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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error_and_50_Principles, page : 95
was not a pure desire for the things of Allah, but that the impulse moving me
was the desire for an influential position and public recognition. I saw for
certain that I was on the brink of a crumbling bank of sand and in imminent
danger of hell-fire unless I set about to mend my ways.
I reflected on this continuously for a time, while the choice still remained
open to me. One day I would form the resolution to quit Baghdad and get rid
of these adverse circumstances; the next day I would abandon my resolution.
I put one foot forward and drew the other back. If in the morning I had a
genuine longing to seek eternal life, by the evening the attack of a whole host
of desires had reduced it to impotence. Worldly desires were striving to keep
me by their chains just where I was, while the voice of faith was calling, `To
the road! To the road! What is left of life is but little and the journey before you
is long. All that keeps you busy, both intellectually and practically, is but
hypocrisy and delusion. If you do not prepare now for eternal life, when will
you prepare? If you do not now sever these attachments, when will you sever
them?‟ On hearing that, the impulse would be stirred and the resolution made
to take to flight.
was the desire for an influential position and public recognition. I saw for
certain that I was on the brink of a crumbling bank of sand and in imminent
danger of hell-fire unless I set about to mend my ways.
I reflected on this continuously for a time, while the choice still remained
open to me. One day I would form the resolution to quit Baghdad and get rid
of these adverse circumstances; the next day I would abandon my resolution.
I put one foot forward and drew the other back. If in the morning I had a
genuine longing to seek eternal life, by the evening the attack of a whole host
of desires had reduced it to impotence. Worldly desires were striving to keep
me by their chains just where I was, while the voice of faith was calling, `To
the road! To the road! What is left of life is but little and the journey before you
is long. All that keeps you busy, both intellectually and practically, is but
hypocrisy and delusion. If you do not prepare now for eternal life, when will
you prepare? If you do not now sever these attachments, when will you sever
them?‟ On hearing that, the impulse would be stirred and the resolution made
to take to flight.