Light and Darkness
One should be patient, not hasty. Man’s desire for instant gratification is the greatest reason for his being deprived of the bounties of God in the Hereafter.
Chapter 17 of the Quran states: “Yet man asks for evil as eagerly as he should ask for good. Truly, man is indeed hasty. We have made the night and the day as two signs. We blotted out the sign of night and made the sign of the day illuminating, so that you may seek the bounty of your Lord and learn to compute the seasons and the years. We have set everything forth in detail.” (17:11-12)
The system of night and day shows that it is the way of God that there should be darkness first and, thereafter, light should take its place. In God’s eyes, both of them are equally important. Just as there are benefits in light, similarly, there are benefits in darkness. If there were no distinction between night and day, how would humans allocate their time and how would they alternate work with rest?
A person should neither be afraid of darkness, nor should he constantly hanker after light, because eternal light is not possible in this world of God. One whose desires are such had better leave this world and go in search of another world.
It is strange that this is the greatest weakness of an individual: he never wants to face any period of darkness, but immediately wants to have light. His undue haste is a sign of this weakness. Haste is, in fact, the equivalent of not reconciling with the plan of God. And not reconciling with the plan of God is the real cause of all human destruction.
God wants a person to be patient about acquiring the immediate luxuries of the world, so that he should keep to the right path on his journey towards the Hereafter. But due to his hasty nature, a person rushes to acquire ephemeral worldly luxuries, which prove to be impediments to his continuing on his onward journey. His desire for instant gratification is the greatest reason for his being deprived of the bounties of the Hereafter.
This is likewise true of the world, where real success is achieved through patience and not by a hasty approach.
