Avoiding Thoughts About Matters that Destroy Worldly Ambition

Despite having faith, one important reason why some are troubled at times is their great desire for worldly goods and their reluctance to think about matters that will remove this same desire.

From the Qur'an, we understand that the subjects which trap people in worldly life are always the same. Among the most important are the drive to accumulate property, fondness for one's life, the desire to gain prestige and avoid losing respect in the eyes of other people.

Allah tells us about people who are trapped in worldly ambition by these matters in the following verse:

To mankind, the love of worldly appetites is painted in glowing colors: women and children, and heaped-up mounds of gold and silver, and horses with fine markings, and livestock and fertile farmland. All that is merely the enjoyment of the life of this world. The best homecoming is in the presence of Allah. (Surah Al 'Imran: 14)

All these are surely the blessings of the life of this world. Allah has created people in a way for us to take pleasure from them.

Aware that each of these worldly pleasures is a blessing from Allah, the right thing to do is to treat them with gratitude. It is wrong to attach more importance to these blessings than the life in the Hereafter and thus become trapped in a passion for them.

The principal ways that enable people to overcome worldly ambition are dealt with at length in the Qur'an. These are the subjects that most people do not care to think about. They can be listed as follows:

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