PREPARE YOURSELVES!!

PREPARE YOURSELVES!!

Most of us, at one time or another, have traveled from one place to another far away place. Whether that travel was for a short break from our daily routine of life-i.g. a vacation-or of a more permanent nature such as moving, it invariably involved to some extent packing and other preparations. Most of us will generally pack clothes and various provisions in the form of food and drink to sustain us in our travels. Or in place of carrying those provisions with us, we will take along a plentiful stash of cash money with which to buy nourishments and various other needs along the way. As well as the afore-mentioned packing, many of us will make yet other preparations before traveling-such as arranging our homes and personal items before we leave, making sure that those dependent upon us for support are properly taken care of in our absence, etc.

Well, my dear friends-a very important and surely permanent-ah, verily: eternal-type of travel is imminent upon each and every one of us at any given time.

What differentiates this particular travel from all others is that we have no choice in the matter-no option to refuse this trip. And we also have no say-so about when we will travel nor our final destination. It is all up to the divine command and mercy of our Creator.

But we don indeed have the option to prepare for it.

Now I ask you this sincere question-what have you prepared for your trip? What do you have in the form of garments to shade and conceal you? What have you built up as a protector against the elements which may discomfort you? What have you prepared as your nourishment? What have you prepared to keep you company in that lonely, dark, cold, and damp grave? What have you prepared as assurance for your loved ones you will be forced to leave behind? What have you prepared to continue in this world to move towards good acts on your behalf?

Have you prayed? Have you fasted? Did you pay the zakat and perform the pilgrimage?

If your answers to these last points are 'yes'-then I say to you: 'so what?!' Those things are only the most basic of duties we as Muslims owe to Allah!

What I am talking about is-what-if anything- extra have you done from your heart merely for the sake of Allah?

What have you done to prepare for the Final Journey? The Journey from which there is no return to this familiar earthly life. The Journey by which we enter into a completely new, different, and unfathomable state of existence. The Journey which brings us ever closer to the Final Judgement Day and then our abode for eternity.

Have you willingly and freely given money in charity-which will bless you and sustain you later? Have you learned the Quran-which will accompany you in the grave and perhaps act as your protector from the punishment of the grave? Have you done acts of good nature purely for the sake of Allah which will earn you salvation from the fire and entrance into Heaven? Have you made provisions to sustain your loved ones whom you will leave behind? Have you remembered Allah much so that you will enter into a beautiful garden full of many trees?

My dear brethren-what have you done to prepare for your eternal abode?

Beware of losing precious time on the trivialities of this life. Remember the true reminder that this life is nothing but the passing of time and pleasures for a time. It is not the true life, nor is it our permanent abode. From Allah we have come, and it is to Him that we shall return. It is merely a testing ground to sift out the true believers from the others. To prove and determine which souls deserve paradise and great reward, and which deserve the everlasting torment and punishment.

Make the best usage of the time and health and mentality that Allah has blessed you with. Strive in every manner you possibly can for His cause, all the while hoping and praying for His help in seeking His pleasure.

Aim to die in the state of jihad (i.e. striving) in His cause-not only in the state of a mere muslim.

Abu Ad-Darda, one of the companions of the prophet(SAAW), was visited by some of the companions when news came to them of his serious condition of his dwindling health. They found him in terribly low state of depressed spirit as well as the deteriorated state of his physical health. They tried to cheer him up, reminding him of the outlook a true believing muslim should have, even when death is approaching.

In his response to them, he tearfully exclaimed his lowered spirits were not due to his realization of the imminence of the approach of death, nor was it necessarily due to his state of physical illness.

But rather that all those years previously he had always hoped and prayed that his final moments of his earthly life-the state in which his soul would be taken-that it would happen while he were in the state and action of jihad for the cause of Allah, not merely in the state of Islam.

Ah, such a high aspiration indeed! And a goal that we should all strive for-to die in the state of jihad for the cause of Allah!!

My dear muslim brethren-what have you done to prepare for that path?

What have you done for Allah??

What will be your accompaniment in the grave? Sorrow of the chances past which you did not take the best advantage of? Or happiness of the promise of salvation and paradise?

Prepare yourselves for the Journey!!