Know that hearing and sight are two open doors, from which whatever enters through them reaches the heart. How many things does a man hear or see, which he should not have, and which entered the heart and has proven difficult to remove? For the heart is rapidly affected by what enters it, and when it becomes so, the effect is difficult to erase.
Let the seeker then be careful to protect his hearing and sight and strive to restrain all his senses and limbs from sins, and from what is in excess of the necessary. Let him beware of looking with approval at the life on earth and its ornaments, for outwardly, it is a manifestation of deception and inwardly, a lesson in wisdom.
The eye looks at the earth’s deceptive manifestations, but the heart should look at the lesson hidden within. How many a seeker looked at some of the ornaments or vanities of life on earth, and then his heart leaned toward them, liked to strive to gather (the seemingly precious objects) and build (magnificent buildings), and became therefore lost on the wrong path? So, it is enjoined on the seeker to lower his sight from all that is created but to only look with the intention of seeing the example or take a lesson within it. Remember, as you look at it that it will wither and go just as from where it came, for its existence was beheld by many men who are now gone while it remains. Generations after generations have received it as an inheritance, which will inevitably perish and disappear.
Thus, when you look at something that exists with an eye that sees in them the Creator’s perfect power, its evidence and beholder are testifying to the Creator’s transcendence. For verily, all existence on earth calls out testifying to Allah according to each of their states and those whose heart is enlightened by the light of Allah can hear them. For indeed, there is no God except Allah, the Powerful and Wise.
Book – Discipline in the Path of the Seeker, Imam Al-Haddad
