Lessons from Nahjul Balagha [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Sermons
Sermon
144

SERMON 144

About this world

O' people, you are, in
this world, the target for the arrows of death. With every
drinking there is choking and with every eating there is
suffocation. You do not get any benefit in it except by foregoing
another (benefit) and no one among you advances in age by a day
except by the taking away of a day from his life. Nothing more is
added to his eating unless it reduces what was there before. No
mark appears for him unless a mark disappears. Nothing new comes
into being unless the new becomes old. No new crop comes up unless
a crop has been reaped. Those roots are gone whose off-shoots we
are. How can an off-shoot live after the departure of its root?

A part of the same
sermon on innovation (bidah)

No innovation is
introduced unless one sunnah is forsaken, keep away from
innovations and stick to the broad road. Surely the old tested
ways are the best and the innovated ones are bad.