This threat, then, embraces everyone who holds such a view—whether they are people who outwardly perform deeds of the Hereafter but seek thereby only the life of this world, like the hypocrites and those who make a show of their worship, or outright unbelievers who deny resurrection and reckoning, following the ways of pre-Islamic ignorance and the destructive ideologies of capitalism, communism, and atheistic secularism. Such people have never grasped the worth of life; their perspective on it rises no higher than that of cattle. Indeed, they are even more misguided, for they have cancelled out their intellects, harnessed their energies, and squandered their time on what will neither last for them nor will they last for it, all the while neglecting the inevitable destiny that is waiting for them.

Animals, after all, are not facing an appointed destiny, nor have they been given minds with which to reflect—unlike these people. Hence Allah says about them: “Or do you suppose that most of them hear or understand? They are but like cattle; no, they are further astray from the path.” (al-Furqān 25:44)

Allah has likewise branded the people of this outlook as devoid of knowledge: “Yet most people do not know; they know only the outward aspect of this worldly life, while of the Hereafter they are heedless.” (al-Rūm 30:6–7)