People are only ever equal when they are all as ignorant as each other or as bad as each other.
Loftier Goals in Life
Commenting on 2:201 of the Quran which states:
Our Lord! Give us the good of this world and the good of the hereafter… Al-Hasan Al-Baṣrī – Allah have mercy on him – said: The good of this world is knowledge and worship, and the good of the hereafter is Paradise. Al-Ājurrī in Akhlāq Al-‘Ulamā’ no. 30 and Ibn Jarīr in his Tafsīr of this verse.
Scholars of tafsīr like Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Kathīr point out that ‘the good of this world’ is general and includes all those things which have been allowed for us to enjoy and which are considered useful by people for day-to-day living. And they point out that above this; the good of this world includes those things which will lead to success in the hereafter. This narration reminds us of these loftier things we should ask Allah for, and that the good of this life embraces what is required or recommended for a worshipper of Allah to acquire on this Earth, like knowledge of his religion and good deeds.
Also read
Related sayings.
It is reported that Ibrāhīm Al-Taymī – Allāh have mercy on him – said: What a great difference there is between you and those people [of the past, the Salaf]! Worldly wealth came to them but they fled from it, whereas the world turns its back on you and you go after it. Ibn Al-Mubārak, […]
It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said: The intelligent person’s tongue is behind his heart: when he wants to speak, he first thinks. If [his words] will be in his favor, he says them, and if they will be against him, he does not speak. And the ignorant […]