The Importance of Action Over Wishes

Beware of relying on wishes.

A warning, beware.

A warning against relying on wishes,

depending on them.

Wishes are what a person hopes

to achieve

or obtain

or attain,

whether goals, demands, or certain desires.

Wishes may concern a person's

personal affairs and life's needs,

or they may concern practical matters

and practical responsibilities.

A wish may be shared with others, meaning

what everyone desires, including you, as a nation

or a particular community.

This wish may be imaginary,

meaning impossible to achieve,

either inherently or due to

objective circumstances and the law of causes.

Or this wish may be

possible to achieve, but

only by taking the necessary means

and acting practically.

Whatever we wish to achieve

in our personal affairs, if it is something worth the effort

and work,

and falls within what is right and good,

or within our practical responsibilities

and our sacred goals,

whatever is possible to achieve, with reliance on Almighty God

And placing one's trust in Him, exalted be His majesty

and having faith in Him,

and taking practical measures,

all the means, including practical ones,

that you must undertake.

So here,

in pursuit of such wishes, one must work and take

the necessary measures,

otherwise, they will not come true,

no matter how wonderful, how great, no matter how

ideal they may be.

A person's wish may be a

great

wonderful and sacred wish.

They may wish for truth to prevail,

for goodness to spread,

for justice to be established,

for the state of society to improve.

They wish good for people. Wonderful wishes,

but no matter how great the wishes may be,

sacred and legitimate,

none of them can come true without work,

they are all tied to work.

The wishes of the prophets, peace be upon them,

required effort to be fulfilled,

and no one exerted more effort or strove harder in their work

than they did, though they were God's prophets.

They were the ones most deserving

of having

great goals and great wishes

fulfilled without striving, toil, hardship, or sacrifices,

without fatigue

or difficulty,

but taking the necessary measures was essential, work was essential, it was essential

patience,

sacrifice is necessary, hardships must be overcome,

patience in the face of difficulties is necessary,

and so it is with all other matters.

One should not rely

on wishful thinking. One must strive to achieve

important, sacred, great goals, goals

that are legitimate

by practical means and by taking the necessary steps,

otherwise, nothing will be achieved.

Rather, what happens in reality will be exactly the opposite of what

you wish for.

You wait for those

wishes to come true, while what actually happens, because you

are careless in your efforts and fall short in your work,

is exactly the opposite.

You wish for victory, but do not take the steps toward it,

so what happens is that the enemy gains more and more power.

You wish for justice, but do not take the steps to attain it,

so what results is more injustice.

You wish people well, but do not strive for it,

and evil comes to dominate society.

This applies on both the personal and collective levels.

It is necessary to embrace a practical spirit

and be aware of the law of causes and act upon it

in practice,

And realizing the value of work and the importance of working with

trust in God,

reliance on God, dependence on God,

under such conditions, great things are achieved

by what God decrees, by what He bestows,

by His guidance, by His victory,

by His facilitation.

Beware of relying

on wishful thinking, for it is the merchandise of fools, meaning

the stupid.

Wishful thinking

is the merchandise of fools in the marketplace of fantasy.

They amuse themselves with it and occupy themselves with it

as a substitute for work.

They are in a state of shirking work,

in a state of neglect

and distancing themselves from taking practical steps,

while indulging themselves with wishful thinking in their speech,

in their conversations with one another,

in their fantasies, delusions,

and dreams,

until they imagine

those wishes have come true,

and they live in that atmosphere

in harmony with fantasy,

then reality shocks them

with something entirely different.

Matters are tied to work and to taking practical steps,

otherwise, a person is foolish

if, instead of working, they rely

on wishes coming true

without work or taking practical steps, for they are foolish,

far from insight, intelligence, and reason,

He is neither understanding nor wise,

but foolish and stupid in every sense of the word.

He wastes himself, he wastes his time,

he wastes opportunities too,

and gets nowhere.