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SERMON 82About the world and its peopleIn what way shall I describe this world whose beginning is grief and whose end is destruction? (1) The lawful actions performed here have to be accounted for while for the forbidden ones there is punishment. Whoever is rich here faces mischief and whoever is poor gets grief. One who hankers after it does not get it. If one keeps away from it then it advances towards him. If one sees through it it would bestow him sight but if one has his eye on it then it would blind him. as-Sayyid ar-Radi says: If a thinker thinks over this phrase of Amir al-mu'minin "waman absara biha bassarat'hu" ("If one sees through it it would bestow him sight") he would find thereunder very amazing meaning and far-reaching sense whose purpose cannot be appreciated and whose aim cannot be understood particularly when he joins it with Amir al-mu'minin's phrase "waman absara ilayha a'mat'hu" ("If one has his eye on it them it would blind him) he would find the difference between "absara biha" and "absara laha" clear bright wonderful and shining.
(1). "The beginning of the world is grief and its end is
destruction." This sentence contains the same truth which the Qur'an has
presented in the verse:
Indeed We have created man (to dwell) amidst hardship. (90:4)
It is true that right from the narrow womb of the mother upto the vastness of
the firmament the changes of human life do not come to an end. When man first
tastes life he finds himself closed in such a dark prison where he can neither
move the limbs nor change the sides. When he gets rid of this confinement and
steps in this world he has to pass through innumerable troubles. In the
beginning he can neither speak with the tongue
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