A Journey to the Land of Eternity
- Categories: Asceticism and Heart Softening -
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
All the praises and thanks be
to Allah, the Lord of the 'Alamîn (mankind, jinn and all that
exists). And peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet
Muhammad and upon all his family and companions.
No matter how long man lived
in this life and no matter how long he stayed and how much he
enjoyed its pleasures and lustrous desires; destiny is one and
only, and the end is inevitable; everyone must have an end which is
death; and death is inevitable. Allah Almighty has said: {Everyone
shall taste death. Then unto Us you shall be returned.} [Surat
Al-Ankabût 29:57].
Transliteration:
Kullu nafsin thaiqatu
almawti thumma ilayna
turjaAAoona
One poet
said:
Every man no
matter how safe he is *** one day will be carried in a
coffin
One day all creatures will
return to Allah Glorified and Exalted to be held accountable by Him
for everything they have committed in this worldly life. Allah
Almighty has said: {And be afraid of the Day when you shall be
brought back to Allâh.} [Surat Al-Baqarah 2:281]
Transliteration:
Waittaqoo
yawman turjaAAoona feehi ilaAllahi
It is a day that we have long
forgotten; it is the last of our days; a day when throats choke; a
day that will be followed by no other day and will have no similar
day. It is the great day; the solemn standing before the Hands of
the Great King (of everything). It is a day which Allah has written
upon every young and old, noble and low. It is the Day of
Resurrection, the Day of Judgment, it is Doomsday.
However, before this Day there
is a moment when man moves from the home of deception to either the
home of rejoice or the home of distress; every one according to his
deeds. It is the moment when man casts the last glances on sons and
daughters, brothers and sisters; he casts his last looks on this
worldly life. His face shows the features of the stupors of death
and from the bottom of his heart come out hot sighs and moans. It
is the moment when man realizes the lowliness of this worldly life.
It is the moment when man feels the agony and the remorse about
every moment when he was undutiful to Allah (i.e. he has not done
what Allah has ordered him to do); he calls for Him saying: O Lord,
O Lord, O {"My Lord! Send me back, (99). "So that I may do good in
that which I have left behind!"} [Surat Al-Mu'minûn
23:99-100].
Transliteration:
rabbi
irjiAAooni (99) LaAAallee aAAmalu
salihan feemataraktu
It is the decisive moment and
the fatal hour when the Angel of Death approaches to call, I wish I
knew is it a call for bliss or a call for hell?!!
O beloved
brother:
True estrangement is that of
the grave and the shroud. Do you remember lying on your bed while
the hands of your family are turning you around; when the agony of
death becomes severe and death starts to pull you from every vein?
Then you give up your soul for its Creator. And one leg will be
joined with another leg (shrouded). Then you will have been put
forward so that they pray the funeral prayer upon you; then you are
lowered into the grave; solitary and alone. There is neither a
mother to stay with nor a father to keep you company or a brother
to entertain you.
There one feels a strange home
and places. In one moment the slave moves from the home of
degradation to the abode of eternal bliss if he is among those who
repent and believe (in the Oneness of Allah and His Messenger
Muhammad), and work righteousness; or to the abode of hell and
painful torment if he is among those who work evil and disobey
their Lord Glorified and Exalted.
The pages of deceit have been
folded and the slave began to realize the enormity of resurrection.
Distractions and temptations are gone and what remained are the
consequences. O there is no god but Allah; what an hour when the
book of deed is finally folded either on merits or on sins; the
heart is throbbing from pain and remorse because of the days when
it greatly neglected Allah and the Last Day. Here is the worldly
life with all that it includes has ended and its days have quickly
passed. Here he is receiving the inevitable and giving up his soul
to its Creator; here he is moving to the home of the Hereafter with
all its great horrors. In one moment he has become as if he was not
a thing worth mentioning… O there is no god but Allah, what an hour
when man takes the first step to the Hereafter and receives his new
life; it is either a happy life or, Allah forbids, a miserable
life.
O there is no god but Allah,
what an abode which inhabitants are close and varied; a grave in
eternal bliss and blessing and another one in the deepest grades of
Hellfire and painful punishment. He calls but no one answers, he
implores but no one responds.
Then comes the Day: the Day of
Resurrection, the Day of Judgment. On the Day when the earth will
be changed to another earth and so will be the heavens; and they
(all creatures) will appear before Allah, the One, the
Irresistible. The Day when a Maulâ (a near relative) cannot avail a
Maulâ (a near relative) in aught, and no help can they receive.
When the Shouter shouts; so the dead resurrects from their shrouds
and coffins to their Lord barefoot, naked and uncircumcised; there
is no pedigree, no ancestry, no power or money.
{Then, when the Trumpet is
blown, there will be no kinship among them that Day, nor will they
ask of one another. (101). Then, those whose scales (of good deeds)
are heavy, they are the successful. (102). And those whose scales
(of good deeds) are light, they are those who lose their ownselves,
in Hell will they abide. (103). The Fire will burn their faces, and
therein they will grin, with displaced lips (disfigured).} [Surat
Al-Mu'minûn 23:101-104].
