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Life without a deep sense of meaning and purpose and void of devotion to God is “merely amusement and diversion and glitter and mutual vainglory among you and covetousness for wealth and children —like the rain whose vegetation impresses the farmer; then it withers and you see it turn yellow, then it becomes chaff…; and the life of this world is nothing but the wares of delusion (57:20).” Life filled with remembrance of God and movement towards Him brings peace to the heart, “for without doubt in the remembrance of God do hearts find satisfaction. (13:28)” Imam Sajjad (a) says: Nothing will cool my burning thirst but reaching You, quench my ardour but meeting You, dampen my yearning but gazing upon Your face, settle my settling place without closeness to You.1
My Lord! My Lord! My Lord! I ask You by Your Right and Your Holiness and the greatest of Your Attributes and Names, that You makest my times in the night and the day inhabited by Your remembrance, and joined to Your service and my works acceptable to
“Neither business nor trading would distract [them] from remembering God (24:37).”
As I have said elsewhere, to be cut off from anything other than God means to be free from reliance on anything other than God and see everything as His sign and manifestation of His power and grace.
Oh My Lord! Who is the one who has tasted the sweetness of Your love and then has looked for a substitute.” 2 Iqbal al-a‘mal, vol. 2, p. 687.
Without a doubt, if there has been any, even the slightest, success or goodness, it was because of His favour and guidance and when there have been shortcomings, they were due to me. If there is light, it comes from Him and if there is darkness, it is because we have not turned towards Him properly or, God forbid, we have turned away from Him.
Thus, we cannot simply go after our whims and desires and do whatever we want. We need to have self-control and self-discipline which leads to self-purification. If we purify our hearts we will no longer need to resist our temptations and control ourselves against lower desires and lusts, since a purified person desires nothing except what is good and moral for himself and others. In what follows, we will study the necessity of selfcontrol and self-purification.
And as for him who fears to stand in the presence of his Lord and forbids his own soul from its whims and caprices then surely Paradise is the abode. (79:40 & 41) … > > O David! …do not follow the whims of your own soul for they will lead you astray from Allah’s path. (38:26)
… In the past I had a brother-in-faith, and he was prestigious in my view because the world was insignificant in his eyes… If two things confronted him he would see which was more akin to his whims and he would do the other.1
For example, one might have the option to either watch TV or to help someone with his work. The soul which is not trained may encourage us to go and watch TV, saying that it is a waste of time to help the other person. But instead it is better to spend the time helping the other person.
AI Summary
Self Development by Mohammad Ali Shomali presents key insights from the Taoism tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.