When admonitions are heard, the listener may experience a momentary awakening.
When he left the gathering of remembrance,
Hardness and heedlessness returned.
I reflected on the reason for that, and then I understood it.
Then I saw people differ about that.
Generally, the heart is not in a state of wakefulness when hearing an admonition and afterward.
For two reasons:
The first of the two: that admonitions are like the whips,
And the lashes do not hurt after they end.
And their causing pain is at the time of their occurrence.
Second: that when a person is in the state of listening to admonitions, he is relieved of the impediment.
He may have abandoned the concerns of the world in his body and in his mind.
And he listened with his heart present.
When he returns to worldly distractions, their afflictions draw him back.
So how can it still be as it was?!
And this is a state that pervades the people.
However, those who are alert differ in how long the impression persists.
Some of them decide without hesitation and go on without looking back.
If the course of nature were to pause for them, they would cry out.
As Hanzala said about his self: Hanzala is a hypocrite.
And among them are people whose nature sometimes inclines them toward heedlessness.
And the admonitions mentioned earlier sometimes urge them to act.
They are like an ear of grain that the winds bend.
And there are people who are affected only to the extent of what they have heard.
Like water, I rolled it over a smooth stone.
There are many natural attractions to the world; they come from within.
And mentioning the Hereafter is a matter outside of natural disposition, and it comes from outside.
And perhaps one who has no knowledge might think that the attractions of the Hereafter are stronger.
When he hears the warnings in the Qur'an.
But that is not so; for the disposition, in its inclination toward the world, is like flowing water,
For it seeks to descend.
Rather, raising it upward requires deliberate effort.
For this reason an assistant of the Shari'a replied: By alienation and intimidation the forces of reason become stronger.
As for the natural disposition, it has many attractions.
It is not surprising that one should prevail; what is surprising is that one should be overcome.
Whoever, with the eye of his insight, perceives the ends of matters in their beginnings obtains their good.
And he escaped its harm.
And whoever does not foresee the consequences will be overcome by impulse.
So he returned to him with the safest thing he had requested for his safety.
And what he hoped for through toil was comfort.
And this will be made clear in what follows by mentioning the past.
And it is that you are not free from either having disobeyed God in your life, or having obeyed Him,
So where is the pleasure in your disobedience?!
And where is the toil of your obedience?!
Alas! Everything has departed with what is in it; I wish that the sins, when they depart, would vanish.
And I add for you in this a clarification: for example, the moment of death.
And consider the bitterness of regret over neglect.
Nor will I say, "How did the sweetness of pleasures prevail?!"
Because the sweetness of pleasures has turned into bitterness.
So the bitterness of grief remained, with no one to oppose it,
Do you think you did not know that the matter has its consequences?!
So watch the consequences, and you will be safe.
Do not incline toward the desires of the self, or you will regret it.
