But what can be done about such dangerous diseases for which there is no pain?
The illnesses of arrogance and selfishness are without pain. Other sins corrupt the heart and the spirit without causing any pain.
Not only are these illnesses unaccompanied by pain, but they also bring apparent pleasure. Meetings and sessions of backbiting are very warm and sweet! Love of the self and love of the world, which are the roots of all sins, are pleasurable.
One who is afflicted with dropsy may die from water, but yet enjoy drinking it until his last breath. Naturally, if one gets pleasure from an illness, and it also has no pain, he will not seek any cure for it.
However much he is warned that it is fatal, he will not believe it. If someone is afflicted with the illnesses of hedonism and worshipping the world, and his heart is filled with love of the world, he will grow weary of all else but the world and what is in it. Allah forbid, he will become an enemy of God, the servants of God, the divine prophets and awliya, and the angels of Allah.
He will have sense of hatred and loathing for them, and when the angels come at the command of the Glorious God to take his soul, he will have a feeling of repulsion and abhorrence, for he will see that God and the angels of Allah want to separate him from his beloved (the world and worldly things).
It is possible that he will leave the world with hostility and enmity toward the Presence of the Exalted Truth (God).
One of the great men of Qazvin [a province in the northwest of Tehran], may Allah have mercy on him, reported that he was present at the bedside of someone at the moment of his death. During the last instants of his life, he opened his eyes and said: “The oppression with which God has afflicted me, no one has ever afflicted!
Now, God wants to separate me from these children whom I have taken such pains to raise. Is there any greater oppression than this?” If one has not refined oneself, and has not averted oneself from the world, and has not expelled love of the world from his heart, there is the fear that he will die with a heart overflowing with anger and hatred toward God and His awliya.
He will have to contend with an ominous destiny. Is such an unbridled man to be considered as the crown of creation or as the most vile or creatures?
“By Time. Surely man is lost, except for he who believes and does good works, and enjoin upon each other truth, and enjoin upon each other patience” (Q 103-1-3).
In this surah, the only exceptions are the believers who perform good works.
And good work is a work which is congruous with the spirit.
However, you see that many of man’s works are only congruent with the body. “Enjoining” is also not practiced. If you are dominated by love of the world and love of the self, and if this prevents you from perceiving truths and realities, and prevents you from performing deed purely for God, and if you are kept from enjoining the truth and enjoining patience, and you are thereby obstructed from the way to guidance, then you will be lost.
You will be lost in this world and in the next, for you will have given up your youth and will be prohibited from the blessings of heaven and otherworldly advantages, and also lack this world. If others have no way to heaven, and if the doors to divine mercy are closed to them, if they are to abide eternally in the fire of hell, at least they will have had the world, they will have enjoyed worldly advantages, but you…
Beware, lest love of the world and love of the self gradually increase within you, to the point that Satan is able to take away your faith. It is said that all of the efforts of Satan are for the sake of robbing faith. All of his efforts and labors, night and day, are for the sake of taking away the faith of men.
No one has given you a document to guarantee your faith. Perhaps one’s faith is merely on loan [mustawda‘], and in the end Satan will get it, and you will leave this world with enmity for the Blessed and Exalted God and His awliya. Perhaps one will have enjoyed an entire life of divine blessings, provide for by Imam az-Zaman (‘a) and, God forbid, in the end one may give up his life without faith and in enmity toward the Bestower of the Blessings.
If you have any interest in, relation with and affection for, the world, try to cut it. This world, with all its superficial splendor and glitter is too insignificant to be worthy of love, especially for one who has divested himself of such superficialities of life. What do you have of this world that your heart should be attached to it? You have naught but the mosque, the prayer niche, the seminary, the corner of a room. Is it proper for you to compete for the mosque and the prayer niche?
Should this be a cause of disagreement among you, to corrupt the society? Suppose that, like the worldly people, you had a comfortable sumptuous life, and that, God forbid, you spent your life on feasting and drinking. After your life is over, you would see that your life had passed like a pleasant dream, but the requital and liability for it will be with you always.
What values does this fleeting and apparently sweet life have (assuming that it is very sweet) in comparison to endless chastisement? The chastisement of worldly people is sometimes endless. The worldly people, who imagine that they have acquired the world and benefit from its advantages and boons, are remiss and mistaken. Everyone sees the world from the window of his own environment and situation, and imagines that the world is exactly that which he has.
The physical world is broader than that which man imagines he has acquired, discovered and through which, he roams. It has been narrated about this world with all its means and ways that: “He has never looked kindly upon it.” So, how must the other world be upon which God, the Blessed and Exalted, has looked kindly? What is the source of greatness to which man is called and what is it like? Man is too low to comprehend the source of greatness.
If you purify your intentions, rectify your deeds, expel love of self and position from your hearts, a high station will be prepared for you. The whole world and what exists will be prepared for you. The whole world and what exists in it along with its superficial aspects is not worth even a cent by comparison to the station prepared for the righteous servants of God. Try to achieve this lofty station.