AHL AD-DUNYÂ- أهل الدنيا
Literally: Dunyâ is nearer, nearest. Lower, lowest. Hence, the world. Also, the vanities of this life. Since it is nearest to the âkhirah and death, closest to the desires of the nafs regarding effect and the most deceptive, this name has been given to the world.
Literally: Ahl is a man's family. A household. A kindred. Friends. People. A nation. A man's family and descendants. A wife. The people of a place, condition, profession, religion or quality. A person or thing closely related to some particular thing mentioned.
Ahl ad-dunyâ: Those who give worth to vanities of this life and world more than they deserve and see value in the material pleasures of this world.
“O nafs! Do not look at ahl ad-dunyâ, and especially the people of dissipation and the people of kufr, and do not imitate them through being deceived by their superficial glitter and illicit pleasures. For even if you do imitate them, you will not be like them; you will decline immeasurably. You cannot be an animal even. For the mind in your head becomes an inauspicious tool which constantly beats you over the head. For example, there is a palace and in one of its large apartments is a powerful electric lamp. Small electric lights which branch out from it and are attached to it have been divided among its small apartments. Now, someone touches the switch of the big light and turns it off; all the apartments are plunged into deep darkness and desolation. Another palace has small electric lights in all its apartments which are not connected to the large light. If the owner of the latter palace presses the switch of the large electric light and turns it off, there may still be lights on in the other apartments by which he can carry out his work. Thieves can not benefit.
O my nafs! The first palace is a Muslim and Hazrat Prophet ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm is the large electric light in his heart. If he forgets him, or al-‘iyâzu Billah1 he expels him from his heart, he will accept none of the other prophets, indeed, no place will remain in his rûh for any perfection. He will not even recognize His Rabb. All the apartments and subtle faculties in his essence will be plunged into darkness, and there will be a terrible destruction and desolation in his heart. How will you profit in the face of this destruction and desolation, where will you find familiarity? What benefit will you secure which will repair the damage? However, the foreigners resemble the second palace; even if they cast out from their hearts the nûr of the Prophet Hazrat Prophet ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm, some nûrs may remain according to them, or they suppose they remain. They may continue to have a sort of belief in their Khâliq and a kind of îmân in Hazrat Mûsâ and ‘Îsâ ‘Alayhimassalâm, which will allow them to attain good morals and character.
O nafs al-ammarah! If you say: "I don’t want to be a foreigner and I want to be an animal," how many times have I told you: "You cannot be an animal. For there is mind in your head, and it strikes your face, eyes, and head with the pains of the past and fears of the future, and beats you. It adds a thousand pains to one pleasure. Whereas animals receive pleasure without pain. So first pluck out your mind and throw it away, then be an animal! You will also receive the chastening slap of كَاْلاَنْعَامِ بَلْ هُمْ اَضَلُّ .2 " The Words ( 372-373 )