Page 69 - True Wisdom Described in the Qur'an

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Obstacles to Wisdom

life. Their real life is the life of the Hereafter that starts with their
death and continues till infinity. For this reason, forgetting the
Hereafter and remaining engrossed with greed for 70-80 years of
worldly life shows great heedlessness.
As a matter of fact, those who forget the Hereafter are de-
prived of the many beauties of this world and the blessings of
the Hereafter. The effects of this deprivation in this world can be
firstly seen in their understanding. People, who become pas-
sionately attached to this life, cannot properly assess the reason
for their creation, their responsibilities towards Allah, and death
and life after death, having become unable to think clearly. This
situation shows that they are actually in a state of deception,
while they think that they are doing the right things.
Because of their distorted value judgements, they think the
real meaning of life consists of material things like money,
wealth, and property, beauty, reputation, fame, respect, and
leaving wealth and a respectable name for those they leave be-
hind. And they spend all their lives trying to gain all these assets
whereas, in fact, as our Prophet (as) has also advised, "the best
richness is the richness of the soul." (Bukhari)
Yet, such people spend years trying to achieve a respectable
position in the eyes of others and search for ways to gain their
appreciation, but they do not think for a moment that they need
to thank Allah, Who created them and given them life, Who pre-
sented them with countless blessings and continual sustenance,
and helped them in all their affairs. Or, they spend their days
working hard without stopping to rest so as to be richer than
everybody else and are always in quest of new projects, but they
do not think that it is Allah Who has given them their riches and
fail to set aside the time to perform their duties as His servants.