In this month of Ramadan, let me bring you daily to the world of my current translation–a book entitled In the Presence of the Beloved on the subtleties of supplication [du'a']:
Worldly allurement as a hindrance to the attainment of spiritual life
By our own hands, we pave the ground for decreasing or reducing the decrees of our perfection. We have shouldered burdens that bent our backs. We enchained our hands and feet because of which we cannot move. Perhaps the Commander of the Faithful (‘a) wants us to tell God in Du‘ā’ Kumayl, thus:
“O Allah! My trials and sufferings have increased and my evilness has worsened, my good deeds have diminished and my yokes (of misdeeds) have become firm, and remote hopes restrain me to profit (by good deeds) and the world has deceived me with its allurements and my own self has been affected by treachery and procrastination.”
Are we sincere in reciting these lines? Do we really realize that our backs are bent on account of the burden of our sins? Do we know that we enchained our hands and feet by our evil deeds and that the world and its allurements have deceived us?
In this regard, the Qur’an states:
“The life of this world is nothing but the wares of delusion.”[1]
It also states elsewhere:
“So do not let the life of this world deceive you, not let the Deceiver[2] deceive you concerning Allah.”[3]
What is the deception of the life of this world? How does it deceive man? When adults want to dupe a child, they entice or amuse him with a chocolate bar or anything else in lieu of a valuable thing he seeks. We have interests which we must obtain and safeguard. However, as the world and its pleasures seem attractive and valuable to us, they deceive us and hinder us from obtaining real pleasures and true interests. Regrettably, not only the world and its allurements are the ones deceiving us. In fact, sometimes, we dupe ourselves by suggesting that what the prophets (‘a) said are the same with what our hearts dictate, or what Satan says is the same with what God has said!
If what the prophets and Imāms (‘a) have said are true and they are, then we are very far from the truth. We are in gross error and misguidance. If Du‘ā’ Kumayl is transmitted from Ḥaḍrat ‘Alī (‘a) and it is, and if Du‘ā’ Abū Ḥamzah ath-Thumālī and the supplications in Aṣ-Ṣaḥīfah as-Sajjādiyyah are transmitted from Imām as-Sajjād (‘a) and they are, then how do we follow them as we have no commonality with them? Do we believe in the contents of these supplications? Are they true or not? Are the world that is deceiving us and its outward adornments that hinder us from getting our true interests nothing but transient pleasures with which we are attached? Everyday we want to taste more delicious food compared to what we have tasted so far, aren’t we? Everyday we want to change our lifestyle and the outward forms of our homes—carpet, car model and other amenities in life—aren’t we?
Is the deception or trick of the world other than these things? We must reflect on what they have taken from us in exchange for other things. We have the potential to get more valuable things but we are negligent of them and we are attracted to fleeting things. In reality, we are deprived of human life or “life of faith”, and we have been heedless of a higher sphere of life whose foundation is the remembrance of Allah.
(Just bear with typographical errors and other nuisances you may notice as these lines are yet to be polished. I post as soon as I finish translating them.)
[1] Sūrah Āl ‘Imrān 3:185.
[2] That is, Satan, or anything that diverts a human being from the path of Allah. [Q. Trans.]
[3] Sūrah Luqmān 31:33.
