Abusing and Blaming the World; What Imam Ali AS says:

Imam Ali AS: Imam ‘Ali heard someone abusing and blaming the world and said to him, "O you, who are blaming the world, who have been allured and enticed (to lead away from a usual or proper course by offering some pleasure or advantage) by it, and have been tempted by its false pretenses (ways of behaving that is intended to deceive people). You allowed yourself to be enamored (affected by strong feelings of love, admiration, or fascination) of, to be captivated by it and then you accuse and blame it. Have you any reason or right to accuse it and to call it a sinner and seducer (to lead astray usually by persuasion or false promises)? Or is the world not justified in calling you a wicked knave (a dishonest or unscrupulous man) and a sinning hypocrite? When did it make you lose your intelligence and reasoning?

And how did it cheat you or snake false pretenses to you? Did it conceal from you the fact of the ultimate end of everything that it holds, the fact of the sway of death, decay and destruction in its domain? Did it keep you in the dark about the fate of your fore- fathers and their final abode (residence) under the earth? Did it keep the resting-place of your mothers a secret from you? Do you not know that they have returned to dust?

Many a time you must have attended the sick persons and many of them you must have seen beyond the scope of medicine. Neither the science of healing nor could your nursing and attendance nor your prayers and weeping prolonged the span of their lives, and they died. You were anxious for them, you procured the best medical aid, you gathered famous physicians and provided best - medicines for them. Death could not be held back and life could not be prolonged. In this drama and in this tragedy did the world not present you with a lesson and a moral?

Certainly, this world is a house of truth for those who look into it carefully, an abode (living place) of peace and rest for those who understand its ways and moods and it is the best working ground for those who want to procure (obtain (something), especially with care or effort) rewards for life in the Hereafter. It is a place of acquiring knowledge and wisdom for those who want to acquire them, a place of worship for the friends of Allah and for Angels. It is the place where prophets received revelations of Allah. It is the place for virtuous people and saints to do good deeds and to be assigned with rewards for the same.

Only in this world they could trade with Allah's Favors and Blessings and only while living here they could barter (exchange) their good deeds with His Blessings and Rewards. Where else could all this be done? Who are you to abuse the world when it has openly declared its mortality and mortality of everything connected with it, when it has given everyone of its inhabitants to understand that all of them are to face death, when through its ways it has given them all an idea of calamities (disastrous events marked by great loss and lasting distress and suffering calamities of nature an economic calamity) they have to face here, and through the sight of its temporary and fading pleasures it has given them glimpses (to see something or someone for a very short time or only partly) of eternal pleasures of Paradise and suggested them to wish and work for the same.

If you study it properly you will find that simply to warn and frighten you of the consequences of evil deeds and to persuade you towards good actions, every night it raises new hopes of peace and prosperity in you and every morning it places new anxieties and new worries before you. Those who passed such lives are ashamed of and repent the time so passed abuse this world. But there are people who will praise this world on the Day of Judgment that it reminded them of the Hereafter and they took advantage of these reminders. It informed them of the effects of good deeds and they made correct use of the information it advised them and they were benefited by its advice".