All praise is to Allah, Who joins the connection of praise with blessings and the chain of blessings with gratitude. We praise Him for His blessings just as we praise and thank Him for His trials, and we seek help from Him against those selves that are slow-footed in fulfilling commands and swift in advancing toward forbidden things. And we seek forgiveness for (those sins) over which His knowledge is encompassing and the book of deeds is dominant. Knowledge is not something that causes deficiency. We believe in Him like that person who has seen the things of the unseen (with his eyes) and has become aware of the promised things. Such faith whose sincerity has thrown away polytheism and certainty has thrown away doubt, and we bear witness that there is no deity except Allah, Who is One without partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. These two testimonies raise (good) words high and elevate (good) deeds. In whatever scale they are placed, its pan will not be light, and from whatever scale they are separated, its pan cannot be heavy. O servants of Allah! I advise you to fear Allah, for this God-consciousness is the provision for the journey, and it is what is to be taken for return. This provision is what takes (to the destination), and this return is a successful return. The best caller has called to it, and the best listener has heard it and preserved it. So the caller has called, and the listener has benefited. O servants of Allah! God-consciousness alone has protected Allah's friends from prohibitions and created fear in their hearts. Until their nights pass in wakefulness and two hot watches in thirst, and in exchange for this hardship and difficulty, they gain (eternal) comfort, and in exchange for this thirst, they gain satiation (from Tasnim and Kawthar). They considered death near and hastened in deeds, and rejected hopes and kept the appointed time in view. Then this world is a place of destruction, hardship, change, and lesson. So the form of destruction is that time has strung its bow, whose arrows do not miss, and whose wounds cannot be treated. It shoots arrows of death at the living, of disease at the healthy, and of destruction at the safe. It is such an eater that is never satisfied, and such a drinker that its thirst is never quenched. And the form of grief and hardship is that a person collects wealth, but eating from it is not his lot. He builds a house, but cannot live in it, and then departs toward Allah the Exalted in such a way that he cannot take the wealth with him, nor can he transfer the house there. And the state of its change is that you see a person whose condition is pitiable, and he (in no time) becomes such that envy is shown toward him. And you see an enviable person that (in just a few days) pity begins to be felt for his condition. This is because blessing left him, and poverty and destitution fell upon him. The form of taking lesson from it is that a person reaches the limit of his hopes, when death comes and breaks all the bonds of hopes. Thus these hopes are destroyed, and the one who binds hopes is not left. Allah is Great! How many are the deceptions of this world's joy and the disappointments of its satiation, and how much is the mixing of sunlight in its shade, and how much is the mixing of sunlight in its shade. Neither can the coming death be turned back, nor can the going one return. Glory be to Allah! How close is the living to the dead because they will join them, and how far is the dead from the living because all relations are broken. Indeed, there is nothing worse than evil except its punishment, and nothing better than goodness except its reward. The hearing of everything in the world is greater than seeing it. But the seeing of everything in the Hereafter is far greater than hearing it. You should confirm this unseen by estimating and hearing about its original state, which will appear in observation. You should know that the decrease of the world and the increase of the Hereafter is far better than the decrease of the Hereafter and the increase of the world. Many who suffer loss are in profit, and many who gather are in loss. The hem of the things that Allah has commanded you (and made lawful for you) is far wider than the things from which He has prohibited you, and lawful things are far more than forbidden things. So leave the fewer things because of the more things, and come out of the narrowness of the forbidden into the expanses of the lawful. He has taken the responsibility of your sustenance, and you have been commanded to perform deeds. So the search and seeking of that thing whose responsibility has been taken should not be given priority over performing deeds and obligations in your eyes. But by Allah! Your way of acting is such that the observer begins to doubt, and it seems as if obtaining sustenance is obligatory on you, and what is actually your obligation, i.e., performing obligations, is dropped from you. Advance toward action and fear the sudden coming of death. For the return of age cannot be expected. While the return of sustenance can be hoped for. The sustenance that did not come to hand, tomorrow its increase can be expected. And there is no hope that the past 'tomorrow' will return today. Hope can be for the coming one. And from the one that has passed, there is only despair. Fear Allah, as much as it is right to fear Him, and when death comes, you must be Muslims in any case.