4. DIVERTING FROM WORLDLY PLEASURES AND ABANDONING THEM
I wonder at an intelligent person who still finds comfort in life while he sees how’ death overpowers his peers and neighbours, particularly in old age! I wonder at a person who sees snakes advancing towards him and yet does not feel intimidated!
Does not the old man feel the crawling of death in his limbs, pulling out the knife of strength and taking down the brave and courageous, changing the black [hair] to white, and every day the shortness increases?
If the intelligent person observes the signs in himself, it will be enough to divert his attention from the ruins of this worldly life and the departure of friends, even if such calamities are disturbing.
But he one who finds his home on fire and becomes busy saving his furniture, will not pay attention to the homes of his neighbours.
What diverts one’s attention away from this worldly life and eases departing from its pleasures is that it replaces what you know with what you do not recognise.
Truly, the departure is very easy! Perhaps the soul finds the ones it missed in this life and so meets the ones it loves in the other life.
(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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