CHAPTER TWO
O soul: Do not disparage the world by saying it is an abode of deception, a trap, and a delusion; for it is not so, except in the eyes of those with deficient intellects and those beset by ignorance and forgetfulness. Had it truly been an abode of deception in reality, man—from the beginning of his appearance within it until the time of his departure from it—would have encountered nothing but bliss, pleasures, and joy, only for misfortune to then strike him suddenly, stripping him of that bliss and transforming his state into its opposite 1 .
But the matter is not so; rather, one sees man arise in this world and be raised through diverse, disordered states—grieved one day and joyful the next, experiencing pleasure one day and suffering in pain another. When a thing manifests to you all that is within its nature, it has been just and sincere with you.