AHL AD-DUNYÂ-أهل الدنيا
Literally: Dunyâ is nearer, nearest. Lower, lowest. Hence, the world. Also, the vanities of this life. Since it is closest to âkhirah, death and the desires of the nafs regarding its effect and is 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 more worth to the vanities of this life and world than they deserve, see value in the material pleasures of this world and give priority to the insignificant benefits they will gain from the world. Those who sacrifice their âkhirah for the sake of the world.
O nafs! By looking at ahl ad-dunyâ, especially the people of dissipation, especially the people of kufr, and being deceived by their superficial adornment and haram pleasures, do not imitate them, because if you imitate them, you cannot be like them. You will greatly decline. You cannot even be an animal because the mind in your head becomes an inauspicious tool. It will constantly beat your head. For example, there is a palace, and in one of its large apartments is a big electric lamp. Small electric lights that branch out from it and are attached to it have been divided among its small apartments. Now, if someone touches the switch of the big light and turns it off, all the apartments will plunge into deep darkness and terror. Another palace has small electric lights in all its apartments, which are not connected to the big light. If the owner of the latter palace turns off the switch for the large electric light, there may still be lights in the other apartments. He can carry out his work; thieves cannot benefit.
Thus, O my nafs! The first palace is a Muslim. Hazrat Prophet ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm is the big electric light in his heart. If he forgets him (asm) or, al-‘iyâzu Billah1 , expels him from his heart, he cannot accept any other prophets. No place will remain in his rûh for any perfection; he will not even recognise His Rabb. All the apartments and subtle faculties in his essence will fall into darkness, and there will be terrible destruction and savagery in his heart. I wonder, against this destruction and savagery, what benefit can you gain and feel a friendly familiarity with it? What benefit can you find with which you will repair the harm of such destruction? However, the foreigners resemble the second palace; even if they expel the nûr of Hazrat Prophet ‘Alayhissalâtu Wassalâm from their hearts, some kinds of nûr may remain, or they suppose that some nûr may remain. A kind of îmân in their Khâliq and Hazrat Mûsâ or ‘Îsâ ‘alayhimassalâm, which will be the source of their ma’nawî moral perfection, may remain in them.
O nafs al-ammarah! If you say, "I want to be an animal, not a foreigner," how many times have I told you, "You cannot be like animals because there is a mind in your head, and it beats your face, eyes and head with the slaps of pains of the past and fears of the future. It adds a thousand pains to one pleasure. Whereas animals receive pleasure without pain and enjoy it, so firstly, take your mind off and throw it away, then be an animal and see the chastening slap of كَاْلاَنْعَامِ بَلْ هُمْ اَضَلُّ .2