Be whatever you like either a disbeliever or a believer...

Be whatever you like either a disbeliever or a believer, doubtlessly you have been ejected from passages of urine. Keep aside all pride and prejudice. One who has passed through this unclean path, how can he take pride in himself? Where is ‘my honor’, ‘my family’, ‘my relatives’, ‘my lineage’? Perhaps what the holy verse hints at is that one should never be proud. Just think from where you have arrived?

It is mentioned in Usul al-Kafi that Imam Zainul Abideen said, “Strange is a man who is proud and thinks oneself high and claims to be honorable and respectable whereas yesterday he was semen and tomorrow, when he dies, he is to be a foul-smelling corpse!”[^1] Nocturnal emission reminds one of his origins The late Haji Noori has, in the first part of Darus Salam , mentioned sixteen benefits of the dream. One of them is nocturnal emission.

Another benefit is getting harmful substance out of the body, which keeps the physique safe, because, if it remains in the body it is likely to result in illness and trouble. When he awakes, he smells that foul odor which reminds him of his initial state. How strange! Was I like this in the beginning? Had it been so that a man may not have ejaculation and was the semen to reach the womb directly, without being shed out, he might have hardly looked at himself.

Almighty God, through His far-reaching wisdom and strategy, ordained it so that, sometimes, the semen should, unintentionally drop on man’s clothes so that you may remember your initial state of being. Leave aside all pride. The foul smell which you now smell is you yourself. Was it otherwise? At first he was a foul-smelling semen and at the end? Even if his grave is opened after a hundred years, nothing is seen except dust. Had it not become dust he would still be giving out terribly foul smell.

What are you but a handful of dust? Finally only dust. The holy Imam says, “Fist semen and finally a corpse. Of what one is to take pride in?” Say: Wealth is ignorance. It is really so, wealth is indeed ignorance. If one reaches the truth he never takes pride in lineage, wealth and beauty. O poor woman who is proud of your beauty! A single microbe of malaria can change your face. This beauty is borrowed or artificial. Do not be deceived. Look at its end.

Pride in wealth and possessions is also same. However wealthy you may become, you will not be wealthier than Qarun. Many strong men could with much difficulty lift the keys of his treasure (not the treasure itself).