Remember death frequently...

📌Remember death frequently, and the place that you will suddenly fall into and reach after death, so that when it comes, you are on your guard against it and have prepared yourself for it. Do not let it (death) come suddenly such that it overcomes you. Beware of being deluded by what you see of the people of the world inclining towards it (the world), and their avidity for it, for God has informed you of it and the world itself has announced to you its mortality and revealed to you its vices.

Its adherents are only howling dogs and rapacious beasts snarling at one another. Their strong devour their weak and their old subjugate their young. (They are like) cattle, some confined and others left untended. They have lost their intellects and ventured into what is unknown. They are (like) diseasesd cattle left free to graze in a valley of soft sand, difficult to traverse. They have neither a shepherd to keep them in order nor a herdsman to take them to pasture.

The world has taken them them on the path of blindness, and taken their sights from the beacon of guidance, so they are wandering in its perplexities and drowned in its pleasures. They have taken it (the world) as a lord, so it plays with them and they play with it and they have forgotten what is beyond it. Gradually the darkness will become dawn, and it is as if the caravan has arrived; soon those who hasten will meet (the caravan)”.

Commentary In this letter by Imam ‘Ali (as) there are some educational points concerning the philosophy of creation, man's readiness for death, a picture of the world and the world-worshippers. These points are taken up separately in the following sections: 1.

The Philosophy Of Man's Creation: From the viewpoint of the Holy Qur’an, the philosophy of man's creation is sometimes based on Allah's Generosity and Magnanimity: "وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ لَجَعَلَ النَّاسَ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلَا يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ إِلَّا مَنْ رَحِمَ رَبُّكَ وَلِذَلِكَ خَلَقَهُمْ" "And if your Lord had pleased He would certainly have made people a single nation, and they shall continue to differ, except those on whom your Lord has mercy; and for this did He create them ; ".

[^1] And sometimes the philosophy of man's creation is introduced as a way for man to see God's traits and magnificent powers and His domination over all creatures.

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