Man is a creature who likes justification.

He seeks justification for every action of his.

If a man chooses to be arrogant, his mentality will be inclined towards that.

He will, in practice indulge in arrogance, and his mind will provide him with beautiful words in order to prove his arrogance justified.

Man is an extremely sensitive being.

He cannot bear trouble.

This is why he immediately becomes serious as soon as he faces a moment of difficulty.

At that time, all artificial veils are removed from his mind.

Animals do not act as a result of thinking, but simply submit to the pressure of their natural instincts.

Now, if a man does not utilise his thinking capacity and simply follows the dictates of his base desires, what is the difference between him and an animal?

It is a fact that the greatest object of worship is the ignoble desire of man; Many deities have been devised simply to justify the religion of desire-worship.

In the world, time and again, man has experiences which remind him of his helplessness.

At that time all his conditioning fall away from him and the real and natural man in him is awakened.

But as soon as conditions return again to normal, he becomes as neglectful and arrogant as before.

The real reason for a man going astray is that he is so completely engrossed in the glamour and problems of the world that he cannot rise above them and think independently.

Under ordinary circumstances man finds himself possessed of certain powers.

Therefore, he assumes an air of arrogance.

But, when critical conditions make him feel his helplessness, the veils are removed from his mind.

At that time he is cut down to size, and realizing his helplessness, he starts calling upon God for help.

But man is so foolish that, as soon as the circumstances become favourable, he reverts to his neglectfulness and arrogance.

In the world, when man achieves anything, he is very happy to think that it is the result of his own talents.

The fact is that the things of the world are meant as a trial for him and not as a reward for his talents.

To know this fact is to have real knowledge.

Every man passes through times when he finds himself utterly helpless.

At this juncture, he forgets everything and starts appealing to God.

In this way, in times of helplessness, every man comes to know that there is nobody worth worshipping except the one and only God.

The moment of crisis for a man is the moment of self-discovery.

So, when he is confronted with adversity, he forgets self-conceit and starts remembering God.

At that time, he realises that he is the subject or servant of God and God is his Deity.

The hypocrites may put on a pretence of doing good deeds, but these hollow acts will not avail them.

This chapter also warns those who are ‘heedless in their prayer.’

The believers see the truth as truth, therefore they do not find any difficulty in understanding it.

The only thing he has the power to do is tempt people by his words and by putting evil thoughts into their minds.

Man strives in this world and observes that, as a result, he gains wealth and honour.

He does not see his work marred in any manner, therefore, he considers himself a successful man.

But, this is highly irrational.

The condition of those who are free from pride, consideration of self-interest and love of outward show is such that when God’s Truth appears before them, they immediately recognise it, even though such Truth might have come through the medium of a human being like themselves.

An individual may invest his money in a venture and also apply his talents to it, hoping that his investment and his talents will lead to a successful result and will bring him good returns.

But, different types of untoward incidents occur and his hopes are dashed to pieces.

No human device or human talent is able to save him.

A distinctive trait of those whose characters are moulded by the preaching of the prophets, is that they are no longer slaves of their base desires but rise above them.

Before God, people with eyes are those who look at things in order to learn a lesson or draw wisdom from them.

The majority are simply swayed by prejudice, though they profess that their case rests on sound arguments.

There are two methods of opposing a mission.

One is to reject it on the basis of arguments, while the other is to ridicule it.

When Truth appears before a man and he accepts it without any reservation, he immediately finds himself on the right path.

Man denies the Truth on the basis of some personal (selfish) considerations, but talks as if his arguments were based on rationality.

In the Hereafter this veil of pretence will be removed.

At that time it will be known clearly that what he had in his heart, was very different from what he was saying—purely to maintain his prestige.

A believer in name only, he is not prepared to pay the price of his faith.

He and other people like him fail at the very juncture where they are most required to prove their moral worth.

Human beings say many things for the sake of saying them.

But if they were to understand the consequences of their words, they would not utter them.

When such people who have spoken idly see the horror of the Day of Judgement, their condition will be entirely different from what it seems to be in today’s world.

