A Reference to that Loving this World is the Origin of the Distraction of the
Imagination and Prevents the Presence of Heart, and Explaining its Remedy as
Much as Possible
It must be noted that the heart, according to its nature and disposition, looks
at what it loves and is inclined to that beloved to have it as its qiblah. If an
affair distracted the heart from thinking of the beauty of its cherished
beloved, no sooner the engagement slackens and the distraction stops than the
heart flies towards its beloved and clings to his skirt. Should the people of
knowledge and the divinely attracted enjoy strength of heart and be firm in
absorption and love, they would recognize the Beauty of the Beloved in every
mirror, and would discern the wanted perfection in every being: "I discerned
nothing unless I recognized Allah in it and with it"1, and if their
leader (the Prophet (SA)) Says: "Sometimes my heart is enveloped by a cover
of dust, and I ask Allah's forgiveness seventy times every day",2
it is because to see the Beauty of the Beloved -especially in an impure mirror
like the Abu Jahl mirror is in itself a sort of impurity with respect to the
perfect ones. If their hearts are not strong enough, and their engagement in
multiplicity prevents the presence (of heart), no sooner the engagement lessens
than their hearts' birds fly back to their sacred nests and cling to the Beauty
of the Beautiful.
As to those who look for other than Allah -who, in the eyes of the people of
knowledge, all seek for this world they are also attracted to their want and
cling to it. If they, too, are extremely in love with their quest, and the love
of this world has completely possessed their hearts, they will never relax in
their attraction towards it, and, whatever the situation, they remain beside the
beauty of their beloved. Should their love be less, their hearts would return,
in their leisure time, to their beloved. Those who cherish in their hearts the
love of wealth, rule and position, dream of them in their sleep, too, and, in
their wakefulness, they live thinking of their beloved. As long as they are
engaged in worldly matters, they live hugging their beloved, and when the time
of the salat arrives, the heart feels a kind of vacancy and sticks to its
beloved, as if the takbiratul ihram (the first Allahu akbar uttered aloud at the
start of the salat) is the key to the shop, or the remover of the curtain
between it and its beloved. So, he comes to himself only when he has just
uttered the taslim (the finishing words of the salat), whereas he had paid no
attention to the salat itself, and during it he had been engaged in thinking of
this world. That is why our salats for forty or fifty years have no result
whatsoever in our hearts except darkness and impurity, and what should have been
a cause for ascension to the proximity of Allah's presence and a means of
becoming familiar with His sanctity, has, on the contrary, driven us out of His
proximity and taken us miles away from ascending to be familiar with His
presence. Had our salat had a smell of servitude, its result would have been
modesty and humility, not self- conceitedness, ostentation, arrogance and pride,
each one of which can possibly be a separate cause of man's misfortune and
perdition.
In short, when one's heart becomes mixed with the love of this world, with no
objective or aim except building it up and developing it, this love will
inevitably prevent the heart from being vacant and present in the presence of
Allah. This deadly disease and ruinous corruption can be cured by useful
knowledge and good deed.
The useful knowledge suitable for this ailment is to think of the fruits and
outcomes of curing it, and compare them with the harmful and destructive
consequences resulting from it. In my commentaries on The Forty hadiths in this
respect I have explained this topic in details as was possible. Here I will
suffice myself with explaining some hadiths of the infallible Ahlul Bayt (AS):
al Kafi, quoting abu 'Abdullah (as Sadiq) (AS), says: "The origin of every
sin is the love of this world."3 Other hadiths on this subject,
though in different wordings, are plenty.4
Yet, this noble hadith is quite enough for the wakeful man, and it is enough for
this big and pernicious sin to be the source of all sins and the root and
basement of all corruptions. By a little contemplation it can be realized that
almost all moral and practical corruptions are the fruits of this vile tree. No
false religion was established in the world, and no corruption has ever
happened, unless it stemmed from this grave sin. Murders, plunders, injustice
and transgressions are of the offspring of this sin. Debauchery, atrocities,
theft and other crimes are the outcomes of this germ of corruption. The man who
is afflicted with this love is void of all moral virtues. Courage, chastity,
generosity and equity, which are the origin of all the spiritual virtues, are
not compatible with the love of this world. Divine knowledge [ma'arif], unity of
Names, Attributes, Actions and Essence, truth-seeking and truth-discerning are
contrary to the love of this world. Tranquility of the soul, calmness of the
mind and repose of the heart, which are the spirit of happiness in both worlds,
cannot come along with loving this world. Richness of the heart, greatness,
self-respect, freedom and manliness are of the requisites of ignoring this
world, whereas poverty, humility, covetousness, greed, servitude and flattery
are of the requisites of loving this world. Kindness, mercy , observing kinship
relations, affection and amity are not in harmony with the love of this world.
