As you indulge in this world, Shaytaan laughs at you

The Reality of the Dunya
In Imam al-Ghazali’s The Beginning of Guidance, he provides an analogy that allows the reader to intuitively understand the true reality of this world. (As a side note, his aptitude in explaining the most esoteric concepts with clear similitudes reflects his deep knowledge and intimate understanding of it).
He says, and I paraphrase, that this world is like a cake. Sweet, delicious, and attractive. Chocolate, coffee, or whatever flavor suits your fancy — everything is available for you. We are all happy to get even a single slice of it, and we would be even gladder to get it all!
But if we are told that while making the cake, the chef spit in it — would we still want that cake? If you ate some of it after knowing this, you wouldn’t be able to notice any difference in taste — but just the knowledge that the cake is spoilt would prevent you from truly enjoying the cake.
That is the dunya.
A believer knows that the world is temporary and incomplete, and that his true home is in the hereafter. He finds it repulsive to take any more of this world than he requires, and so he does not chase after it.
Whereas someone who does not believe, or one has not strengthened his belief to a point where his knowledge of what Allah ﷻ has promised can triumph his carnal desires — such a person will become a slave to the cake, seeking it out no matter the means or costs associated with it.
If told of the spoilt nature of it, they deny or do not believe. The intellect is pushed into the lowest depths, and almost shut out completely, as physical satisfactions numb the faculties.
What This Means to Us
To chase this world, the two things we devote are time and health. Time, as in the hours spent playing video games, watching aimless movies, and the like. Health is spent when people smoke, drink and do drugs. Every worldly pleasure depletes either of these two things, if not both.
RasulAllah ﷺ said regarding this:
> “There are two blessings concerning which many people are cheated: health and free time.” [Al-Bukhari 6049]¹
And who lies waiting, trying to ambush us? Shaytaan. Allah ﷻ has said that Shaytaan is our “clear enemy” several times in the Qur’an. And he is the one who laughs at us when we yawn — then how much does he rejoice when we doom ourselves by wasting the very essences of our life?
The next time our lower selves yearn for something forbidden, or foul — let us remember the devil laughing at us. Oh, how easy is it to make the right choice when it also denies our gravest enemy satisfaction!
And indeed, the more difficulty we strive against, the greater the reward. And we must not forget the greatest enemy we face, for RasulAllah ﷺ said, “Your most hostile enemy is your own soul, enclosed between your two sides” [Bayhaqi].
