Page 110 - Knowing The Truth

108 KNOWING THE TRUTH

AHMED: I know from my own experience that people become
slaves of their passions. I mean, you may be aware of some things, but it's
a bit strange at first to consider that you have no ownership of those
things you thought of as your property and that everything is under the
control of Allah Who created you. Moreover, when you think of yourself
as being a very influential, intelligent, successful businessman with a
good social position, "your head is in the clouds"; and when you say to
such a person, "Everything you experience is in your mind – your money,
your factories, your workers, your secretaries, your property, your,
house, your car – and you have no relation with the reality of any of it",
you're assaulting his ambitions.

MURAD: Just as it is said in the verse: "To mankind the love of
worldly appetites is painted in glowing colors: women and children,
and heaped-up mounds of gold and silver, and 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)

AHMED: Yes, exactly as it says in that verse.

MURAD: When satan is mentioned in the Qur'an, Allah informs us
that the first thing that seduced him and caused him to rebel was his love
of matter and his ambition to be an absolute being. This same satanic
passion wants to bind a person to the world with great ambition. To be a
"shadow being" is a reality that the conceited and the proud could never
accept. This is an indisputable fact and as you go through life, you come
to see it clearly. But in spite of this, worldly ambition and the possibility
of losing their material things prevents some people from adopting this
obvious way of thinking. In the Qur'an, satan's conceit and lust are given
particular emphasis. Here, I read: