Chapter 2
What Do People Usually Think About
In previous chapters, we mentioned that people do not think as they ought and do not develop their faculty of thinking. Yet here there is an important point that needs to be clarified. Surely certain things cross one's mind every moment of one's life. There is almost no moment, save at times of sleep, that the human mind is utterly blank. However, a great many of these are useless, "futile" and "unnecessary" thoughts that are of no avail in one's hereafter, that lead nowhere, and serve one no good.
If someone tries to remember what he thought during the day and notes it down, then looks over it at the end of the day, he would see how futile are most of his thoughts. Even if he were to find some of it useful, he would most likely be mistaken. For, on the whole, thoughts that seem correct may not be of any use in the hereafter.
Just as people waste time dealing with futile things in their daily lives, equally they spend time in vain carried away with futile thoughts. In the verse "Successful indeed are the believers…who keep aloof from what is vain…" (Surat al-Muminun: 3), Allah advises people to be strong-willed in this area. Surely, this command of Allah holds true for people's thoughts as well. This is because thoughts, unless we control them consciously, continuously flow through our minds. One unconsciously jumps from one thought to another. While thinking about the shopping one will purchase on one's way home, all of a sudden one finds oneself thinking about the things a friend told one two years ago. This uncontrolled and useless thinking may go on uninterruptedly throughout the day.
Yet controlling thought is possible. Everyone possesses the ability to think things that will improve him, his faith, mind, courtesy and his surroundings.
In this chapter, we will mention what sorts of things heedless people tend to think about in general. The reason these subjects are told in detail is so that people who read this book may realise immediately, when something similar to what is mentioned here crosses their minds as they go to work or school or while doing something casual, that they are thinking something useless. Therefore they might take their thoughts under control and think things that are truly useful for them