Page 42 - The Debased Culture of Superficiality

40 THE DEBASED CULTURE OF SUPERFICIALITY

Someone who lives superficially without a good moral
character may attain some or even all of these goals. Some
people don’t even hesitate to display the wickedness in their
hearts in order to attain those. For example, a person think-
ing only of himself and his loved ones may act selfishly and
meanly to please them. He does not think about winning
Allah’s favor; it is enough for him to work to satisfy his
desires for worldly gain. He may never consider what return
he will receive in the next world for the gains he has made
in this one. However, a gain that satisfies a person’s Earthly
desires may cause him eternal misery in the world to come.
Anyone who ignores the infinite blessings that Allah will
give to his faithful servants in the next world and limits him-
self to transient material satisfactions of this world is practi-
cally blind to reality. In the Qur’an, Allah tells us that the
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86). In these words, this verse gives an important indication
of how limited these people’s ideals are. They ignore the
infinite blessings of Paradise that Allah has prepared for His
faithful servants, preferring to be content with this world’s
very short-lived material goods. This choice draws them
into the debased culture of superficiality, to live in a shallow
culture with limited ideals and as humans of low quality.
However, no one will escape the death that draws nearer
and nearer. It is a great mistake to knowingly disregard the