What is the loss of those who refrain from thinking?

In the Qur’an, Allah, advises man to think. In many verses He gives examples and asks “will you not pay heed?”

In fact, man has many opportunities in a day to take heed, to see the handiwork of Allah, to grasp the proofs in His creation and to praise Him with the understanding due to His glory and greatness. People who do not think, however, would fail to appreciate the importance of these openings, since to them they appear to be no more than ordinary events occurring in the flow of daily life.

For example, when such a person has an accident or catches a disease, it does not occur to him that it might be a special condition given to him to make him turn towards Allah. Yet, in the Qur’an, Allah mentions the hardships inflicted on people in order to make them think:

Do they not see that they are tried once or twice every year? But still they do not turn back. They do not pay heed. (Surat at-Tawba, 126)

Ignoring such reminders are disadvantageous only to the person himself. Furthermore, this would be only one of the innumerable losses incurred because of failure to reflect.

One who does not think cannot recognise the beauty that surrounds him. He cannot take pleasure in the subtleties of Allah’s creation. He cannot grasp the proofs of the existence of Allah, the Creator of everything, and His exaltedness. This is the loss of a significant gift for man because he who cannot grasp that Allah is the Creator of everything of beauty in the world has only little faith, if any, in the Hereafter. Since he assumes that everything in this world will vanish with death, it is not possible for him to experience a genuine enjoyment of these temporary things either. On the contrary, he sees these pleasures merely as things that he will ultimately lose some day. This leads to feelings of distress and anxiety, instead of enjoying the gifts that Allah has bestowed on him.

What is the loss of those who refrain from thinking?