• This world is only a passage, while the Hereafter is the homeland; goals of real worth are sought in one’s homeland.

• Meetings with one’s brothers are of two kinds:
The first: gathering simply for congenial company and to while away the time. Its harm outweighs its benefit; at the very least it corrupts the heart and wastes the hours.
The second: gathering to help one another upon the means of salvation and to counsel one another to truth and patience. This is among the greatest and most profitable of gains, yet it, too, carries three pitfalls: (1) each person’s desire to show himself off before the others; (2) conversation and mingling that exceed what is necessary; (3) the meeting’s turning into a craving and a habit that diverts one from the original aim.

In short, association and social mixing are a form of pollination: they may fertilize the commanding self or the tranquil soul, and the fruit reflects the pollination. Whoever receives sound pollen produces sound fruit. Likewise, pure spirits take their pollen from an angel, while vile spirits take theirs from Satan. By His wisdom, Allah has paired the pure with the pure and the impure with the impure—and the reverse is also true.

Principle
Within the realm of possible existence, not a single cause acts independently. No cause, in and of itself, produces an effect unless another cause joins it and no impediment blocks its action. This applies to causes we perceive with our eyes, to hidden causes, and to intangible ones. The sun’s influence on animals and plants, for instance, depends on additional factors: the presence of a receptive locus and other causes that combine with the sun. In the same way, the birth of a child is contingent upon several causes beyond the union of the parents. So it is with all causes in relation to their effects. Therefore, whatever is feared or hoped for among created beings—the utmost it can achieve is