Material Pursuit

You are distracted by worldly gain from the cradle to the grave.

But no, you shall know. You shall before long come to know.

Indeed, if you knew the truth with certainty, you would see the fire of Hell: you would see it with your very eyes.

On that day, you shall be questioned about the pleasures you indulged in.

(The Quran 102:1-8)

Our world possesses a vast array of material things, which are attractive and give comforts of innumerable kinds. These are provided in this world to test man and are not intended for his pleasure. If man were to look at these things from the point of view of his being tested, he would avail of them only as a matter of necessity, and then too would use them with the utmost care and responsibility.

But man is not usually able to be consistently responsible. The lure of material things and his own never-ending greed cause him to pursue worldly ends unceasingly and with the utmost concentration. In this way he passes his days until the time comes for him to depart from this world. At that time he leaves all his life’s earnings behind him. In the next world he finds himself all of a sudden in a state of total deprivation, having nothing with him to stand by him in the next stage of his life. Man craves for more and more money, for gathering around him more and more material comforts. He thinks incessantly of this world until his call to leave for the next world comes. Only then does the realisation dawn on him that all his savings will be of no avail in that world where he has to live for all eternity. That is, he has saved nothing for the world to come.

The accumulation of material things only adds to man’s accountability. But man in his sheer ignorance continues to think, blissfully indeed, that his success is being crowned with more and more laurels.