ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imam Al-mahdi (as) and Opponents : the Dialectic of Complementarily and Contradiction Renunciation and Detachment Plenty has been written about renunciation, not so much because it is hard to understand, but because its practice is truly difficult. The most important thing about renunciation is that nothing real is lost. Every renunciation of material things, of indiscriminate consumption, is an appropriation of that which is renounced on a higher level.

It is a paradox, but the more a person can do without the world, the less the world can do without that person. When desires dominate us, we are trapped in illusion and the only way out is through discernment or reflection. Try to see ourselves as automatons controlled and manipulated within a prison of unsatisfied desires.

Because in effect, these are not our own desires, but rather, we are victims of a society that knows our dissatisfactions and manipulates them, creating one desire after another in a chain of desires that will produce great economic profits for a few, while it engulfs us in our own terrible personal and spiritual dissatisfaction.

Whoever loves God does not worry about the vanities of the world, because he respects himself above all else and respect for oneself implies scorn for the vanities of the world. "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." (20) The surfeit of desires and cravings is a source of spiritual disease. It overloads the soul.

There are persons who renounce themselves and their uncontrolled cravings, albeit with reservations, since they do not place all their confidence in God. In the beginning they offer him everything, but afterwards, on being besieged by temptation, they return to their old ways, and this stops them from advancing on the road of virtue. There are people who think that God should be given everything He is owed, provided that He lets them enjoy what is theirs without being bothered.

Their desire is to maintain their own privileges and imagine themselves free without having to obey any kind of divine mandate, given over to their own passions and desires. "So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (21) These are the lukewarm about whom the apostle John spoke in his Revelations.