Page 96 - The Solution To Secret Sorrows

THE SOLUTION TO SECRET SORROWS

and invite them to sincerity, they should seriously fear the torment
that Allah can bring down on them in the life of the world.
Allah can repay people for insincerity with torment at any un-
expected moment. He can take away all a person's goods, property
and respect and leave him in helpless poverty. He can bring down
unimaginable discomfort, unhappiness and inner affliction. While
keeping the body alive, He can petrify the soul so that to the end of
his life, the individual can take no pleasure from any blessing or
anything beautiful. Allah can make him live until his death unable
to love or be loved or experience the pleasure of friendship and sin-
cerity. In addition to these spiritual torments, Allah can give people
relentless diseases, as He points out in this verse, warning about His
torment:
Say: "He possesses the power to send you punishment
from above your heads or from beneath your feet, or to con-
fuse you in sects and make you taste one another's vio-
lence." Look how We vary the signs so that hopefully they
will understand. (Surat al-An'am : 65)
People should fear all these possibilities and avoid them by di-
recting themselves towards sincerity without delay.
The time they are given should not deceive people either.
Because of His compassion, forgiveness and generosity, Allah al-
lows people a certain period to set themselves on the right path. If
one does not use this period to his advantage, the outcome may be
inescapable torment, as we are told in this verse of the Qur'an, "How
many wrongdoing cities I allowed time to and then I seized them.
I am their final destination!" (Surat al-Hajj: 48).
A person cannot know when the period granted him will come
to an end. Because of this, and because he may die at any moment,
he should make a sincere effort to strengthen his faith and improve

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