Consciousness of the Hereafter
Ayoung man from Delhi had to get to Mumbai to appear for an interview for a job abroad. He had booked a berth in a train. On the day of his departure, he left his home for the railway station in a rickshaw. As the vehicle passed through a lane, some boys threw stones at it. At this, the young man’s friend, who was accompanying him, lost his temper. He wanted to get off the rickshaw, catch hold of the boys and teach them a good lesson for their misbehaviour. But the young man stopped him.
“Where do we have time for this?” he asked, as the rickshaw sped ahead.
What the young man wanted to say was, “I have to reach the station at once and catch my train. Then, after getting to Mumbai, I have to appear for the interview. I can’t afford to be late, and so where do I have time to get stuck with these boys? I’d rather exercise patience in the face of their misbehaviour so that I do not miss my interview.”
People have this sort of seriousness and sincerity about their worldly affairs. But believers in God have an even greater seriousness than this about the Hereafter, the eternal life after death. Someone who is serious about worldly affairs does not have the time to get entangled in irrelevant things, just like the man heading for the interview who refused to start a fight with the boys who threw stones at the rickshaw he was in, in the story above. In the same way, someone who is serious about God and the Hereafter will refuse to get involved in controversies that will divert him from his spiritual goal.
A passenger who wants to travel from Delhi to Amritsar, to the north-west, will not head in the direction of Calcutta, to the south-east. Likewise, a person who is journeying towards the Hereafter will not want to head off in a direction that will take him far away from his chosen destination. He will not allow himself to get stuck in useless controversies and conflicts with others.
If Muslims think of themselves as travellers in this world, they will find inspiration in the above-mentioned hypothetical example of the young man heading to Mumbai for his interview. But if they think of themselves as travellers who are journeying towards the Hereafter, they will find inspiration in the example of the Companions of the Prophet, who did not let worldly things divert them from their mission. And if Muslims follow neither path, concerned with neither sort of journey, then they are simply wandering about, without any destination whatsoever.
