Yes, the instruction the Sufis and people of truth received from such verses of the All-Wise Qur’an as,

Every soul shall taste death.(3:185) * Truly you will die [one day], and truly they [too] will die [one day],(39:30)

led   them  to  make  the  contemplation  of  death  fundamental  to  their  spiritual journeyings; it dispelled the illusion of eternity, the source of worldly ambition. They imagined  themselves  to  be dead  and  being  placed  in  the  grave.  With  prolonged thought the evil-commanding soul becomes saddened and affected by such imagining and gives up its far-reaching ambitions and hopes to an extent. There are numerous advantages in this  contemplation. It is taught by the Hadith which says something

like, “Frequently mention death which dispels pleasure and makes it bitter.”4

However,  since  our  way  is  not  that  of  the  Sufis  but  of  reality,  we  are  not compelled to perform this contemplation in an imaginary and hypothetical form like they do. To do so is anyway not in conformity with the way of reality. Our way is not to bring the future to the present by thinking of the end, but to travel in the mind to the future from the  present in respect of reality, and to gaze on it. Yes, dispensing with the need to imagine, one may look on one’s own corpse, the single fruit on the tree of this brief life. One may look on one’s own death, and if one goes a bit further, see the death of this century, and going further still, observe the death of this world, opening up the way to complete sincerity.

T h e  S e c o n d  M e a n s : By attaining a sense of the divine presence through

the strength of certain,  affirmative belief and  through the  lights proceeding  from reflective thought on creatures which leads to knowledge of the Maker; by thinking that the  Compassionate Creator is all-present  and  seeing; and by not seeking the attention of any other than He, and realizing that looking to others in His presence or seeking help from them  is  contrary to right conduct in His presence, one may be saved from such hypocrisy and gain sincerity. However, this comprises many degrees and stages. Whichever degree a person reaches, he will profit to that extent. There are numerous truths in the Risale-i Nur that will save a person from hypocrisy and gain him sincerity, so referring him to those, we cut short the discussion here.

Of the very many things that destroy sincerity and drive one to hypocrisy, we shall briefly explain two or three.

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4   Tirmidhi, Zuhd, 4; Qiyama, 26; Nasa’i, Jana’iz, 3; Ibn Maja, Zuhd, 31; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, iv, 321.