The World Is Not Worth Envy

The world is not worth envying, nor worth wasting grief over whether it exists or not. Those who never set their hearts on this handful of dust, honestly, we must admit they truly saw the truth. Whatever lacks permanence and endurance, the wise will not buy, even if it were the whole kingdom of the world. Do not choose oppression, do not grow arrogant, for God has many creatures like you in this realm. This is a house that will surely crumble; happy are those who are bound to another home. Have you ever heard of anyone whose friendship with the world lasted to the end? The truth is plain, yet some people are blind to it. You who walk the earth now: it will not always be yours, for others still wait in their mothers' wombs and their fathers' loins. This practiced wolf carries off a sheep every day, while the other sheep just stare at it, dazed. The one who out of pride never let his foot touch the ground became dust in the end, and people trample over him. If only people knew the worth of every breath, they would treasure the few that still remain. A rose without a thorn cannot be had in any garden; the world's only thornless roses are the good-natured. Sa'di, a person of good name never dies; the truly dead is the one whose name no one recalls with kindness.