1) Lecturing
yourself the whole time: Remind it about death and the afterlife the whole
time. Talk to yourself the way Al-Ghazali used to do;
“Woe unto you myself! Do not be deceived by
this life and do not let the deceiver deceive you about Allah. Look at yourself
because your issues are not important to anyone but you! Do not waste your time
because our breaths are so limited. If a breath goes away, then a part of you
has gone away with it. So make use of your health before sickness. Make use of
your free time before you get swamped with duties.
Make use of
your wealth before you become poor. Make use of your youth before you grow old.
Make use of life before death strikes. Get ready for your afterlife with as
much as your stay there. Don’t you get ready for the winter with as much it is
expected to last?
You gather
strength, clothing, firewood and all other stuff that you’ll need! Do not rely
lazily on the generosity of Allah thinking that being lazy will push away the
cold without a cloak or firewood! Allah Rabbul Jallaluh is capable of doing it,
no doubt, but do you think that the bitterness and severity of hell will be
less or shorter than the severity and bitterness of the winter?
Or do you
ever think that the former will be less easy than the latter? Do you think that
you will escape from this punishment without striving? No way! The same way you
can’t drive away the coldness of the winter except by getting ready for it, you
will not be able to drive away the heat of hell or its frost except by seeking
the shelter of monotheism and the sanctuary of obedience…
If you
don’t want to denounce this life out of your desire to win the afterlife
because you’re too blind then why don’t you denounce it because of its poor
partners, or to purify yourself from its suffering or to protect yourself from
perishing? Why don’t you just denounce its little things when much of its
things have denounced you?
Why are you
so happy with a life that even though it helps you yet a group of vile Jews and
Magi are ahead of you and have been rewarded by this life with more bliss and
adornment? Woe unto a life where these lowlifes can go past you! You are but
ignorant and with a low determination if you side from the entourage of those
who are close to Rasulullah ﷺ, the companions and in the
presence of the Lord of the Worlds to be instead in the entourage of a pack of
ignorant fools for just a few days!
Woe unto
you if you lose your life and faith, if you come close to your end, if death
comes at your door. Woe unto you because all you have to trade is but a few
days out of which you’ve wasted the most already. Don’t you know that death is
your destiny, that the grave is your home, that dust is your bed and that the
worms are your companions? Don’t you know that the greatest fear is right ahead
of you?
Don’t have
any shame when you adorn your outside looks for the people and defy Allah
Rabbul Jallaluh in secret? Are you ashamed of the people and not ashamed of
your Creator? Why is your Creator suddenly the least important of your viewers?
Do you enjoin people to do good while you tarnish yourself with sins? You get
invited to come closer to Allah Rabbul Jallaluh and you flee?
You get
reminded and you forget? Don’t you know that sin is stinker than dung and that
dung can never be used to purify anything? So why are you so keen on purifying
others while you need to be purified? Woe unto you, had you known yourself as
you really are you will realize that people are only afflicted because of your
evil.
