Hadith 7

And he-asws said one day in the Masjid of Al-Kufa, and there were faces of (important) people in his-asws presence: ‘O you people! We have come to be in an era of stubbornness, and severely difficult times. The good doer is counted in it as an evil doer, and in it the oppressor is being increasingly excessive. Neither are we benefitting from what we know nor are we asking about what we are ignorant of, nor are we fearing a calamity until it befalls upon us. The people are upon four types – From them is one whom nothing prevents him from the mischief in the earth except meekness (gentleness) of his self, and the weakness of his limitations, and lack of plentiful (wealth). And from them is the one who overcomes with his sword, and is open with his evil, and the fetcher with his cavalry and his infantry. He has sold his soul and ruined his religion for the wealth he seizes, or an army he leads, or a pulpit he can ascend, and evil is the trade that he sees the world to be a price for his soul, and from what there is for you in the Presence of Allah-azwj as compensation. And from them is one who seeks the word by the work of the Hereafter, and he does not seek the Hereafter with the work of the world. He reassures himself and small is his steps, and rolls up his clothes, and adorns himself for the entrustments, and takes the Veil of Allah-azwj as a means to the disobedience. And from them is one sits back from seeking the kingdom due to weakness of his self, and cutting off of his causes, so the situation reduces him to be upon his state. He gives it the name of contentment and adorns with the apparent of the ascetic people, and he isn’t from that in neither any exuberance (energy) nor any such quality. And there remains men who close their eyes remembering the return, and their tears flow in fear of the Resurrection. They are between a displaced club, and fearfully suppressed, and gagged into silence, and sincerely supplicating, and in painful bereavement. The dissimulation has deactivated them, and the humiliation has covered them. Thus, they are in a bitter ocean, their mouths are closed tight, and their hearts are sore. They advised until they were fed up, and they were coerced until they were humiliated, and they were killed until they were few (left). So, let the world be smaller in your eyes than rubbish scum, and leather trimmings, and take advice from the ones who were before you, before advice is taken from you by the ones to come after you, and refuse it reprehensibly for it has rejected the ones who were more in love with it than you are! O how deceptive are its deceptions to breast-feed, and O how harmful are its bruises as a weaning! ’’[6]