From west to east, Akon, a famous pop singer has been a craze and source of inspiration for numerous kids and teenagers. I can recall this song of his from a few years ago. Akon and uncountable other singers from various genres, have at least one song that explicitly or implicitly tries to portray that if life is going to end tomorrow, you must live it like never before!
To my utter astonishment, fans all over the world actually shake their heads and bodies with that song. Well, the lyric is quite attractive, you have to admit. But is it really like that? What exactly would you feel if the wordings of the lyric is changed to somewhat like this?
“What if you die tonight? What if you leave you last breath today? What if you are never going to see your mom, your dad, your little sister, anything from this life anymore after tonight? What if the angel of death comes to- night in his most furious form to seize your life? What if you are going to meet the very Deity who created you? What if you are going to burn and rot in hell forever?”
I bet you wouldn’t have felt the same way. See, a little change in words makes a whole lot of difference in our emotions and thoughts. Wonder what’s the reason? Death. A five-lettered word that nobody has any love for. Nobody. Even the person, who is aged 150 years, doesn’t have any passion to die. Not even the person who is suffering from severe pain. He doesn’t want to end his pain by dying. He would rather suffer for a decade more, than terminating his life along with his pain within a second. We all hate death. But hating it and not talking about it doesn’t negate its rough reality, does it? Death is a phenomenon that has an attitude of “You can love me, you can hate me, but you can’t ignore me”. How true! We don’t talk about it. We don’t mention it. We don’t think about it. We don’t discuss it. But still, it’s there. In its deadliest form, it’s there. It’s real. It’s inevitable. During my life, while Islam was insignificant to me, I also tried to avoid talking about death quite often. It created a sense of immense fear inside my heart. My blood felt frozen. My night became a nightmare. I felt scared visiting dead people from my kith and keen. Whenever I had to attend the funeral of somebody, the face of the dead person snatched my sleep for about a week after that. But, as time used to go by, I could overcome the terrifying memories and once again go back to the life of relaxing and chillaxing!
Still, whenever I had a thought about death, my life of friends, chats, hangouts, music and ‘dude-ism’ used to lose all its weight. To my immense frustration, life would leave no value to me. “What’s the meaning of all these when I am a passenger of a death truck?” I kept asking myself. “If I am going to die for real, why am I doing all these I am doing?” I couldn’t come up with any answers that would console me. There was I, frustrated and emotionally struck.
A tiny bit of question also used to play in my head about what’s going to happen when I die? How does it feel to be dead? Weird question, yet substantial. What’s going to happen to me when I am buried 3.5 feet under the ground, all alone? I had no other answers except for one. The afterlife.
We do not just simply rot like a rat when we die. No. It’s only the physical body that decays. The soul enters into a whole different life. A life that has no parallel comparison to this life we are living. A life that is endless. A life where death itself dies. A life where no one tastes death anymore. Nobody. A life where each and every one of us will stand before our Almighty creator, Allah subhaanahuwata’ala. A life where all of our deeds and actions of this life will be weighted on a scale. A life where we are either thrown into a place where we get burned and baked for eternal time, or welcomed to a garden where we are to reside for an endless era of eternal bliss. “So, what exactly have I done to face this inescapable life?” I asked myself. Someone beneath my ribcage answered — ‘Nothing’. That’s it, my worldview, my philosophy, my emotion, my attitude; my whole life took a 180-degree turn.
I opened the book of Allah. The Quran. Before that day, I never tried to figure out what Allah Himself has been telling us through His book. Wonder what He said about death?
