The greatest aid for him in [preferring the Everlasting Hereafter to the transient world] is to take a look at the state of the Messenger (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wasallam) and his biography as well as his Companions. The fact that they renounced the world, turned their hearts away from it and discarded it. They never accustomed themselves with it and instead deserted it. They never inclined towards it and they regarded it to be a prison and not a heaven, and thus, abstained from it in a true manner. And if they had desired it they would have acquired every loved thing and arrived at every cherished matter from it. Indeed, the keys to the treasures of the world were offered to the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wasallam) but he rejected them. The world also poured out to the Companions but they did not opt for it and did not exchange their portion of the Hereafter for the world.
They knew that the world was a crossing point and passageway, not a place of dwelling and settling, that it was a place of transit (‘uboor) and not a place of happiness (suroor) and it was a summer cloud which will soon disperse and an apparition no sooner is it completed than is it on the brink of departure.
Tawheed First 