Zuhud is one of those positive internal attributes which is mandatory for every Muslim to try to achieve. Zuhud means having no love for the material world. A person who is not preoccupied with material things all the time, who is not always occupied with earning more money for the sake of earning money, whose all time while awake is not spent in planning and scheming about how to increase his material wealth, is said to have achieved Zuhud.
The problem is that all of us have to live in this material world and benefit from it. When we are hungry we need food. When we are thirsty we need water. We need a roof over our heads. We need to earn money for our everyday expanses. How is it possible then that while we benefit so much from this material world and need it all the time, we do not fall in love with it?
Maulana Rumi has explained this by using an analogy. He said that a human being is like a boat and the material world is like water. A boat needs water to sail on it. If someone tries to sail a boat on dry land they would fail. Similarly a human being needs material things to survive. They need food, money, water, clothes, house, and all of this belongs to the material world.
But just like water is beneficial for a boat only as long as it is underneath it, and will sink it and destroy it if it gets inside the boat, similarly as long as the material world is around a person it is not harmful, but if he/she develop a love of material things and it gets inside their hearts it will destroy them. Maulana Rumi has expressed that beautifully in a verse;
Meaning as long as the water is around and and underneath the boat it helps it sail, but if the same water enters the boat it sinks it.
Adapted from the talk "Do not fall in love with the material world" by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani DB
The problem is that all of us have to live in this material world and benefit from it. When we are hungry we need food. When we are thirsty we need water. We need a roof over our heads. We need to earn money for our everyday expanses. How is it possible then that while we benefit so much from this material world and need it all the time, we do not fall in love with it?
Maulana Rumi has explained this by using an analogy. He said that a human being is like a boat and the material world is like water. A boat needs water to sail on it. If someone tries to sail a boat on dry land they would fail. Similarly a human being needs material things to survive. They need food, money, water, clothes, house, and all of this belongs to the material world.
But just like water is beneficial for a boat only as long as it is underneath it, and will sink it and destroy it if it gets inside the boat, similarly as long as the material world is around a person it is not harmful, but if he/she develop a love of material things and it gets inside their hearts it will destroy them. Maulana Rumi has expressed that beautifully in a verse;
آب اندر زیرِ کشتی پشتی است
آب در کشتی ہلاک کشتی است
Meaning as long as the water is around and and underneath the boat it helps it sail, but if the same water enters the boat it sinks it.
Adapted from the talk "Do not fall in love with the material world" by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani DB
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