Can We Really Afford To Be Heedless? - Day 5 (1444.h)
وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَكَ الْيَقِينُ
And worship your Lord until there comes unto you the certainty (i.e. death).
Sûrah Al-Hijr, Âyah 99
﷽
Why did Allāh create us? What is the purpose of our existence? Allāh, The Almighty, mentioned:
وَمَا خَلَقۡتُ ٱلۡجِنَّ وَٱلۡإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعۡبُدُونِ
And I (Allâh) created not the jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me (Alone).
Sūrah Adh-Dhariyat 51:56
You and I were created to establish the Tawḥīd of Allāh, that is to single out all of our worship for Allāh alone (ﷻ). Our Lord created us all to make our prayers, fasting, sacrifices (slaughtering), du’ā (supplications), and all the other acts of worship sincerely, for Him Alone without any partners whatsoever, not a messenger sent or an angel brought close, and not to any Mallam of course! And He commanded with worshipping Him not only in Ramaḍān but until there comes to us certainty (death). We have been commanded to fight our desires up until the very end.
It has come from our Salaf-us-Ṣāliḥ (Pious Predecessors):
إجعل الدنيا كيم صمته عن الشهوات وليكن فطرك عند الله عزوجل
Can we really afford to die while we are heedless? How foolish would it be of us to settle down and build a home on a bridge? This Dunyā (world) is but a passing enjoyment, a bridge between this life and the next. Imagine travelling to a place for one purpose, one goal, one reason, but you get distracted and don’t achieve that purpose… What a waste would that journey be? Imagine being in this world for 10, 20, 30, or 40 years plus, yet not achieving the very purpose of your creation. Imagine dying while you were worshipping your desires, or have you not seen the individual who took their own desires as something to worship besides Allāh?
May Allāh protect us, imagine after all the trials we had faced in this world we went to the next life just to end up with an even greater trial! And Allāh’s refuge is sought!
Let’s take it as a principle that we will die the way we lived! And the best state to die in is as a Muslim, upon Tawḥīd and following the Sunnah of Allāh’s Messenger (ﷺ).
Just as Ash-Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ Al ‘Uthaymīn (رحمه الله) said:
"The goal of having a good ending is not that you die whilst you are in the Masjid, or while you are upon a prayer mat, or you die with a Qur'ān in your hands. Indeed the best of all creation died while he was on his bed. His friend As-Siddiq Abū Bakr (رضي الله عنه) died while on his bed, and he was the best of the Companions. Khālid Ibn Walid (رضي الله عنه) died while he was on his bed, and he was given the title, 'The Sword Of Allāh,' who plunged into a hundred battles and did not lose in any of them. *
That ‘certainty’ reaches you while you’re in a state of Islām, upon the Millah (religion) of Ibrāhīm (عليه سلام), not being of the people of Shirk, and that you’re well prepared for the long journey ahead. This is true success!
وصلّى الله وسلّم عل نبيّنا محمّد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين
* The statement was translated by Ustādh Abū Yaḥyah ʿAbbās (حفظه الله), from Fatawa Nūr ʿAlā Darb.
