HEEDLESSNESS FROM MEETING OUR LORD
PART 1
What is your first action when you wake up? Do you plan your schedule at work? Decide what meals to prepare for the day? Figure out the daily activity for your children? Check your mobile device for emails and text messages? Go onto Facebook to check the latest notification?
What are your first thoughts? Do you wonder how your loved ones are doing? Do you wake up angry because of something that happened the night before? Do you wake up happy because you received a present yesterday? Do you think about an important deadline at work? Do you worry about the morning traffic jam?
Or do you wake up with Allah on your mind, wondering how you can gain His pleasure for the rest of the day? Do you wake up with thankfulness that you have been granted another day to live, at the same time mindful that this may also be the last day of your life? Do you wake up with the awareness that you will die and inevitably meet your Lord, and that the day might be today?
WHAT IS HEEDLESSNESS?
Heedlessness in Arabic is called ghafla – and this word in Arabic covers a spectrum of meanings – being neglectful, failing to take warning; and being unaware, unmindful, negligent and careless of warnings. In short, it refers to a person who is not in a state of awareness. Like someone intoxicated who is oblivious to his surroundings or even his own state of existence; similarly a person in a state of heedlessness is unaware about the message of the Almighty Creator. He forgets about the most important state of his life—his life after death.
In today’s fast paced lifestyle, our priorities have become confused to the point we are losing sight of the very purpose of our existence. We have become so immersed in our daily activities that we allocate the majority, if not all, of our time pursuing the demands of duniya, the material life. We are holding on to incorrect values. We have allowed our material pursuits to have such supreme importance such that in the process, we have forgotten that this world is transitory.
Many of us have forgotten, or are on our way to forgetting, our final destination.
You may think that you do not fall into this category, after all you observe your five times daily salat punctually, and you live a modest lifestyle. You do not indulge in any of the major sins. If so, the question you have to ask yourself is this – how do you occupy yourself in the pockets of time when you are not standing on your prayer mat? In between prayers, which is the majority of your time, do you apportion the same amount of effort preparing for your eventual meeting with the Lord as you do finalizing the company reports, entertaining yourself and others or attending to your children’s needs?
What truly motivates you? What forces dictate your thoughts, your actions and even your behaviour to others? Is it the promise of a promotion or a financial incentive? Is it ensuring that your children are top in their class? Is it making your spouse happy? Or is the underlying reason behind all your thoughts, actions and conversations of the day to please your Lord?
We are living in a time when much is tainted by confusion, lack of comprehension and ignorance. Multiple ideologies have seeped into every aspect of our lives. Our knowledge of Islam lacks depth and is reduced to routine rituals with which we are satisfied. This confusion, combined with our pre-occupation with duniya and shallow spiritual knowledge, has led to an erosion of our faith, understanding, manners and purpose of life. In other words, we are plunging into a state of heedlessness.
This heedlessness is evidenced by our spiritual oblivion. All the illnesses, natural disasters, injustice, and even genocides make little impact on us. We are so dominated by our own personal endeavours that we are not even aware of our surroundings. We have no caring, compassion or consideration for others. We have lost a lot of our basic humanity. We are well informed of current affairs; we frown at the mischief we witness; yet we remain aloof, prioritising our more immediate demands for material needs.
The way we structure our daily lives demonstrate that our attitudes towards this world is that of permanence. We behave as if death is reserved for others, as if we ourselves will not die. It is as if all adversities, problems and disasters in this world are only for others; and that we are immune to them because of our wealth, education and status. We seem to trust our careers, money and families to solve our daily issues more than we trust Allah SWT.
It is urgent that we honestly ask ourselves before it is too late:
Are we indeed in this state of heedlessness?
If so, how can we remove ourselves from it?
HOW DID WE FALL INO THIS STATE?
Today, the vast majority of Muslims are living in a state of duniya. The focus of this lifestyle is accumulation and its driving force is material success, even at the price of greed and selfishness.
Islam teaches us to take the bare minimum from this world for our sustenance and share the rest with those in need for the sake of Allah. Our aim is to try to leave this life very light and only maintain the heavy weight of our good deeds and faith to the next world. Instead, we are in competition with each other of the accumulation of financial achievements, status and belongings. We decorate our lives with our possessions, not with our good deeds.
This duniya is has become deeply rooted in our hearts. One generation indoctrinates the next on the virtues of material accumulation and competition; perpetuating the sickness.
When we lose remembrance of the hereafter, the love of duniya takes precedence. It overtakes and consumes our entire existence — our thoughts, actions and desires. It leads us to a lifestyle contradictory to the message of Islam. This is what makes us fall into heedlessness.
