Prepare for the Moment That is Coming
It was a summer morning, and I was sitting in my office. From nearby trees I could hear the chirping of birds. I turned on the radio. A song was playing. I recall one line of the song:
Sajan re jhoot mat bolo
Khuda ke paas jana hai.
(Do not speak lies, O my dear,
We have to return to God!)
Hearing this, I felt as if the song coming from the radio and the chirping of the birds coming from the trees were actually one and the same! It was as if the radio was expressing in the form of words the same truth that the birds were expressing in the form of their chirping. Their message was the same: “O man! This world where you presently are is God’s world. The secret of your success lies in realizing this truth and moulding your life according to it.”
Life in this world is a period of test. And death is the end of that period. After death, every person is taken to God’s court, there to give a complete account of his life. On the basis of this accounting his eternal fate will be decided.
Many people celebrate their birthday every year. They think it is an occasion for much fun and frolic. But actually, one’s birthday is in a sense one’s ‘death-day’. It should remind us that we have one year less now to remain on Earth, that our allotted span here has been reduced by a whole year.
We are all sent into this world for a very limited span of time. After this, for everyone it is decreed that they must die, at a time fixed by God and known only to Him. Seen in this way, one’s ‘countdown’ is continuously happening. Every birthday makes one’s remaining time here one year less and the final countdown one year closer.
Death is an event that everyone has to face. Death is a warning. It reminds us that, finally, we all have to face our Creator—God. It tells us that the time is very near for us to appear in God’s court. It calls out to us, saying, “O you who are in deep sleep, wake up! And you who are awake, beware! Very soon you will be presented in God’s court. Prepare yourself for that momentous day!”
Every morning, when the sun rises, it is as if God is shining His universal torch and reminding every person that He is seeing them all. What we have thought, what we have spoken, which path we have trod, how we have used whatever God has blessed us with—with all of this God is fully aware. Hence, when we think, we should always think carefully, with awareness, since God knows even our innermost thoughts. When we speak, we should speak consciously and carefully, for even before our words reach someone else, they reach God. When we perform any action, we should do so only after weighing our decision properly because God is fully aware of all that we do and for every action we will receive reward or punishment.
If we want to lead a truly successful life, in this world and in the Hereafter, we need to cultivate a God-oriented lifestyle. Rising above temporary desires, we need to orient our life in such a way that will benefit us in the eternal Hereafter. We need to cultivate awareness of our true status—of being creatures and servants of God. We need to be conscious of God’s divinity and we must willingly and cheerfully submit to God. When we think, speak or act, we should first think if our thoughts, words and actions are in accordance with what God likes or not. We need to work on our thoughts, purging our minds of evil. Becoming well-wishers of others, we should fully save ourselves from hatred and violence. If we receive a position in society, we should consider it our responsibility, not an honour that we supposedly deserve. We should become peaceful members of our society and peaceful citizens of the country where we live. We should love helping others.
These are some features of a God-oriented lifestyle.
We need to always keep before us our eternal success, in Paradise, rather than temporary gain, in this world. The most important thing we need to do is to understand the Creator’s creation plan so that we can engage in proper planning of our life so that we reach our true destination and do not go astray.
Human life is like an iceberg. A very small portion of it—the tip—is visible in the world of today. The rest of it has been kept for the world that is to come after death. God, the Creator, has made a human being as an eternal creature. God kept a very small portion of his life in this present world and placed the rest of his life, which carries on forever, in the next world. Then, He decreed that he should spend the exam portion of his life in this present, short-lived, world, after which he would be taken to the next world, which comes after death.
What is the present world? And what is the next world? Paradise is an eternal world, while this present world is ephemeral. The present world is an imperfect world, while the next world is a perfect or ideal world. The present world is the place for us human beings to be tested, while the next world is the place where we will receive the results of our test. In this present world of test, those individuals who, through their actions, prove themselves worthy of being settled in the perfect world of Paradise are being selected. Those who do not come up to this standard will be thrown into the rubbish-bin of the universe.
Many people today are in a constant state of dissatisfaction. Even those who possess every material comfort are discontented. The reason for this is that by nature a person seeks an ideal world, whereas this present world, despite all the many resources it contains, is an imperfect world. This hiatus between an individual’s desire and the reality of this world is the real cause for frustration.
In Paradise, this hiatus or contradiction will be fully overcome. Paradise is the ideal world that a person instinctively seeks. In Paradise, every person will enjoy complete fulfilment and contentment. There, everyone will get complete fulfilment of his desires. The Prophet of Islam has described Paradise as what “no eye has seen and no ear has heard and what has not occurred to the heart of any human being.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3244)
If you reflect on a human being in the context of his eternalness you will discover that his real problem is not success and failure in this present world, as the terms are conventionally understood. Rather, his real problem is to save himself from the punishment of eternal Hell in the Hereafter and to make himself worthy of entrance into eternal Paradise.
