Avoid The Love Of The World

Avoid The Love Of The World

Through this Hadith the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم has given us a prescription for removing the love of the world from our hearts, and to achieve true comfort in this world. A man may own worldly possessions but he should not have the love of the world in his heart. It is necessary to own worldly possessions because one cannot live without them. If a man does not have food to eat, a home to live in and clothes to wear, how will he subsist? Therefore, these things are necessary. But, we must not make the pursuit of these things the aim of our life and occupy ourselves in that direction day and night. We must not grow its love in our heart. However, this condition may be achieved by contentment. When a man is content, he has the worldly possessions in his hands but he does not love them and does not hanker after them. If a man loves the world, then he occupies himself all the time in thinking of it and there are a hundred things he wants and craves for and he counts what he has and what he should have and how much he has earned and hopes to earn. This is the love of the world that makes one greedy.

How May One Obtain Contentment

here is a Hadith Qudsi that tells us: "If the son of Adam were given a valley of gold, he would love to have a second one; and if he were given the second one, he would love to have a third. Nothing fills the belly of Adam's son except dust."

When he dies and is buried in his grave only then will his belly be filled

The extraordinary effort that he used to make in the world to amass wealth and possession will go wasted and he will depart from this world empty-handed. However, if Allah grants anyone contentment then that fills his belly; the prescription to obtain contentment is found in the Hadith of the Prophet that we read earlier in this essay. Those who seek success in this world and the Hereafter must use that prescription and those who do not use it will suffer discontent and worry all their life. The prescription of the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم is that we must not look upon those enjoying standard of living higher than our's for that will prompt us to crave for the things they have and create in us a sense of
deprivation. We must rather look upon those who are on a level lower than we so that we will realise how much less they have and this will prompt us to be grateful to Allah for the nice things He has given us. Looking at those at a higher level will make us greedy for the things that we do not have and we will compete with them for those things and feel jealous. This will give rise to avarice and hatred. We will violate the rights of Allah and His slaves in the process. Contentment and the related gratitude to Allah is a great blessing of which many people are deprived. There is no way to obtain peace other than being contented.