MEETING WITH ALLAH IS CERTAIN
The purpose of life is nothing more than to prepare ourselves for the moment of departure and for the meeting with our Lord. Death is an absolute certainty in life, yet people treat it with indifference, as if they were beyond death’s reach. Life after death is treated like a legend or fable, something unreal. The concept of being resurrected after death and meeting with Allah appears incomprehensible, and many prefer not to think about it at all.
In a long hadith recorded by Muslim, Abu Huraira RA reported that the Companions of the Holy Prophet SAW said: “Allah’s Messenger, will we be able to see our Lord on the Day of Judgment?” He said: “Do you feel any difficulty in seeing the sun in the noon when there is no cloud over it?” They said: “No.” He again said: “Do you feel any difficulty in seeing the moon on the fourteenth night when there is no cloud over it?” They said: “No”. Thereupon he said: “By Allah Who is One in Whose Hand is my life you will not face any difficulty in seeing your Lord but only so much as you feel in seeing one of them. “
Allah SWT knows the forgetful nature of people and repeatedly reminds us in the Qur’an of our eventual meeting with Him.
Say, “Indeed, the death from which you flee – indeed, it will meet you. Then you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, and He will inform you about what you used to do.” (Al-Jumu’ah 62:8)
Unquestionably, they are in doubt about the meeting with their Lord. Unquestionably He is, of all things, encompassing. (Fussilat 41:54)
And they say, “When we are lost within the earth, will we indeed be [recreated] in a new creation?” Rather, they are, in [the matter of] the meeting with their Lord, disbelievers. (Sajdah 32:10)
Whoever should hope for the meeting with Allah – indeed, the term decreed by Allah is coming. And He is the Hearing, the Knowing. (Al-‘Ankabut 29:5)
Indeed, it is We who bring the dead to life and record what they have put forth and what they left behind, and all things We have enumerated in a clear register. (Yasin 36:11—12)
If you say that you believe in death and your meeting with your Lord, ask yourself honestly whether you making adequate arrangements for it. Do you prepare for it with the same concentration and dedication as you would when writing your final exams or presenting a report to your manager? Do you take it as seriously as ensuring that your children are dropped off at school on time? Do you spend even a fraction of your time stocking up provisions for your meeting with Allah SWT as you do filling up the shopping trolley with the weekly groceries?
In short, do the majority of your actions reflect that you are making diligent preparations to face Allah SWT? If they don’t, can you in honesty admit that you are a believer of meeting your Lord?
DO WE HAVE THE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE?
Allah SWT has informed us that the true knowledge, being the most superior knowledge that everybody should be aware of, is the knowledge provided by Allah SWT.
We relate to you, [O Muhammad], the best of stories in what We have revealed to you of this Qur’an although you were, before it, among the unaware. (Yusuf 12:3)
The core of the Islamic faith is based on the belief of the unseen. Among them are the belief in:
• Allah,
• His angels,
• Day of judgment,
• Life after death,
• Paradise and hellfire.
This knowledge is what Allah SWT calls the real knowledge, Al-Haqq (truth) and Al-Yaqeen (certainty). This is the knowledge we are supposed to attain and apply in our lives to prepare us for the long journey in the hereafter. All our knowledge of the duniya is supposed to be ancillary to support us in reaching that goal, not the other way round. Yet today, we discard what little knowledge with have of the hereafter in favour of obtaining worldly skills that can elevate our status in duniya.
The divine knowledge to guide us toward that belief is contained in the Qur’an. As an introduction, Allah SWT says:
This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah. Who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them; and who believe in what has been revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you, and of the Hereafter they are certain [in faith]. Those are upon [right] guidance from their Lord, and it is those who are the successful. (Al Baqarah 2:2—5)
This knowledge is available for all of us. On our end, we need to read and understand the Qur’an carefully, and apply its meaning into our actions, thoughts and deeds.
If we acquire all the knowledge of this world but are unaware of the knowledge of Allah SWT and what He is telling us, then are we really knowledgeable? Would any of our information on worldly affairs be able to come to our defence when we are presented before our Lord? The following verse tells us the repercussions of doing so:
They know what is apparent of the worldly life, but they, of the Hereafter, are unaware. Do they not contemplate within themselves? Allah has not created the heavens and the earth and what is between them except in truth and for a specified term. And indeed, many of the people, in [the matter of] the meeting with their Lord, are disbelievers. (Ar-Rum 30:7-8)
HEEDLESSNESS VS. AWARENESS OF THE MEETING WITH ALLAH
The following verses establish the relationship between heedlessness and the awareness of the meeting with Allah SWT. It is a linear relationship where when one variable increases the other decreases.
