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Lesson: 11 Love for the World
What we find
in Quranic verses and from the narrations about ambitions for worldly or material
things can be explained in three divisions:
1. Ayats and
traditions condemning worldly desires. 2. Praise for desiring admissible worldly things and verses and traditions permitting
it. 3. Combining the above two ideas.
And we, by
the help of Almighty God, quote below verses and narrations explaining the above-mentioned
divisions. For detailed study refer to textbooks of Iqtisaad and Islamic comparison
of This world and the Hereafter.
Verses condemning
materialism
A: And this
worlds life is naught but a play and an idle sport; and certainly the abode
of the Hereafter is better for those who guard against evil; do you not then
understand?
B: Whoever
desires this present life, we hasten to him therein what we please for whomsoever
we desire, then We assign to him the Hell; he shall enter it despised, driven
away. And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it as he ought to strive
and he is a believer; as for these, their striving shall surely be accepted.
C: And this
life of the world is nothing but a sport and a play; and as for the next abode,
that most surely is the life - did they but know;.
D: Know
that this worlds life is only sport and play and gaiety and boasting among yourselves,
and a vying in the multiplication of wealth and children, like the rain, whose
causing the vegetation to grow, pleases the husbands men; then it withers away
so that you will see it become yellow, then it becomes dried up and broken down
and in the Hereafter is a severe chastisement and also forgiveness from Allah
and his pleasure; and this worlds life is naught but means of deception.
And there are
many traditions also about worldly love. For example we quote some below:
1 - Imam Sadiq
(a.s.) said: If one passes his day and night having the worldly gains his sole
aim God makes him poor and upsets his life and he does not get from the world
except that which was destined for him. But id somebody passes his day and nights
with the next world hereafter in view almighty Allah makes him needless from
heart and manages for his life.
2 - Imam Sadiq
(a.s.) said: One who develops more attraction toward worldly things will suffer
more restlessness and sorrowful grudge at time of death.
3 - Amirul
Mo-mineen (a.s.) quotes the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.): The Dinar and Dirham (worldly
wealth) has destroyed your predecessors and it will likewise destroy you too.
4 - Imam Sadiq
(a.s.) said: There is a harm to the Hereafter in desiring the present world,
and there is a loss of the this world in asking for the Hereafter. So let this
world be harmed as it is more fir to be harms.
5 - Imam Sadiq
(a.s.) said: This world is like river water. The more a thirsty person drinks
of it the thirstier he feels and finally gets killed.
6 - Amirul
Mo-mineen (a.s.) said: If man will see how speedily his death is coming toward
him he will abhor ambitions and will give up admiring the world.
These are some
examples from many narrations condemning the world.
Ayats and
Traditions Praising the World
1 - Imam Moosa
bin Ja'far (a.s.) said: Every person who strives to obtain Halaal sustenance
or provision is like a fighter in the path of God.
2 - Imam Sadiq
(a.s.) said: Three groups of people will enter the paradise without accounting:
1: A just ruler, 2: A truthful trader, 3: An old man who spent his life in the
way of Allah.
3 - The Holy
Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said: Worship is of seventy kinds. The best of them is earning
permissible provision.
4 - Imam Sadiq
(a.s.) said: Good is not in one does not like to earn money through permissible
path so that he may save his honour and repay his debts.
5 - The Holy
Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said: The one who makes efforts to earn money to maintain
his family is like the one who has fought in the way of God.
6 - The Holy
Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said: It is the compulsory duty of every Muslim man and woman
to seek permissible Halaal provision.
And these are
samples from tens of narrations calling upon a Muslim to strive for getting
his provision and maintenance.
Conclusion:
If one pays the least attention to these narrations one can conclude that what
has been condemned is:
1 - Affection
for world: Therefore we read in Traditions: The seed of every trouble is love
for world.
2 - Happiness
with worldly wealth: And they rejoice in this worlds life, and this worlds
life is nothing compared to the Hereafter but a temporary enjoyment.
3 - The world
which becomes the cause of indulging in playfulness: so we read in the Quran:
O you who believe! let not your wealth, or your children, divert you from the
remembrance of Allah, and whoever does that, these are the losers.
4 - giving
preference to world over Hereafter: We read in Quran: Say: If your fathers
and your sons and your brethren and your mates and your kinsfolk and property
which you have acquired, and the slackness of trade which you fear and dwellings
which you like, are dearer to you than Allah and His Apostle and striving in
His way, then wait till Allah brings about his Command; and Allah does not guide
the transgressing people.
5 - Amassing
wealth and being stingy in expense: The Holy Quran says: and as for those
who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend it in Allah's way, announce to
them a painful chastisement on the Day when it shall be heated in the fire of
hell, then their foreheads and their backs shall be branded with it; this is
what you hoarded up for yourselves, therefore taste what you hoarded.
6 - Selling
the Hereafter in exchange of this world: This has been condemned. The opposite
of it has been praised as we read in the Holy Quran: These are they who buy
the life of this world for the Hereafter, so their chastisement shall not be
lightened nor shall they be helped.
And in narrations
too we read: Do not buy this world in exchange of your Hereafter.
7 - Extravagance:
it is said in the Quran: eat of its fruit when it bears fruit, and pay the
due of it on the day of its reaping, and do not act extravagantly; surely He
does not love the extravagant.
Difference
between extravagance and waste: Waste applies to mindless expending and it is
extravagance when the expending is more than the limit of moderation.
8 - Restraint
in spending: Hazrat Ali (a.s.) says: O son of Adam: In whatever you have earned
beyond your needs, you are a trustee treasurer of other.
9 - Not to
rely on the world: Surely those who do not dope in our meeting and are pleased
with this worlds life and are content with it, and those who are heedless of
our communications: As for those, their abode is the fire because of what they
earned.
Praise for
benefiting from the permissible things in the world
Hazrat Ali
(a.s.) once heard a man condemning the world. He said: O the one who condemns
the world who has been tricked by the conspiracies of the world and has been
fooled by its deceptions! Do you get deceived by the world and again condemn
it? Know that the world is the house of truth, for the one who can understand,
it is a centre of needlessness for the one who saves from it and it is a place
of advice and admonition for the one who has the qualification for getting admonition.
It is the place for prostration for the friends of God and a place of seeking
pardon of God for the angles of God and the place for the coming down of the
Divine Revelation and a trade center for the companions of God who earned Divine
mercy therein and profited by paradise.
The world
which is beneficial for the Hereafter
The Holy Prophet
(s.a.w.s.) said: Being needless is good and befitting for the God fearing.
It has been
recorded from Hazrat Ali: The good of this world and the Hereafter is in two
attributes: needlessness and Piety freedom from want and Fear of God and the
evil of the present world and the next life is in two attributes: poverty neediness
and sins.
From this discussion
we conclude that there is no contradiction between the ayats and Traditions
of the first and second kind. In other words we come to know that denial of
the world applies when what is mentioned above applies to it. Otherwise, as
the first subject topic this world is both Grace and Mercy of God for the pious
and the Faithful.
