SAMPLE PAGE : Beginning of Chapter Three

WORLDLINESS CONTRASTED WITH OTHER WORLDLINESS

CHILDISH BEHAVIOUR:- Once he said," Do you know what is most dear to children? -- sweet. The same is true of the worldly people who hanker for wealth, status and esteem. They are intensely desirous for fame and are resentful when critisised. They bear great hardships and accept huge losses for the sake of worldly praise, pomp and show. In view the of the non-worldly, these people are no different from children, sparing no sacrifice to achieve imaginary gains and essential petty objectives. They cannot appreciate what is to their ultimate good and what is not. What taste has a gift of sweets if it is accompanied by the occasional ridicule, even a beating? Yet the worldly people (Ahle Dunya) do not seem to mind being subjected to assorted miseries to secure minor advantages and fulfill petty desires. The suffering they incur outweigh the wretched benefit they reap but, like children they are heedless of the cost. Take for instance the pleasures of marriage, and set them against the pain, anxiety and trouble that are occasioned by the wife and children; surely the latter weigh heavier in the balance.

There is no genuine pleasure if it is mixed with any suffering, just as nothing can be sweet if it has the slightest tinge of bitterness.

None of the worldly pleasures are free of pain, if only because the realisation that they are intrinsically transitory. In contrast, the pleasures of the hereafter are eternal and endure without the slightest admixture of pain. Even if one were crowned king of the seven skies , it would be short lived. So worldly comforts are nothing but delusions because even a massive benefit that is short lived, is less valuable than a small gain that lasts forever. But worldly people are simply unaware of the value of the Hereafter.