Guidance for Perceiving Minds — Page 29
29 resorting to deceitful means to make contact, even if it entails indecency, and they lavish large sums of money as if a full moon had descended from the sky. Their powers were depleted by debauchery and wrongdoing, and their vigour and attractiveness faded while consumed by thoughts of women and palaces. Many of them are now left with empty coffers, their happiness vanished, their abundant possessions replaced by peril, and their authority lost due to chasing after woman. After wealth and affluence, they are now stricken with poverty. Their eyes grew weary from sor- row, and their anguish persists, yet they remain enslaved to their desires. Their indulgences have left them with grey hair, diseases, and misfortune. They do not avoid excessive transgression and exceeding limits in attaining fortunes like the wicked, so that the matter leads to the declining of health and the imbalance of the body. They lose themselves wishing for the return of the days of fit- ness and strength. It is as if they devoted their bodies and strength to prostitutes and preferred their love over the protection of the self, honour, and religion. These are people who have become the reflection of Satan and possess no goodness within themselves. You see their natures like rugged land with cracks, changing from morning to evening. You see their hearts darkened with arrogance and vanity, as if it were a part of the long dark night. They rejoice in stalls full of horses, mules, oxen, and camels, or women of splendour, beauty, and charm. They do not fulfil their obligations, nor do they fear the day of departing this world or the hour in which they will be held accountable. They spend their days adorning themselves, combing their hair, and applying kohl [to their eyes]. Nothing of the behaviour of men remains in them. If you see them, you