Those Who Act for the Sake
of the World

People generally seem to be very well-mannered. They give others gifts and invite them to their homes for a meal. They appear to be ever-willing to help others. They make other people’s problems their own. They commiserate with people over their miseries and share in their joys. They forget their differences with others and desist from complaining.

People are happy that they are absolutely fine. They are just as they should be. Or so they think and want others to believe.

But whom do people deal with in a good way? They are good only to those with whom their perceived interests are linked, who they think they can benefit from, who they hope will help them when they need them. They are good to people whom they fear, people who have power and authority over them, or people who they fear losing because then they think they will have no one.

People’s good manners are thus wholly benefit-based. They are good-mannered with those they think they can gain from. The reality of their ‘good-manners’ is exposed when they deal with people other than those mentioned above, whose feelings they do not feel the need to consider in the same way. On such occasions, the very same person who a short while ago seemed the epitome of good manners turns out to be very ill-mannered. He does not bother to greet someone he feels he does not need to flatter or fear. He won’t ever invite him to his home. He won’t ever rush to his help. He won’t think twice about losing his temper with him even for the slightest excuse. He doesn’t feel the need to consider his feelings. The man who shows himself to be very well-mannered for the sake of his own worldly benefits exposes himself as foul-mannered in a situation where he does not see any worldly benefit for himself being involved.

Such ‘good-manners’ and ‘humaneness’ have no value whatsoever in God’s eyes. No matter how much of these ‘virtues’ you possess, they will not save you from God’s wrath. Only those actions have value that are undertaken to win God’s pleasure and to secure one salvation in the Hereafter. Actions that are performed in order to improve one’s worldly fortunes will not be rewarded by God. God will say to such people that whatever they did was just for their worldly pleasure, that they have already received the recompense for those deeds in the world, and that in the Hereafter they will get nothing for them.