The results and effects of love of the world

Let it be known that the reason so many condemnations and censures of the worldly scholars have come in the Quran and Sunnah, and that the scholars of the Hereafter have also described their vileness in detail, is that the consequences and effects of love of the world and of inclining and desiring towards it are so evil and so numerous that they cannot be described. That is why it is said in a noble hadith (Hubb al-dunya ra's kull khati'a): love of the world is the root and foundation of every sin. Ordinary worldly people are such that their corruption is not contagious, nor is it general and widespread so as to engulf many people; but no one knows how far the corruption of the worldly scholars may reach. Because of this love of the world, the worldly scholars have fallen prey to loss and harm in several respects.

1. Because their knowledge was for the sake of the world, they were deprived of the virtues that have been stated for scholars in the Quran and hadith, and also deprived of their reward, and they became deserving of the condemnations that have been stated in the Quran and hadith for such scholars. This is a very great loss, one that concerns the eternal and everlasting life. The lofty ranks they would have attained on the basis of sincerity (ikhlas), the highest blessings of Paradise they would have embraced, and the deliverance they would have found from the punishments and trials of the grave and of the Gathering — deprivation of all this is a loss that only Allah and His Messenger ﷺ know. On the contrary, they became deserving of greater

punishment.

2. Love of and desire for the world turned their attention towards acquiring wealth and rank, and much of their precious time was sacrificed to the world and passed in heedlessness. They could have spent that time in remembrance (dhikr) and reflection (fikr), in worship and spiritual discipline (riyazat), and in the study of religious books, and so attained many ranks and perfections; and through the purification and refinement (tasfiya and tazkiya) of their hearts and selves they could have reached heights beyond imagination and conjecture. Thus they were deprived of all these excellences, ranks and perfections and fell prey to eternal loss.

3. When love of the world prevails, the desire to acquire perfections of knowledge and practice diminishes, and the outward acts of worship, such as prayer, that one performs are accompanied by the pollution of worldly worries. Moreover, laziness, sluggishness and indifference arise in most matters of religion. Many even abandon an obligation such as prayer, which ought to be performed with absorption and immersion (istighraq), and the spiritual states that ought to be attained through it are not attained. Often, because of worldly affairs, prayers come to be performed outside their proper times. In short, it is deprivation and loss upon loss.

4. Among the curses of love of the world is that blameworthy traits such as envy, malice, greed, covetousness, sycophancy, flattery, miserliness and cowardice arise, and from these in turn arise mutual hatreds, rancour, tale-bearing, backbiting and the like. Because of the dominance of love of the world, all of such a person's religious work is generally done in return for payment. For example, it is witnessed today that even great scholars have begun to fix fees for speeches and for recitations of na'at, and they have come to see the world in every task. They have begun to demand fat salaries, and it has become difficult for one to tolerate another. Because of this, the work of inviting to and propagating religion (da'wa and tabligh) has almost come to a halt, and doing any work without payment has become very burdensome for most of them; their example has become that of a beggar. The Sunni way began to be mocked, and people began to incline towards Wahhabism, and indeed thousands of them did incline towards it.

Very loathsome things began to happen among the pirs: they began to beg from their disciples (murids), came to blows with one another, and became captives of the desire for grand titles in slogans or for praise and acclaim, and fell prey to partisan prejudices. These are some of the harms connected with their private lives, although some of them reach others as well.

5. Instead of religious sciences, they began to educate their sons and daughters in English schools, colleges and the like, and deprived them in every way of the perfections of the Hereafter and of service to religion. They urge others to study in madrasas and religious universities, while their own practice is as has been described.

6. In the gatherings and assemblies of such scholars there is talk only of the world, which becomes a cause of further desire for the world in those who sit in their gatherings. In this way, instead of enjoining good and forbidding evil, the urge to commit what is forbidden and to abandon what is commanded grew even stronger.

7. For the sake of acquiring wealth and rank, they began to turn people's faces towards themselves, and to display their superiority and pre-eminence they began to hold debates and disputations with one another and to issue fatwas against one another, and the honour and fame of anyone at all became unbearable to them. Whomever they saw rising, they began to pull down by the legs. The teacher clashed with the student and the student with the teacher, the father with the son and the son with the father, and they began to speak ill of one another. Everyone formed his own circle, and in this way many parties came into being, and the unity of the Ahl al-Sunnah was scattered.

8. The wealthy people who could have helped those doing religious work were stopped from giving aid and support by these spiritual masters and scholars. To fill his own begging bowl, each of them began collecting everything, here in the name of building a khanqah, there in the name of madrasas. And the state of others' wrongdoing is such that if our young scholars, who have a true concern for Islam and the Sunni way, want to do work, they have no resources, and those who have resources have no work. All these matters involve losses such

as are beyond description.

9. Enormous embezzlement began to take place in the donations of madrasas and religious universities, and trustworthiness and honesty were laid to rest.

10. Instead of sincerity, showing off and seeking fame (riya and sum'a) entered deeds and services, and everyone began to boast of his religious services.

11. Most of the madrasas and religious universities that began to receive government aid, and whose teachers began to receive salaries, gradually lost their academic standard and were sacrificed to worldly education, and most began to resort to lies and deceit. Mutual envy among the teachers increased, and quarrels over the post of head teacher and the like grew so great that some of these institutions even closed down. Because of these things, they have to stand with folded hands before disbelievers and polytheists day after day; they began to make them arbiters in their affairs and to honour and revere them without limit, to run after worldly people and politicians, and to become subservient to ignorant, sinful and base people, placing them above their heads and moving at their beck and call.

Conclusion: Let it be known that the present age is an age of tribulation and corruption. Truth has become so mixed with falsehood that, let alone the common people, it has become difficult even for the elite to separate truth from falsehood. Since the leadership of religion is still mostly in the hands of the scholars and spiritual masters, this brief writing came into being so that the true guide and the highway robber may be recognised correctly; so that those who are worthy of guidance may be honoured, revered and served as is fitting; and so that the community may be protected from the highway robbers.

These are a few of the feelings that every sensitive person of knowledge and intellect in this age is witnessing and lamenting. And our duty is only to convey (wa ma 'alayna illa al-balagh).