Transliteration:
Faitha nufikha fee
alssoori fala ansaba baynahum
yawmaithin wala yatasaaloona
(101) Faman thaqulat mawazeenuhu faolaika humu
almuflihoona (102) Waman khaffat
mawazeenuhu faolaika allatheena khasiroo
anfusahum fee jahannama khalidoona (103)
Talfahu wujoohahumu alnnaru wahum
feeha kalihoona
It is the Day when Allah
gathers those of old, and those of later times. It is the Day that
disperses illusions and dreams. It is the Day when books of deeds
are published and scales are established. It is that Day when a man
shall flee from his brother, and from his mother and his father,
and from his wife and his children. It is the Day when man would
desire to ransom himself from the punishment of that Day by his
children, and his wife and his brother, and his kindred who
sheltered him.
O beloved
brother
O you who disobey Allah.
Imagine yourself while you are standing among the creatures and
then your name was called for: where is so and so, the son of so
and so: come on to be presented to Allah. You stand up shaking;
your feet and all your limbs are churning up out of the intensity
of fear. Your color has changed, and worry and sadness and concern
have overwhelmed you in a way that Allah only knows.
Conceive yourself standing
humbly before the Hands of the Originator of the heavens and the
earth; you have held your book of deeds with your own hands, where
it includes the tiny and the weighty of your deeds. You are reading
it with a blunt tongue and a broken heart; there is shame and
modesty inside of you towards Allah, Who has not come down to you
as a philanthropist or a shelter. By Allah, how would you answer
Him when He asks you about your ugly deeds and your enormous guilt?
How would you stand before His hands tomorrow, and how could you
look at Him? With what heart would you bear His grand sublime
words, and His inquiry and reprimand?
Then how about you if He
reminds you of your disobeying Him and committing what He has
forbidden; of your disregard to His ordinances and His looking at
you; of your heedlessness in this worldly life in obeying
Him?
What would you say when He
says to you: O My slave! You have not glorified me; have you not
been ashamed from Me? Have you disparaged My look at you? Have I
not been beneficent to you? Have I not bestowed My Grace on you?
What have deceived you against Me?
O dear
brother
Remember the righteous when
they come out of their graves with faces whitened by their good
deeds. They come out with that splendid effect from Allah the
Generous. The standing will not grieve them, and the angels will
meet them, (with the greeting): "This is your Day which you were
promised"…
Remember when
the Lord, Blessed be He, the Almighty says to them:
"O My angels, take My slaves
to the Gardens of delight (Paradise), take them to the Good
Pleasure of Allah. So they have become in a life, well-pleasing.
The heavens are opened for them; and round about them will be boys
and fair females to serve them. And away from them have gone all
sense of fatigue, all agony and weariness."
On the other hand, there is
the unjust soul that has deviated from the law of Allah Almighty,
the disobedient soul that Allah almighty says about:
O My angels: {"Seize him and
fetter him; (30). Then throw him in the blazing Fire.} [Surat
Al-Hâqqah 69:30-31].
Transliteration:
Khuthoohu
faghulloohu (30) Thumma aljaheema
salloohu
My anger has intensified on
those who lacked shyness towards Me, hence this outrageous unjust
soul stood by the flaming fire and enraged inferno. This soul hoped
that it would go back into the world to repent to Allah and to work
righteousness, but far, how far to go back. Then it will be thrown
on its face into the Fire, and plunge into the dark shafts and
fluctuate between the deep bottoms of Hellfire, remorse and
sighs…
O there is no god but Allah.
What a tremendous difference it is between these and those, between
those who are in bliss and those who are in Hellfire. Allah
Almighty is All True when He has said: {Verily, the Abrâr (the
pious believers of Islamic Monotheism) will be in Delight
(Paradise); (13). And verily, the Fujjâr (the wicked, disbelievers,
polytheists, sinners and evil-doers) will be in the blazing Fire
(Hell),} [Surat Al-Infitâr 82:13-14].
Transliteration:
Inna alabrara lafee
naAAeemin (13) Wainna alfujjara lafee
jaheemin
O dear
brother
O you, who read this message,
slow down a little and hold yourself accountable. If you are among
those who hasten in performing acts of obedience and worship, and
avoid sins and violations, you should praise Allah for that and ask
Him to keep you firm till your death. Congratulations to you for
what you are heading to, Allah willing.
But if you are other than
that, you should repent to your Lord and return to the true
guidance. There is no need for the stubbornness and insisting on
committing act of disobedience which will expose you to the torment
of Allah. By Allah you are much weaker to tolerate anything of this
torment. The firm tall mountains will melt from the severity of the
heat if they are exposed to it.
Where are you, O weak man,
compared to the mountains? You may be patient to hunger and thirst,
to harm and hardships, but by Allah Who there is no god but Him,
you have no patience over Hellfire...
Oh save yourself from Hellfire
as long as you still have the time before you regret when there no
time for regret. And know that patience over the forbidden of Allah
in this worldly life is, by Allah, by far easier than patience over
the torment of the Day of Resurrection.
Then know my brother that the
path of righteousness and commitment does not have the complexity
or the suppression of freedom as some people may think. On the
contrary, it is all happiness, all pleasure, all comfort and all
tranquility. And what does man want in this life more than that...
Contrary to that is the life of disobedience and sins, it is all
worry, woes and remorse in this worldly life and torment and
humiliation in the Hereafter.
So try my brother this path
from now, and do not hesitate. By Allah I am one of the sincere
well-wishers for you, and I fear for you from the punishment of
Allah.
May peace and Allah's mercy
and blessings be upon you.
Dar Ibn
Khuzaymah
Translated by Wathakker Website
en.wathakker.net