Their likeness, that is, to describe them in terms of their hypocrisy is like describing the one seeking to kindle [a fire] and the resultant light which no sooner than it illumines things nearby around him his fire subsides, leaving him bewildered. For the light of their preparedness can be compared to a kindled fire and its illumining of things around them is their being guided to what is in their best interest in terms of their livelihood in the here and now, as opposed to what is in their best interest in terms of the final return that is [seemingly] far away for them, and [their being guided to] companionship of the believers and being in accord with them outwardly; its [his fire's] being extinguished swiftly is the dying out of their light of preparedness and the rapid evanescence of what they had been content with of their world and its imminent termination; [is as the likeness of one who kindled a fire, and when it illumined all about him] God took away their light, of preparedness by reinforcing them in insolence, leaving them veiled from success, in the darknesses of the soul's attributes [and left them in darkness]; unable to see, with the eye of the heart the way out, nor what might benefit them in the way of spiritual knowledge, like the one whose fire is extinguished while he is wandering about between his work and his means of subsistence;
