If one notices that after every period of greatness (of a person or country)...

If one notices that after every period of greatness (of a person or country), there is a period of abasement; after health there is sickness; after safety and security there is danger and anarchy; and after youth there is old age; then one would definitely humble oneself and try to remove all forms of negligence from within oneself.

A person must know that status, wealth, power and all other material bounties are not everlasting and whether one likes it or not, one day, all of these will be taken away. This truth is something very important that the world will never remain in one state - rather, it is always changing and evolving and thus, we can not rely upon it.

Yes, we must take this world as a bridge and a crossing point and a (temporary) residence to prepare ourselves for the next life, however we must understand that it is only the sacred essence of Allah (SwT) which will remain for eternity. B) Obedience and worship (of Allah (SwT)) are two more things which can remove arrogance and negligence. It is through the Salat that a person can remember Allah (SwT) and remove the negligence within him.

There are some people who ask, “Until when must we perform this Salat?” It must be said to them that, “As long as we are in this world, we must continue performing the Salat since principally, we are in need of this Salat.” We must lift our hands in need in this Salat while in the presence of the One who is completely free of all needs and it is from Him alone that we must ask for the spiritual medicine to cure ourselves. Thus, the Salat will remove our negligence and spiritually awaken us.

C) Facing tribulations and difficulties also removes the veils of negligence from a person. When a person faces difficulties, we see that in the early stages, they are hard to go through, however if we carefully look at these difficulties, they are actually a blessing for us.

In other words, these tribulations and all the difficulties which they cause are only one side of a coin while the other side of this coin is the happiness and pleasure that one will achieve (after having passed these tests). One of the people who used to speak to us from the Mimbar in the past used to give us a very good example and would say, “If the entire highway was clean and flat (with no bumps or side railings on it), then surely a driver would fall asleep at the wheel.