Hatred, rancour , despotism, severing kinship relations, hypocrisy and other
evil characters are of the progeny of this "mother of diseases".
Al-Sadiq (AS), as stated in Misbahush-Shari'ah, said: "This world is like a
portrait: its head is arrogance, its eye is greed, its ear is covetousness, its
tongue is pretence, its hand is desire, its leg is conceit, its heart is
negligence, its being is perishing and its destiny is decline. Whoever loves it,
it gives him arrogance, whoever approves of it, it grants him greed, whoever
demands it, it drives him to covetousness, whoever praises it, it clothes him
with pretence, whoever wants it, it offers him conceit, whoever trusts it, it
neglects him, whoever admires its properties, it ruins him, and whoever
accumulates it and does not spend it, it turns him down to its dwelling place,
the Fire".5
Daylami, in Irshadul Qulub, quoting Amirul mu'minin (Ali) (AS), says that the
Messenger of Allah (SA) said "on the night of the mi'raj, Allah, the Exalted,
said: 'O Ahmad, if a servant performs the salat as much as that of the people of
the earth and the heaven, and fasts as much as that of the people of the earth
and the heaven, and refrains, like the angels, from food, and wears the apparel
of a devotee, then I see in his heart a bit of love for this world or for
worldly reputation, leadership, celebrity and ornaments, he will not be in an
abode in My neighbourhood and I will drive My love out of his heart and make it
dark until he forgets Me. I will not let him taste the sweetness of My love.'"6
It is quite clear that loving this world and loving Allah cannot meet
together. In this respect there are too many hadiths to be contained in these
pages.
Now as it has become clear that the love of this world is the origin of all
evils, it becomes incumbent on a man of reason, who cherishes his happiness, to
uproot this tree from his heart. The practical way to treat it is to do the
contrary, i.e., if he has a longing for wealth and position, he can get rid of
it by way of being open-handed and spending obligatory and recommended alms and
charities. By the way, one of the characteristics of alms-giving is lessening
the love of this world. That is why it is recommended to give charity out of
what you love most, as is in the Gloriours Qur'an:
﴾You shall not attain goodness until you spend out of what you love.(3:92)﴿
If he desires pride, priority, authority and power, he is to act against that,
to turn the nose of the evil-commanding soul into the dust to reform it.
Man should know that the world is such that the more one is attached to it and
in pursuit of it, the more his affection to it and the more his regret for
parting company with it. It seems as if one is in quest of something which is
not in his possession. Man thinks he is in need of a certain portion of the
world, which he pursues, no matter what difficulties and risks he will have to
endure to attain to his goal, and, as soon as he obtains it, it loses its
attraction and becomes an ordinary matter, and his love and attachment turn off
to something else more sublime than the previous one, and he starts his toil and
endeavours anew. In this way his anxiety will never be subdued. Actually, his
love gets ever stronger, and his hardships ever increase. This natural
disposition never stops. The people of knowledge use this inborn nature to prove
a lot of disciplines, which are out of the scope of these papers to explain.
This subject is referred to by some noble hadiths, such as that which is stated
in the noble al Kafi, quoting. Imam al-Baqir (AS), who said: "The parable of
a man greedy of this world is the parable of the silk worm: the more it winds
the thread round itself the farther it becomes from salvation, until it dies of
grief."7
Imam al-Sadiq (AS) is quoted to have said: "This world is like sea-water; the
more a thirsty man drinks from it the thirstier he gets, until it kills him"
8
* Book: Adabus Salat "The Disciplines of the Prayer". By: Imam
Khomeini.
1- A
quotation from Amirul Mu'minin ['Ali] (AS), 'Ilmul Yaqin, Vol. 1, p. 49.
2- Mustadrakul Wasa'il, "Book of the Salat", chs. on "Invocations", ch. 22,
hadith 1.
3- Usulul Kafi, "Book of Faith and Infidelity", ch. on "Loving This World and
Being Attached to it", hadith 1.
4- Ibid, hadiths 1 to 17.
5- Misbahush Shar'iah, ch. 32 "On This World's Attribute(s)".
6- Irshadul Qulub, vol. 1, p. 206.
7- Usulul Kafi, vol. 3, p. 202, "Book of Faith and Infidelity", ch. on
"Dispraising This World and Neglecting it", hadith 20, and ch. on "Loving This
World and Being Greedy of it", hadith 7.
8- Ibid., hadith 24.