Our life is like a vapor or a mirage in this world, here today and gone tomorrow.

 

242. Our life is like a vapor or a mirage in this world, here today and gone tomorrow, over with seemingly in an instant: Our life here in this world is like a vapor, short and filled with tests and hardships, and then it’s over with. We should hold no real value to this earth and this earthly life; the bible tells us this and the Bahá’í Faith tells us this and so do the writings of the other religions.  Christianity: James 4:14 “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” The world and this life is like a mirage in the desert, it appears to be pleasing to the eye and something to long for, but when we consider the next world and the life to come after this one, this world is like a dream that we will wake up from and find that nothing of substance comes with us into the light of day.  Judaism: Wisdom 1. “Life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.” “For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:” “Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes.” “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.” “For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.” (Deuterocanonical Apocrypha, Wisdom) 4 Ezra 2:36 “Flee the shadow of this world, receive the joyfulness of your glory: I testify my Saviour openly.” Hosea 13:3 “Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passeth away and as the smoke out of the chimney.” Here, but for awhile, then gone as if it had never existed. Psalms 102:3 “For my days are consumed like smoke.”

BAHA’I FAITH: “Verily I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion. It may, moreover, be likened unto the lifeless image of the beloved whom the lover hath sought and found, in the end, after long search and to his utmost regret, to be such as cannot fatten nor appease his hunger.” “O My servants! Sorrow not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you. Worlds, holy and spiritually glorious, will be unveiled to your eyes. You are destined by Him, in this world and hereafter, to partake of their benefits, to share in their joys, and to obtain a portion of their sustaining grace. To each and every one of them you will, no doubt, attain.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 328)

 BABI RELIGION: “This mortal life is sure to perish; its pleasures are bound to fade away and ere long ye shall return unto God, distressed with pangs of remorse, for presently ye shall be roused from your slumber, and ye shall soon find yourselves in the presence of God and will be asked of your doings.”

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 161)

 Babi Religion: “O my God! O my Master! I beseech Thee by Thy manifold bounties and by the pillars which sustain Thy throne of glory, to have pity on these lowly people who are powerless to bear the unpleasant things of this fleeting life, how much less then can they bear Thy chastisement in the life to come — a chastisement which is ordained by Thy justice, called forth by Thy wrath and will continue to exist for ever.”

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 204)

 Babi Religion: “Seek they to intimidate the heroes of God, in whose sight the pomp of royalty (and the pomp of this world) is but an empty shadow.”

(Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 390)

 ISLAM: “My dear son, through this message of mine, I have explained everything about this world, how fickle and fleeting is its attitude, how short-lived and evanescent (a dissipating vapor) is everything that it holds.”

(Islam, Ali b. Abi Taalib, Letters from Nahjul Balaagh)

Islam: 32. “What is the life of this world but play and amusement? But best is the home in the Hereafter, for those who are righteous. Will ye not then understand?”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah   6)

Islam: 25. “Celebrate the name of thy Lord morning and evening, and part of the night, prostrate thyself to Him; and glorify Him a long night through.” “As to these, they love the fleeting life, and put away behind them a Day (that will be) hard. It is We Who created them, and We have made their joints strong; but, when We will, We can substitute the like of them by a complete change.” “This is an admonition: whosoever will, let him take a straight Path to his Lord. But ye will not, except as Allah (God) wills; for Allah is full of Knowledge and Wisdom. He will admit to His Mercy Whom He will; but the wrongdoers, for them has He prepared a grievous Penalty.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah  76)

 ZOROASTRIANISM: 32. “Against the body of the harlot, (The world) with her magic minds over throwing with (intoxicating) pleasures, to the lusts her person offering, whose mind as vapor wavers as it flies before the wind, for the righteous saint that perishes.”

(Zoroaster, The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 9)

 Zoroastrianism: Denkard. Zoroaster, “Be it known that the lasting happiness of living men is the happiness in this world related with that of the next. And the evanescent (fleeting vapor) happiness of the lifeless is earthly happiness having no relation to happiness of the next world.”

 HINDUISM: “To put it metaphorically, the world, according to the orthodox Vedântin, does not proceed from Brahman as a tree from a germ, but as a mirage from the rays of the sun.”

(Hindu Upanishads vol. 2, Introduction to the Upanishads, vol. 2)

 Hinduism: 3. “He who hath only wish as his possession casts on himself, casts foam amid the waters.” 9. “He passes o’er the broad earth like a Stega: he penetrates the world as Wind the mist-cloud.”

(Hindu Vedas, Rig Veda – Book 1 and 10)

 BUDDHISM: 4. “Whoever knows that this body is like foam and has learned that its nature is a mirage, will break the flourishing arrows of Mara and pass beyond the sight of the King of Death.”

(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 2 and 3 (tr. J. Richards))

 Buddhism: “All things in the world are like a dream, or like an image miraculously projected.” (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 SABEANISM: 13. “Look upon the world as a bubble; look on it as a mirage. Whoever looks thus upon the world is not seen by the sovereign of death.”

(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 2 (tr. J. Richards))

Sabeanism: “Be no son of the House, the world,” “Adam, look upon the world which is a completely unreal thing. It is a unreal thing, in which you can put no trust.” (Sabeanism, Instruction of Adam)