Therefore...

Therefore, it has become clear that blame and fault lies in the way of man’s relationship with the world; a relationship which is formed on the basis of giving primacy to the world and a materialistic perception to the world: the perception of people who imagine that beside the life of this world there is no other life but in reality this fallacy is null and void looking at the world with such a perception is an error which will give rise to more mistakes in the conduct and behavior of man.

Therefore, we ought to rectify our conception of the world and understand that living is not confined to the life of the world but there is an eternal life for man beyond this earth. In the case that man considers the world as a station and passing place, not the main destination and ultimate goal, it is natural that he will secure for himself the conveniences of life, enough wealth and riches needed for attaining the necessary perfection.

In this case, food, clothing, housing, a car, money, riches and leadership are considered as preliminaries and means, not the main goal. But in the instance that they are the main goal, neither preliminaries nor means, they prevent man from attaining human perfection and his ultimate goal and it is for this reason that they have been criticized. The Reproached World With regard to what has been mentioned, the Noble Prophet reproaches love of wealth and position stating: “O Abu Dharr!

The love of wealth and position harms man’s religion more than two vicious wolves injure the herd of sheep which they ambush at night time so that they have all the time till morning to ravage the herd of sheep.” In order to describe the importance of the subject and warn the Islamic community [ ummah ] about the danger of love of the world and the jeopardy of obsession with worldly position and social status, His Holiness likens love of the world and position and social rank to two vicious wolves which ambush a herd of sheep confined in a certain place at night and from night until morning embark upon devouring them.

It is natural that once a wolf attacks a herd of sheep, it does not get content with one sheep but tears apart every one of them and finally gets busy with eating them. Now, if two brutal wolves assault a herd of sheep, do they leave a sheep alive?