Making anybody other than the One God the centre of one’s noble feelings is a sin, because it amounts to presuming that divine attributes inhere in beings other than God.

It is shown here that one who sees a spider’s web and learns a lesson about reality from it, is a learned person in the true sense.

If an individual has some goal in mind, his own striving towards the attainment of that goal further strengthens his will-power and increases the mental resolve which enables him to reach his objective.

Should it be the objects of his own desires towards which his efforts are directed, then the more he exerts himself, the more he will set his heart on them.

However, should it be the will of God that holds pride of place in determining his actions, then it will be God on whom his heart is set.

The true religion is one, and it has been revealed in its perfect form to every prophet.

Many people habitually remember God when in trouble and as the matter improves, they revert to their ways of arrogance and ingratitude.

Conceit is the worst trait in a man.

If Truth presents itself before a conceited individual, he will not accept it, because he thinks too highly of himself.

He will contemptuously overlook it and press on regardlessly.

It has always been in the nature of man to prefer being entertained.

Sudden death, the upheaval of earthquakes and other such incidents shake a man’s composure.

These, in fact, remind one of Doomsday, before its actual occurrence.

But, Satan immediately diverts the attention of the people by saying that these events have natural causes and are not a result of divine intervention.

The real test of man in the present world is his ability, irrespective of the circumstances, to give a proper and correct reaction.

But man does not do so.

When he meets with success, he turns into a vain braggart and when he gets into trouble, he can do nothing but express negative feelings.

Man’s turning away from good advice means his rejection of reality.

Divine reality comes before him with undeniable, reasoned arguments.

However, in order to protect his interests, he ignores it.

A truly righteous deed is one which is done purely for the sake of God.

Living along with others is a need felt by every human being.

It is this need that creates the nation or the community.

A man has his strength enhanced a thousand times by association with his own community.

A man is dishonest to himself before he is dishonest to someone else.

He then raises the alarm that so and so has committed a theft.

Similarly, a man may intend to outrage the modesty of a woman, but when that pious woman does not relent, he defames her with all sorts of fabricated stories.

This world is a place of trial.

Without the fear of God, there is nothing to check one from following the path of evil.

The worst crime on the part of man is denial of Truth.

And this is a crime which gives birth to other crimes.

Similarly, the greatest virtue of man is his acceptance of Truth.

So, it is not required that he be as pure as the angels.

Almighty God has given full guidance to man as to what he should do and what he should not.

But, jealousy and enmity blur the truth and one can think only of how to eliminate one’s supposed enemy.

But man, in his stupidity, takes them to be his goal.

Truth by its very nature is so clear that it is not difficult for anyone to understand it.

Advice, howsoever reasonable and well-supported by arguments, can be effective only when the hearer is serious about it.

If the hearer is not serious, the advice will not reach his heart.

Such arguments as deeply move a serious-minded person, will only cause a frivolous person to engage in meaningless discussions.

Man has the innate capacity to distinguish between good and evil.

By his very nature he wants anyone indulging in evil to be punished and anyone doing righteous deeds to be rewarded.

It is this consciousness which is called in the Quran the self- reproaching soul or an-nafs al-lawwamah.

All these wonderful changes take place without any effort on the part of human beings.

So, the system of nature which brings about such wonders every day, the creation of a new world after the present world should not be difficult.

The fact is that the real impediment in the way of acceptance of Truth is egotism or conceit and not any dearth of arguments or reasoning.

There are two ways of leading one’s life in this world.

One way is to keep one’s eyes and ears open.

Then one can see things as they really are.

A dog pants on good treatment as well as on bad.

Satan used this prohibition as a vantage point from which to attack them.

Fear of God makes one extremely sensitive.

Almighty God created man out of ordinary material elements.

One who admits his mistakes becomes increasingly modest and once again he becomes entitled to God’s grace and blessings.

On the contrary, one who is emboldened by his persistence in his sinful ways invites the wrath of God.

Doing wrong is not the real evil in the eyes of God; persistence in that wrong is the real evil.