Fourth cause

 

Just as contentious disagreement among the rightly guided does not arise from their shortsightedness and failure to foresee consequences, so the sincere agreement among the misguided people does not result from their farsightedness and ability to take consequences into due consideration. Rather, although guided by the truth and right and not being dragged by the blind impulses of the carnal soul the people of right guidance follow the farsighted inclinations of the heart and the intellect, they fail to preserve sincerity and straightforwardness and thus fall into disagreement.

As for the people of misguidance, under the influence of the carnal soul and lusts and driven by desires and impulses which are blind to consequences and prefer an ounce of immediate pleasure to a ton of future pleasure, they can come together in powerful, sincere alliances for the sake of instant benefits and immediate pleasures. Indeed, lowly and heartless worshippers of the carnal soul can sincerely come together around immediate worldly pleasures and benefits. The people of right guidance are in fact expected to preserve straightforwardness and perfect sincerity to form a powerful, selfless unity because they follow lofty intellectual and spiritual principles and aim at human perfections and the fruits of the Hereafter. But since they cannot be fully freed from egotism and self-centeredness or liberate themselves from going to extremes, they lose their agreement, which is a sublime source of power, and their sincerity is shattered. Thus, their duty concerning the Hereafter is harmed. This also makes gaining God’s good pleasure truly difficult.

The cure for this grave disease is, with the guidance of the principle of loving for God’s sake, proudly accompanying those who follow the Straight Path, deferring leadership to them, renouncing egotism with the thought that whoever is following the Straight Path may be better than oneself, and thus gaining sincerity, knowing that an ounce of deeds done with sincerity is preferable to tons of deeds done without sincerity, and preferring being a follower to leadership, which brings responsibility and therefore is risky. By doing so, one can be saved from the disease of egotism, going to extremes, and insincerity, which was mentioned above; one is able to gain sincerity and properly fulfill one’s duties pertaining to the Hereafter.

 

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi