Life (hay) in the sense of living out one's corporeal existence is, however, paradoxically fraught with danger, illusion and deception. The Koran exhibits an almost platonic rejection of the life of this world (al-hayat al-dunya), characterizing it as nothing but "play and amusement (la'ib wa-lahw) and contrasting it with the reward of the righteous in the hereafter (6:32). There is a virtual repetition of the same words in 57:20 where this leitmotiv of al-hayat al-dunya as la'ib wa-lahw is further amplified by its being powerfully designated as "goods and chattels of deception" (mata al-ghurur). In the emphasis placed by the text on a physical world of transitory illusion and deception, and the explicit contrast in 6:32 of this world and the next, there are obvious echoes of the lament in Ecclesiastes 1:2-3.

Mumtaz Ali Tajddin S. Ali is an popular Ismaili Scholar, He has written many articles on Ismaili Imam, Ismailism, and Life from Encyclopedia of Ismaili available on Ismaili Portal

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