Unaware of the Future

A tradition states: “One who will love the world, will harm his Hereafter, and one who will love the Hereafter will harm his world.” We must prefer the eternal world to the temporary.

People in this day and age are uniformly aware of the present but unaware of the future. These two states sum up the story of all human beings of today. In this regard, there is no difference between the religious man and the irreligious man.

This state of affairs in its nature is something new. In previous times also man was impatient, but the impatience of man in previous times was limited. In present times due to tremendous new resources, the result is that, only one thing has become one’s target or goal. Everyone spends all his energy on the acquisition of wealth. Then, all of a sudden, death comes to each and every person. And, leaving behind all his wealth and earnings, man heads towards his unknown destination. This unknown destination is the future of every man, but no man or woman is concerned about this future.

Man has to face two kinds of future. One is the immediate future which is related to the life before death. And the next distant future is related to the life after death. And the question of the immediate future is temporary, whereas the question of the distant future is an eternal one.

There is a Hadith which says: “One who will love the world, will harm his Hereafter. And one who will love the Hereafter will harm his world.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 19697) So you must prefer what is eternal to what is temporary. The truth is that life is the name of priorities. The right priority leads man to success and the wrong priority leads man to failure.