
The worldly life is a bridge leading over, an ocean of doom, so you had better be serious about learning to swim before passing over it, because you can never be certain that you will not slip off it, or encounter a storm that blows you off the bridge info the water. Thus be wary of it despite how safe, you feel in it, and expect its sorrow in spite of your contentment with it.
This life is a house of trials and calamities, similar to the palace in Egypt wherein Yusuf, alayhias-salam, fled to the door with his forbearance, running from the seduction of the wife of his master, whereas Zalikhah rushed to the door chasing Yusuf, enflamed by her desires. The garments of deeds shall be presented for intercession; therefore those whose garments were torn from the front, will express their woefulness, whereas those whose garments were torn from behind, their intercession shall be saved for their time of need.
O you whose desire cast him into the well of love for this worldly life, you should know that the caravan of fate brings you a message every night saying, 'Is there anyone requesting anything so that I may fulfill it for him?'
So, ensure your attentiveness when this message tosses down to you the rope of salvation, and stand up all night on the feet of those who arise from their beds, stretch out the fingers, supplicating their Rabb in fear and aspiration, throwing that which is in their right hand, which will swallow up what they have crafted. What they have crafted is but the trick of a magician, and the magician will not succeed wherever he is.
So that you may climb out of your well of desires as quickly as possible, and do not grasp at the walls of the well of desires, because it is built of loose dirt that will collapse over you. After you have rescued yourself, by your determination of returning to Allah, beware of the beasts on the road; so walk in the light of the lamp of certainty and conviction, and leave behind you the signposts, veering you off the right course towards the ways of desire, because only after arriving at your destination in the morn, shall you be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
