To reach a goal, we must have a goal. That seems self-evident but just see if you have a written down lifegoal. If you don’t, then ask yourself what you are working and living for? Just to eat, drink, satisfy desires and die, is what animals do. To live for a purpose is not what most humans do, but what all humans are supposed to do. The truth is that for most humans, there is little to distinguish them from other mammals other than that they are the only ones who wear pants and show their teeth when they are happy. So, please invest some time in yourself and write down a lifegoal that excites and energizes you. Something you believe is worth dedicating your life to. That is where the rest of your life will begin. Either live by default. Or live purposefully. The choice is yours. The result will be yours. Choose wisely. Because to live is not merely to draw breath. They say, ‘You only live once.’ That is not true. You live every day. So, live deliberately and consciously. Live for a purpose. Live to please Allahﷻ. Live to leave a legacy of honor.
For the second piece of the puzzle, Allahﷻ defined parameters of success.
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَآئِقَةُ ٱلْمَوْتِ وَإِنَّمَا تُوَفَّوْنَ أُجُورَكُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ فَمَن زُحْزِحَ عَنِ ٱلنَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ ٱلْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَازَ وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَآ إِلَّا مَتَـٰعُ ٱلْغُرُورِ
A’al Imraan 3:185 Every soul will taste death. And you will only receive your full reward on the Day of Judgment. Whoever is spared from the Fire and is admitted into Jannah will ˹indeed˺ triumph, whereas the life of this world is no more than the delusion of enjoyment.
Nothing can be clearer than this. Allahﷻ mentioned three things:
- Everyone will die and be called to account and rewarded or punished.
- Success means to be protected from punishment and be granted Jannah.
- The life of this world is deception.
Let us begin with the first statement of Allahﷻ – Every soul will taste death. Ask, ‘Does this apply to me? When will it happen for me?’ Sounds like a dumb question, but believe me, it is the most important question you will ever answer. And once you answer it, your life ahead will be crystal clear. If I truly believe in the core of my being, not just intellectually, that I can die at any time and will have to answer to Allahﷻ, then I will remember that, at every decision point and will never do anything that I know, displeases Him. Let us remember that when we stand before Allahﷻ, it is our bodies which will speak and bear witness for or against us. Allahﷻ said:
ٱلْيَوْمَ نَخْتِمُ عَلَىٰٓ أَفْوَٰهِهِمْ وَتُكَلِّمُنَآ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَتَشْهَدُ أَرْجُلُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ
Ya Seen 36: 65 On this Day We will seal their mouths, their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will testify to what they used to commit.
Look at your right hand and imagine it speaking. What is it saying? Then do the same with your left hand, your right and left feet, your eyes, ears, skin. If they are all saying good things, Alhamdulillah. But if not, the time to change that is now. Allahﷻ gave us Istighfaar and Tawba until the end. But when that end comes, the door will be shut. Let us not wait until then.
See the mercy of Allahﷻ. He said about repentance and returning to Him:
إِن تَجْتَنِبُوا۟ كَبَآئِرَ مَا تُنْهَوْنَ عَنْهُ نُكَفِّرْ عَنكُمْ سَيِّـَٔاتِكُمْ وَنُدْخِلْكُم مُّدْخَلًا كَرِيمًا
Nisa 4: 31 If you avoid the major sins forbidden to you, We will absolve you of your ˹lesser˺ misdeeds and admit you into a place of honor.
Allahﷻ said about those who commit sins and want to repent:
قُلْ يَـٰعِبَادِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا۟ مِن رَّحْمَةِ ٱللَّهِ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ ٱلذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلْغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
Zumar 39: 53 Say, ˹O Prophet, that Allah says,˺ “O My slaves who have transgressed against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah’s mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins. He is indeed the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
How can we thank the One who calls those who transgress against Him, ‘My Slaves?’ How can we thank the One who promised His forgiveness to the one who seeks it? What do you say to the one who still doesn’t seek it?
إِلَّا مَن تَابَ وَءَامَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَـٰلِحًا فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ يُبَدِّلُ ٱللَّهُ سَيِّـَٔاتِهِمْ حَسَنَـٰتٍ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا
Furqan 25: 70 As for those who repent, believe, and do good deeds, they are the ones whose evil deeds Allah will change into good deeds. For Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Think of your No. 1 goal. Is it Jannah? I sometimes do this exercise in my leadership courses when I teach goal setting. I ask people to list three goals in order of priority. I have never seen anyone write Jannah as a goal. So, how can we expect to reach a place which is not even on our list? This must change. And right now. The sign that Jannah is a goal; and it should be our No. 1 goal; is that from now on, every decision we take will be based on whether it brings us closer to Jannah. It is like driving. You take the roads, exits and turns that lead you to your goal which you told Siri to navigate you to. Same principle. We can only reach the goal we aim towards. So, let us set our goal. We ask Allahﷻ to navigate us to Jannah at least 17 times a day. But then do we follow that direction or some other. That direction is called Sunnah. We asked for it. Allahﷻ gave it. Let us not get deceived by anyone or anything and leave the Sunnah because that is the only way to Jannah.
