21. SINS RESULT FROM PURSING PLEASURES
I thought about why people enter the Hellfire (sabab dukhuljahannam) and the answer was simply due to sins (ma’asi).
I thus pondered upon sins (maasi), and found them to result from pursuing (blameworthy) pleasures (talab al-ladhat).
I then examined pleasures (ladhaf) and found them to be mere illusions (khida), containing enough distress to turn them into irritants (akdar) and stop them from being pleasures.
How then can the wise (‘aql) follow his whims and be satisfied with Hellfire for the sake of these irritant [akdar) troubles?
An example of pleasure is fornication (zina). If the motive was the process itself, it can be done in a lawful (halat) manner [by marriage].
If the motive was passion for a loved one (ma’shuq), the soul craves permanent stay (dawam al-baqa’) with the loved one, yet when it attains it, it grows tired of it. And if he stays with the loved one for a while and then leaves them, the pain of separation exceeds the pleasure of closeness.
In addition to that, if he had a child from fornication, then it is a permanent slander, further punishment and dishonour before the Creator (al-Khaliq) and the creation (makhluq).
The ignorant (Jahil) nevertheless, finds pleasure in fulfilling that desire and forgets what he brings upon himself of grievance in this life and the Hereafter.
Similarly, drinking intoxicants befouls the mouth and clothing and hinders the state of mind (‘aql)’, its effects are known to the Creator and the creation.
One marvels at him who prefers a short-lived pleasure that brings penalty and strips away honour, and may even cause one to commit other major sins like murder.
All pleasures should be considered similarly. If you measure them with the scale of the intellect, they do not amount to a fraction of their ugly consequences in this life or the Hereafter.
These pleasures themselves are not much, so how can the Hereafter be forfeited at such price?
Glory is due to Him who blessed some people so that whenever they see a pleasure, they weigh it in the mind, look to its rewards and consequences, and then choose what is better. And Allah obliterated some hearts, so that they only see the (alluring) images of things while ignoring their consequences.
We marvel at someone who distances himself from his wife when he is still young, in order to travel the path and be called a ‘striver’. He overcomes his whims to attain something higher—praise, how then will he not leave a forbidden pleasure to be praised in this life and the Hereafter?
Assuming you attained the pleasures you desired and assuming they were easy and you got rid of their troubles; where are you compared to others? Where is the hard work of a scholar who studied for fifty years? The hard work goes away and the knowledge remains.
Similarly, where is the idle man’s pleasure?
The comfort goes away, and regret remains
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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