Indeed, those who do not expect the meeting with Us and are satisfied with the life of this world and feel secure therein and those who are heedless of Our signs. For those their refuge will be the Fire because of what they used to earn. (Yunus 10:7- 8)
The above verses emphasize that the danger of falling into a pattern of self-satisfaction with our life in duniya, for it is such contentment with the duniya that directs us to heedlessness. The consequences are dire.
Allah SWT has given us numerous examples of heedless people and on more than one occasion has compared them to creatures lower or dumber than cattle – denoting their lack of intellect, inability to perceive their reality, and their obliviousness to their surroundings.
And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless. (Al-A’raf 7:179)
Prophet Muhammad SAW said:
“The example of the one who remembers his Lord, in comparison to the one who does not remember his Lord, is that of a living creature compared to a dead one.”
(Bukhari)
You may wonder: is it not enough that we observe the mandatory rituals prescribed by Allah SWT to us?
The answer lies in how we behave when we are not engaged in our rituals. Any benefit of such rituals is eroded by our own lack of awareness, vigilance and priority in the majority of our actions. It is our accumulated negligence towards our eventual meeting with Allah SWT, as manifested by the way we occupy our thoughts and time and how we accord priority to our preparation for death, that make us heedless.
Analyse yourself:
• How much of the income that you earn is allocated towards Allah SWT – for charity, assisting the needy or financing good deeds in the name of Allah SWT?
• How much of our time is spent in daily routines that can easily be cut short or delegated to others so that we can spend more time doing good deeds or being in the remembrance of Allah SWT?
• How much of our bank balances are we willing to withdraw in order to aid someone in distress as compared to how much of it we put aside for our next electronic toy?
• Who do we spend our time with – those who kill our time, or those who are capable of leading us to goodness?
• How much of our conversations are on matters pleasing to Allah SWT, as opposed to idle chatter and gossip?
• How much of our activities on Facebook are meaningful, as opposed to silly entries which benefit no one?
• How much fiction and tabloid do we read, as compared to books which educate us on developing our deen (way of life)?
• How many nights do we spend worrying about the academic performance of our children, in contrast with the nights we spend worrying if our children will pass their final exams before their Lord?
• What kind of skills do we, as parents, impress upon our children? Do we educate them that the ultimate aim is life is to earn a good income, or do we educate them that values of compassion, caring and selflessness are even more important?
Each of your actions which neglect the remembrance of Allah SWT brings you a step closer towards heedlessness. After an honest self-assessment, you will know where you stand.
THE ULTIMATE BLINDNESS
In the meantime Allah SWT has warned us in the Qur’an that He will veil the hearts of the heedless people and let them continue on their path until they destroy themselves. This destruction comes in the form of disgrace in this life and the hereafter. The disgrace of this world is to leave the person in the whirlwind of duniya until it destroys him; and the disgrace in the hereafter is when he wakes up in front of Allah SWT empty handed.
Another form of disgrace is for Allah SWT to give people a clear message and then make them blind from this message. He does this by snatching away their ability to comprehend and understand what Allah wants from them, and by depriving them of the honour of carrying the message of Islam to humanity.
If it comes to a point where our hearts are sealed, then none of the signs of Allah SWT on this earth will make the slightest dent on our intellect and our spiritual selves. If we reach this level, none of our achievements or treasures can rescue us from certain doom.
Those are the ones over whose hearts and hearing and vision Allah has sealed, and it is those who are the heedless. (An-Nahl 16:108)
I will turn away from My signs those who are arrogant upon the earth without right; and if they should see every sign, they will not believe in it. And if they see the way of consciousness, they will not adopt it as a way; but if they see the way of error, they will adopt it as a way. That is because they have denied Our signs and they were heedless of them. (Al-A’raf 7:146)
And those who do not expect the meeting with Us say, “Why were not angels sent down to us, or [why] do we [not] see our Lord?” They have certainly become arrogant within themselves and [become] insolent with great insolence. (Al-Furqan 25:21)
And the ones who disbelieve in the signs of Allah and the meeting with Him – those have despaired of My mercy, and they will have a painful punishment. (Al-‘Ankabut 29:23)
This is the terrifying reality which we witness in the world today, where corruption and tyranny are rife, where leaders plunder and slaughter their own people with impunity; and where people carry out their lives as if they were immune from any accountability in this life and in the Hereafter. Heedlessness does not only affect your immediate personal surroundings, but has the capability of destroying entire nations.
