What a shame that a whole lifetime is gone by, and
without me having done anything useful! It has only now become clear that the
world is a faithless liar. Life in it has become a mere vision. And yet its
fitnas[1] and cares still hold on.
Friends and acquaintances are all dead, gone. With all these palpable facts
before our eyes, we do not seem to wake up from our slumber or take any
warning. Nor do we make any tawba. The oblivion abides, adding sins to our
sins. Allâhu ta’âlâ declares, as is purported in the hundred and
twenty-seventh âyat of Tawba sûra, “Do they not see how calamities
and afflictions befall them once or twice yearly? They still will not make
tawba,nor do they feel remorse.” What kind of îmân is this? Is this their friends and acquaintances
with whom they lived together, went out together, ate and drank together and
even slept together for many years. Do they not see what happened to those
people with whom they sympathized, enjoyed how a Muslim should be? They do not
take advice, neither from the Book nor from the Sunnat. Nor do they learn any
lessons from disasters and other events. Let them think about themselves
together and helped one another? Is there any trace left of any one of them?
Are there any people to inform you about them? Their lives, like husk, have
been winnowed away by the wind.
O
thou, the base world, so perfidious are all thine boons,
The grandeur thou offer with a gale of wind swoons!
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[1] Mischiefs, harms.
Yâ Rabbî! Do not deprive us of their rewards and fayz! Do not let us fall into fitna after them! We gharîb (poor, lonely) people; let us endeavour not to waste our sojourn of a few days in this world in slumber. Let us not lead a life like rabbits’ sleep! Let us not set our hearts to transient, sequined, deceitful flavours. Let us not fall for these poisonous sweetnesses! Let us do the worships and good deeds Allâhu ta’âlâ commands and likes! Let us not believe the lies of the nafs and the devil and evil people! Let us think of the torment in grave and in the Hereafter and protect ourselves by now! Turning away from this short life and unreal vision, let us attain the honour of dying before death! Let us consider that our origin is a mere nothing! Everybody will laugh at an idiot who adorns himself with ornaments trusted to him and boasts about having them. No one will like a person who sells defective, deceitful goods. Everything that befits existence and anything that exists, belongs to the One who exists in reality. Maturity of someone before and behind whom there is nonexistence is in his realizing his nonexistence.
No knowledge could equal one’s being aware of one’s imperfection!