“Everyone shall taste death. Then unto Us you shall be returned”. [al-Quran, 29:57]
There’s no doubt we all are going to die. Every single living being. And after that, our bodies don’t just get decomposed, but we entirely return to the Lord Almighty Allah. Allah says in another verse:
“Wherever you are, death will find you out, even if you are in towers built up strong and high. [al-Quran, 4:78]
So, here we go! No one can escape it. No one can flee away from it. No one can hide from death. It will find us wherever we are, whenever it’s time! So, is it that everybody will be welcomed with delicious appetizer after death despite whatsoever they did in this life? Or, is there anything that is to be done to save ourselves from endless punishment? Quite obviously, Allah mentions the fate of two different groups of people at the Day of Judgment before finally putting them into heaven or hell:
“Some faces, that Day will beam (in brightness and beauty) looking towards their Lord; and some faces, that Day, will be sad and dismal. In the thought that some back-breaking calamity was about to be inflicted on them.” [al-Quran, 75:22-25]
So, who are the people who will have this sad face? Who are they? What if are of them? May Allah forbid that and protect us..
“And the Day the wrongdoer will bite on his hands [in regret] he will say,
“Oh, I wish I had taken with the Messenger a way. Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that one as a friend. He led me away from the remembrance (of Allah) after it had come to me. And ever is Satan, to man, a deserter.” [al-Quran, 25:27-29]
“And, [O Muhammad], warn the people of a Day when the punishment will come to them and those who did wrong will say, “Our Lord, delay us for a short term; we will answer your call and follow the messengers.” [But it will be said], “Had you not sworn, before, that for you there would be no cessation?” [Surah Ibraheem 14: 44] The wrongdoers! Who are they? Is it possible that we may be from them? Are we doing something wrong? Are we not following the way of the Messenger (PBUH)? Are we taking the devil as friend? May Allah make us firm on His deen.
These are the very fundamental questions we need to ask ourselves. That are we living a life that is in accordance with the teaching and guidelines of the Messenger (PBUH)? Are we following what Allah has made permissible for us, and abandoning what He made forbidden? Are we taking our deen; i.e. the Lifestyle – al-Islam, seriously?
Allah said:
“Verily, the lifestyle only acceptable to Allah is al-Islam.” [al-Quran, 3: 19]
“And whoever desires other than Islam as life system — never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.” [al-Quran, 3: 85]
So, what exactly is the lifestyle we are following? Is it al-Quran and as- Sunnah, or just glittering but fragile life? Are we consciously, unconsciously or subconsciously following this type of life apparently ‘presents you a life like hell yeah!’? Do these life styles have anything to contribute for me in that very Day of Judgment? If not, then why follow them? Why waste our precious life; of which every single second is beyond severely important?
May be we are not following these stars. Yet, the question remains. Exactly which lifestyle are we following? Is it something that we have designed ourselves according to our comfort or that which suits our desires and lusts? Is it a lifestyle in which the judging scale of right and wrong is constructed by our own perceived intellect? Is it a lifestyle that represents only our ‘personal’ worldly view?
Whichever lifestyle we follow, whether it’s of a celebrity or our own creation, all of these life styles that may seem ‘rocking’, ‘cool’ and ‘awesome!’, are in reality, the life styles that is followed ‘other than’ Islam. Allah has mentioned these apparently ‘Cool’ life styles of this world.
“And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion.” [al-Quran, 3:185]
That’s why the lifestyles other than Islam tell us: “If we are to die tonight, it’s party time, mate!” Meaning, it’s time to add more to the sins we already have committed. While in Islam, if we are to anyhow know: “ If we are to die tonight, what we do is keep repenting to Allah subhaanahu- wata’alafor all of our misdeeds; we prostrate before Him to declare His Greatness; we seek at least a tiny little ray of hope to save ourselves from the eternal hellfire.”
All these people, who are leading a life fully unaware of Islam, will be asking Allah for one more ‘life’ at the Day of Judgment. Like we all get in video games!
“(In Falsehood will they be) until, when death comes to one of them, he says: O my Lord! Send me back (to life)” [al-Quran, 23:99]
But they won’t be granted. It’s only one-time life we get in this world. One life to get the game going. One life to accomplish the mission and unlock the next level.
So, are we wisely utilizing this one ‘life’ before it pops up — ‘Game Over’?
