Say
that Allah (SWT) gives us 60 years to live, which is almost 22,000
days. ALL these days are given to us so that we may prepare for one
day; the Day of Judgment, for our interview with Allah (SWT). On that
day Allah (SWT) will interview us on the “test” that we took (our
life). Allah (SWT) will tell us how we did on it and then he will give
us our grades for it, just like teachers do at the end of the semester
by calling you up and letting you know your grade and why you received
that grade.
Now imagine a student taking an exam. He looks at
his test booklet only to find all the questions on one side with all
the correct answers right next to them. And not only the answers are
given but also a list of the answers that are totally incorrect! First
of all if he has the right answers, why would he need to know what the
wrong answers are? That’s just how easy and nice and merciful the
professor was. Now after writing the exam, if this student STILL fails,
then you tell me, would we not think of him as the dumbest person on
this planet, or someone who just doesn’t give a crap about his future
(either way a pretty dumb person). Now what excuse will he have when
he’s talking to the teacher about his grade? All the teacher will say
is, “I gave you all the right answers to your test man and you’re
complaining about you’re grade, are you kidding me?”
Well tell
you what, on the Day of Judgment many of us after having every single
answer to the test of our lives, will STILL fail! What excuse will we
have then?
So it's about time that we wake up before we prove ourselves to be some very foolish people.
As
we all know, our youth is the prime time of our lives. This is when
people make most of their important decisions in life and start working
towards it. Things we do in this time will most likely affect us
throughout the rest of our lives. That is why it is important to bring
Islam into our lives during these prime days. Many people have the
impression that when they get old they will start practicing Islam.
Right now they’re young and in college so they just want to have fun.
We all have this feeling probably. But look at it this way, if you want
to become a famous basketball star then you would have to start
practicing during your youth, and then slowly you would become better
and better as you got older. Now if you think that you will start
practicing when you’re old, then the chances of becoming famous, or
even good at playing ball period are obviously pretty low. That's the
reality. When we become old we won’t even have the energy or the desire
to gain knowledge and learn our deen and then on top of that apply it
to our lives, when we don’t even care now. Take for example an issue
that may of us have: If we have never been consistent with our Salah,
especially if we haven’t ever prayed at all, what makes us think that
we will happily start praying when we’re old? If someone hasn’t ever
played ball or played very rarely, how would he or she randomly just
gain interest in it and on top of that become good? It’s either not
going to happen or it’s going to be way too hard, harder than what
people already think it is. It’s just common sense.
Since our
youth is the prime of our lives and even more dear to Allah (SWT),
Allah(SWT) has prepared a shade on the Day of Judgement for those
people who used to worship Allah (SWT) during their youth. On that Day,
there will be no other shade except the shade that Allah (SWT) gives
us. Imagine standing outside on a very hot day under the sun for hours
after hours. You would definitely want some shade to rest under. But
what about that Day when Jahannam will be much nearer to us and the
heat will be much more extreme.
We are all weak in terms of
keeping our duties to Allah (SWT) and He is aware of it. Of course
there are some people that can keep up mashAllah that’s awesome for
them;
As Allah (SWT) says in Surah Waqia (speaking of the people closest to Allah on the Day of Judgment):
“(of them will be) a number of the ancients and a few of those from the upcoming times”.
Point
being that Allah (SWT) knew that there will be only a few people doing
their thangg and following Islam properly during our times. He knew
that we would make excuses and start thinking that it’s hard. If it’s
so hard then why would Allah (SWT) have ordered it upon us and why
would He punish us for not following. That’s because Allah (SWT) knows
that it is not impossible and He is there to help. We can claim that
it’s hard and we can make excuses, but it will never be impossible
inshaAllah, and will ALWAYS be worth it. And to make it easy on us with
His mercy, Allah (SWT) has given us 2 of the greatest guides, the Quran
and his Rasul (SWS). If we follow His guides inshaAllah Allah (SWT)
will guide us. He gave us the right answers, and he gave us the wrong
answers, all we have to do is look at the RIGHT answers and bubble them
in. And if we wait till the end of the test period to start looking at
the answers, we will run out of time to fill them in. So what better
time to start filling in the right answers than our youth?
Think
about a toddler. If he falls down while walking he tries to get up
again and walk. Then a day comes when he does start to walk. And since
the baby is trying, Allah is obviously helping. What baby would learn
to walk without Allah (SWT)? In the same way if we start working at it
during our youth Allah (SWT) will begin to help. No one can be guided
without Allah’s (SWT) help and permission, but if we don’t try and if
we don’t care, then why should Allah (SWT)? InshaAllah all the
knowledge we gain and the habits we form in the prime years of our
youth will benefit us for the rest of our lives by increasing our
interest, making it easier on us, and by helping us turn what we now
think is so hard to practice into habits which we will follow with
ease.
So before we lose this time, let’s just make a promise
to ourselves and to Allah (SWT) that we will at least work on trying
our best to do what we were put on this earth to do. We all know that
we do not want to end like that idiot guy who failed while having all
the answers right in front of his face during the whole test.
May Allah (SWT) help us all and make it easier on us than He already has. Ameen.
