Each of us must realize that we cannot trust this material...

Each of us must realize that we cannot trust this material world for it has never been loyal to anyone, thus we must try to keep our distance from this material world.

Many times we commit sins and place the blame of this sin on the shoulders of being ignorant and not knowing better - although we do not say that ignorance is not one of the causes of being misled since many of the despicable acts and bad deeds stem from being unaware - however if we were to put this in the balance, we would see that most of the issues (of life around us) are clear and it is the person himself who is to blame.

It has been mentioned in Nahjul Balagha[^2] in relation to a person who denounces the material world as being one of deception and trickery and a wicked place, and the Imam (as) said to him, “O you who denounce the material world and have been deceived by it's trickery, tell me where has the world deluded you?” The Imam then continues and states, “Are these bones of your forefathers and ancestors that are under the ground the things which have deluded you?

Is it these graves which are now destroyed which belonged to your friends and relatives the things which have deluded you?

Is it the ill people who had fallen sick for nights on end and had been bed-ridden and called you to their side, and through their cries, screams, yelling and the soul leaving their bodies the thing which has deluded you?” Imam 'Ali (as) stated that the best of warners are these same corpses that are placed in front of a person and with the chanting of “ لا إله إلا الله”, are passed in front of our eyes to see… فَكَفى وَاعِظاً بِمَوْتى عَايَنْتُمُوهُمْ، حُمِلُوا إِلـى قُبُورِهِمْ غَيْرَ رَاكِبينَ، وَ أُنْزِلُوا فِيهَا غَيْرَ نَازِلِيـنَ.

“The dead whom you witness suffice as warners. They were carried to their graves, not going themselves, and were placed in them (the grave) but not of their own accord. It seems as if they never lived in this world and as if the next world had always been their abode.”[^3] In the fall season, we just need to walk through the gardens and look at all of the lessons around us within the dead plants and trees.

This is the same garden - which in the spring time - was full of the sound of the nightingales and the sights of all of the other beautiful sights including the budding and blossoming flowers - and this scene is similar to the world around us.

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