Page 176 - A Call For Unity

A Call for Unity

thing after they die. On the other hand, believers make
good use of things in their everyday lives without con-
sidering these to be an end in themselves. Rather, they re-
gard such things as a means to be grateful to Allah and
to win His good pleasure. Believers are very well aware
of the impermanence of posh cars, grand houses, im-
pressive gardens, valuable jewelry, beautiful people, and
of everything else, for they know that the true originals

are to be found in the eternal Paradise.
Allah commands people not to be fooled by the tem-
porary beauty of worldly things and not to become en-
slaved by them:
To humanity the love of worldly appetites is paint-
ed in glowing colors: women and children, heaped-
up mounds of gold and silver, horses with fine
markings, and livestock and fertile farmland. All
that is merely the enjoyment of the life of this
world. The best homecoming is in the Presence of
Allah. (Surah Al 'Imran: 14)

Know that the life of this world is merely a game
and a diversion, ostentation, and a cause of boasting
among yourselves and trying to outdo one another
in wealth and children: like the plant-growth after
rain that delights the cultivators but then withers.
You see it turning yellow, and then it becomes bro-

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