Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi (1859-1943) was on his way to Azamgarh, U.P., by train. A railway guard, who was a disciple of his, came to meet him at a station. Just then a villager appeared and presented the Maulana with a bundle of sugarcane. The gift was accepted, and the Maulana asked one of his companions to have it weighed, and book it in the luggage compartment. “There is no need to have it booked,” the guard volunteered; “I’ll speak to the guard on this train. He will look after it.” “But the guard will only accompany this train,” the Maulana replied, “and I am going on further.” The guard thought that Maulana Thanawi would be changing trains at some station. “Never mind,” he said. “I will tell the guard to inform the guard on the next train. You won’t have to bother about it.” “But I am going on still further,” the Maulana repeated. Astonished, the guard asked: “Where are you going? You told me a moment ago you were going to Azamgarh.” Maulana Thanawi remained silent for a moment or two, and then replied: “I am going on to eternity. Which guard will accompany me there?”
The same is true, not only of rail journeys, but of all matters in life. Every affair should be looked at in its eternal context. A “guard” may give one temporary support in this world, but when one reaches the next world, there will be no one to lend a helping hand. If one keeps in mind that one is on the way to the hereafter, then one will consider everything which will become worthless there as worthless now, no matter how great a worldly price it may seem to command. One will give weight only to those things which will be of consequence in the next world, no matter how inconsequential they may seem in the world.
In this world, one may have command of impressive words which one uses to defy truth; but in the next world one will find oneself lost for words. One may wield one’s power unjustly, content that one’s victims will never be able to avenge one’s wrongs; but in the next world one will be divested of all power. Beguiled by wealth, one may become proud in this world, but in the next world one will have nothing to be proud of; one will have left one’s wealth behind in the world.
This is the basic difference between a man of true faith and a disbeliever. A disbeliever lives on earth as if he is going to stay here forever, while the hallmark of true faith is the belief that one is on the way to the next world. Basically, then, the distinction between belief and disbelief is a psychological one; but these two different attitudes to life make for vastly different practical lives—so different, in fact that one leads to hell, while the other paves the way to the gardens of paradise. □
