Allah created, in His grace and wisdom, all good things of life in this world, made them look attractive and – worthy of man’s effort to acquire them so that man can be tested. This is one of Allah’s many acts of wisdom to see whether the man gets swayed by the glamour of the fleeting enjoyment of things, or remembers the Creator of these things, or the man forgets the very Creator of his own being as well.

Aided by this realization, does man make these things a medium through which to know and love Allah; or, is it that he would elect to get totally lost in the love for these known transitory things, and forget all about the real Master and Creator before Whom he must appear on the Last Day and account for whatever he did. On one hand is a person who has the best of both worlds. He enjoys the blessings of the present life and uses its means for success in the life to come. For him, the enjoyments of the mortal world will not become a road-blocker; rather, they prove to be the milestones which led him safely into a prosperous Hereafter. But, for the other person these very things became the causes that led him to squander his chance of having a good life in the Hereafter, and also became the very cause of perennial punishment. Honestly, if we were to look a little deeper, we would realize that these things become a sort of punishment for him right here in this world as well.

Things of this world with which we surround ourselves are like water, and the heart of man is like a boat in it. As long as the water remains beneath and around the boat, it is good and helpful, and certainly guarantees the very purpose of its being there. But, if water gets into the boat, it makes the boat capsize and destroys all that was in it. Similarly, man’s wealth and possessions are means of convenience for his role in this world and in the life to come – provided that they do not enter into his heart, sit there, and kill it in the process.

Therefore, the verse under discussion, immediately after mentioning some especially desirable things of the world, presents the essential guideline for human beings by saying: That is an enjoyment of the worldly life. And with Allah lies the beauty of the final resort. (3:14) In other words, it means that all these things are there simply to serve a purpose in man’s mortal life in the present world and certainly not to have him fall in love with things for their own sake, for the real beauty of the experience lies in one’s ultimate resort with Allah in blissful eternity enjoying what would never perish, diminish or weaken.