That is why Allahﷻ caused the Sunnah to be preserved with such integrity. We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who through the ages, starting from the Sahaba, preserved the minutest details of the life, ways, teachings, likes, and dislikes of Rasoolullahﷺ for the benefit of all those who love him, to learn and follow. This gave rise to a body of knowledge, Ilm-ur-Rijaal, that has no parallel. There is no history that has been preserved with such rigor and passion. May Allahﷻ enable us to benefit from the treasure of the life of Rasoolullahﷺ which He blessed us with. That is why Allahﷻ declared that he and his life are the best examples to follow in all aspects of life.
لَّقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِى رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ لِّمَن كَانَ يَرْجُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَٱلْيَوْمَ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَ وَذَكَرَ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرًا
Ahzab 33: 21 Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for whoever has hope in Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah a great deal.
Allahﷻ told us to follow the way of His Messengerﷺ in every aspect of our lives. And said that this is for those who look forward to meeting Allahﷻ. For those who do it out of love for Rasoolullahﷺ, Allahﷻ said:
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ ٱللَّهَ فَٱتَّبِعُونِى يُحْبِبْكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
A’al Imraan 3: 31 Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “If you ˹sincerely˺ love Allah, then emulate me; Allah will love you and forgive your sins. For Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
Emulation is the sincerest form of praise and proof of love. The reward is the love of Allahﷻ. Stay with that and feel it and ask if it is worth it.
Narrated Anas bin Malik (R), “A man asked Rasoolullahﷺ about the Hour (i.e. Day of Judgment) saying, “When will the Hour be?” Rasoolullahﷺ said, “What have you prepared for it?” The man said, “Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Messengerﷺ.” Rasoolullahﷺ said, “You will be with those you love.” We had never been so glad as we were on hearing that. Therefore, I love the Prophet, Abu Bakr and `Umar, and I hope that I will be with them because of my love for them though my deeds are not like theirs.
Lastly, Allahﷻ warned us that the life of this world is deception. So, we must question everything we see or experience and understand its reality. That is why we have the dua asking Allahﷻ to show us the reality behind things.
اَللّٰهُمَّ اَرِنَا الْحَقَّ حَقًّا وَّ ارْزُقْنَا اتِّبَاعَهٗ وَ اَرِنَا الْبَاطِلَ بَاطِلًا وَّ ارْزُقْنَا اجْتِنَابَهٗ
O Allah! show us the truth as true and inspire us to follow it. Show us falsehood as falsehood and inspire us to abstain from it.
Today we live in a world that excels in deception with AI leading the way to blurring the lines between the real world and virtual reality. The thing to remember is that no matter how real virtual reality may appear, it is not real. This doesn’t apply only to AI. It applies to life itself. We are sold the vision of success, the American dream or some version of it and are asked to believe that if we can achieve that, we will be home and dry. Social media influencers tell us what to eat, how to dress, behave, like and dislike and like obedient little sheep, we comply. We don’t stop to ask whether those who are apparently living this dream are themselves happy or not. To know that is easy. Just search for ‘celebrity suicides’ and you will know. In the last 5 years, 150 celebrities committed suicide. On the face of it, every one of them had achieved their ‘dream’. Yet they committed suicide, which is the final act of despair in a life which the person considers an abject failure. That is why suicide is Haraam in Islam because to despair in the Mercy of Allahﷻ is Kufr.
To understand why the deception of this life is so easy to get into and tough to get out of, imagine that you are sitting in an IMAX theatre watching a 3D movie, wearing 3D glasses, with Surround Sound. You are totally engrossed in the movie because it is so real. If anyone monitored your vital signs, they would register a high state of excitement. Your emotions would be hooked to the plot of the movie, and you would be laughing or weeping depending on what was happening on the screen. At that time if someone called out to you and said, ‘All this is unreal. They are all actors. Nothing you are seeing or feeling is true. It is all false. A big lie. Wake up. The real world is out there,’ what would you say or do? That is our situation, and the reason people fight the Anbiya and those who remind them about the Aakhira. This life is sweet and tempting and has hooks called fear, hunger, greed, and desire. Taqwa is to walk along the narrow path of life with your clothes gathered so that you don’t get hooked. And Istighfaar is to unhook yourself if you get hooked.
The destination depends on the focus. Islam came to change that focus. And to guide us to the truth – that in the end we will pay for what we did or chose not to do. I remind myself and you that when we meet Allahﷻ, we will not be asked, “What happened?” We will be asked, “What did you do?” It is for that day, that we must prepare ourselves and that day must be our focus.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:30 — 21.0MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | Youtube Music | RSS