What do you want? Where are you going? What are your goals? Who are you living for? Yourself…someone you love…Allah? Do you ever stop? Stop and think! Contemplate about the deeper meaning of your existence and answer the above questions. Not generally but deeply. Enter you emotions and really analyse the answers. Do you know the answers clearly? Are they vague or do you just not care. Many people just live for nothing. We get so caught up in school, university, work or family and we never stop and think about our ultimate purpose. The days roll into weeks and those roll into months and then a year or more has passed and we didn’t stop once. That time is gone and we can never get it back. Did we do something useful, save something for the future or was it just a wasted pointless year that was spent with no focus or goal in mind? We don’t know what the future holds or where we will be in a few years time, but that doesn’t mean we don’t make plans and preparations and just face the days blindly.‘Those who fail to plan, plan to fail!’ We as Muslims cannot face life blindly, we have a clear set goal and that should ultimately be paradise. An ever lasting life of peace and happiness. If this is not our goal then we will fail. If our goal is only a degree, a career and a family and other worldly gains then success will be limited in the realms of this universe. There is a point to it all. There is a reason for the pain and suffering, there is wisdom behind the trials and there are blessings for those who reflect. This is not the end unless you make it, this is the beginning starting now you have a decision to make. Is your goal limited to this life? To a big house in the country, a bunch of children, a good salary and a fancy car! Or do you want more. Do you want more than what they tell you is ‘the life’ and do you want to be more that who they tell you is a ‘successful person’. THEY don’t know because there goals are limited to this life. They only see as far the material possessions and limitations in this world. Even if you had all the riches in the world it doesn’t even come near to what awaits the believers in the hereafter.
But this is not an easy goal, it requires work just as anything you want in this life. No one will just hand you a Phd and call you a doctor for sitting on you backside or because your dad is a doctor. In the same way Allah will not hand you paradise for doing nothing. Therefore, just as you would have to work sooo hard to be a doctor, make sacrifices with your time and money and social life similarly you have to do the same and more if you want paradise. We have to work hard for it, we have to strive for it we will have to give up things or even people we love and care for. We have to fight and struggle with ourselves, with the shaytaan and with those who may try to push us down. But if you have a true goal which is achievable and you have a strong imaan and trust in Allah then none of these trials will ever make you give up. A little suffering now will be compensated for an abundance of treasures in paradise.
Don’t live for yourself or for today or even this year. Stop, take some time, think about where your life is now. What is good in it? What needs to improve and what needs to be changed. No one is perfect or will ever be, we all get pushed down in our lives but that doesn’t mean you give, it doesn’t mean you should just stay down because you fell or someone knocked you down. Deal with it! Are you going to let one thing destroy you? One mistake you made or some pain you went through determine the rest of your life. There was wisdom behind it even if you can’t see it. Get up, clear your mind and purify your heart. Amend your goals, have the ultimate goal of paradise, of loving nothing more than Allah and the messenger (S). Want something, don’t sit and wait for things to start happening for you, do what you got to do to get what you want. And be sure of it, be head strong because when you set out to get your goal people will try and stop you and obstacles will arise undoubtedly but if you are focused nothing will distract you an you will get it inshallah with a lot of sacrifice and a lot of determination you will find peace.
This life is a journey, a journey to Allah. The sooner we face it and the more we think of it, the easier it will be. The less we will be distracted by the hustle and bustle of this world and the more we will embrace the journey and the more we can’t wait to meet our lord.
Your Sister in Islam x
