ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Ethical Discourses: Volume 2 Discourse 14: Two Opinions In Regards To The Material World And The Next Life عَنْ نَافِعَ عَـنِ ابْنِ عُمَرَ قَـالَ: سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللٌّهِ يَقُولُ: أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ، هٌذِهِ دَارُ تَرَحٍ لاٌ دَارُ فَرَحٍ، دَارُ الْتِوَاءٍ لاٌ دَارُ اسْتِوَاءٍ، فَمَنْ عَرَفَهَا لَمْ يَفْرَحْ لِرَجَآءِ وَ لَمْ يَحْزُنْ لِشَقَآءِ.

أَلاَّ وَ إِنَّ اللٌّهَ خَلَقَ الدُّنْـيَا دَارَ بَلْوى وَ الآخِرَةَ دَارَ عُقْبـى، فَجَعَلَ بَلْوَى الدُّنْــيَا لِثَوَابِ الآخِرَةِ سَـبَباً… It has been narrated from Nafi’ from Ibne ‘Umar that he said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah (S) say: 'O' people! This (the world in which we are in) is the abode of grief and is not the adobe of happiness; it is an abode mixed with intricacies and difficulties. The transient world is not one in which things are constant and smooth.

Therefore, the person who has a cognizance of it (the transient world) will not be happy with what it grants him, and will not be saddened by the loss he entails.

Surely Allah has created the world as a place of trials and has created the Next Life as the abode of rest and in this way, the difficulties of the transient world are the means through which the rewards of the next life are earned.'”[^1] In this tradition, two views in relation to the transient world and the next life have been expressed. The transient world is the abode of sorrow, grief and difficulties and is not a place in which everything is easy.

This is something that we can see with our own eyes as everything is constantly in change and nothing remains stagnant.

From the point of view of science, it has been proven that the Earth is going through a (physical) decline and even the Sun, with all of its greatness, will also one day cease to give us light, just as it is mentioned in the Noble Qur`an: إِذَا الشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْ “When the sun is covered over (and darkened).”[^2] Day by day, the entire universe is going towards decay and erosion and this is something which the scholars refer to as entropy.

Therefore, we must not think that the transient world as the abode of happiness and pleasure. If we were to truly understand the essence of the world just as has been explained, then we would never be happy with our meagre victories, nor would we become grief stricken with our sorrows! Indeed, this is the correct viewpoint and is the true 'Islamic world view' of the transient world.

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