If you are dominated by love of the world and love of the self...

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.

[^4] 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‘ ],[^5] 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 ) [^6] 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.