30. WISDOM NECESSITATES LOOKING INTO THE CONSEQUENCES
From the most ignorant of people is he who favours the immediate gain though he cannot assure its outcome and so overlooks a more definite safety in the future.
We have heard of many wealthy individuals and rulers who indulged in unlawful activities and did not care about them being lawful or unlawful. They later felt guilty while on their deathbeds; they felt bitter sorrow that was not equalled by all the pleasure they had felt. Aside from the remorse and regret, the punishment awaiting them in the Hereafter is more disturbing.
There is no doubt that human nature loves worldly pleasures and I can understand when a person is after these pleasures. However, one must look into the method of earning these pleasures so he assures no regret follows the pleasures he attains because there is no goodness in a pleasure that is followed with fire.
Would an intelligent person agree to be king for one year then to be executed? Never! In fact an intelligent person would agree to endure hardship for several years in order to relax at the end.
Therefore woe to pleasure that is followed with punishment!
Muhammad Ibn ’Ali Al-QuhistanI reported that Dulaf Ibn Abl Dulaf told him, ‘One day, after the death of my father. I had a dream in which I saw a person telling me to answer the ruler (i.e. his father). I complied and walked with the caller, so he led me into a deserted house whose walls are black and have no doors or ceilings. Then, we climbed the stairs to enter into a room whose walls had marks from fires and whose floor had marks of ashes. In that room, I saw my father naked having his head between his knees who said in a surprise when he saw me: ‘Are you Dulaf?’ I said, ‘Yes, may Allah rectify the affairs of the ruler.’ Upon that, he started reciting the following lines of poetry:
Tell my family and hide nothing about all
I have faced in the barzakh
I was questioned for all what I did but I beg your compassion
For mv terrible state and what I may face as punishment
Then he said to me, ‘Did you understand?’ I replied, ‘Yes I did.’ Then he started to recite the following lines of poetry
Then he said to me, ‘Did you understand?’ I replied, ‘Yes I did.’
Then he started to recite the following lines of poetry
If we were to die and be left alone
Death would have been an absolute comfort
But if we die we will be resurrected
And then we will be questioned for everything we did
(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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