A Short Life, and a Debt Still to Come

This is the basic understanding at the root of a Muslim's outlook: human beings are temporary, created by Allah (swt) for a purpose, whose function is to worship Him and whose aim is to gain His good pleasure. Life is short, and the only thing that can be done about the past — whatever has already happened in it, and it is finished, khalāṣ — is tawbah, repentance; the past itself can never be brought back, and the future is unknown. An intelligent Muslim lives fully within the present moment, this particular waqt, and fulfils, in that moment, the adab and the requirements Allah (swt) asks of him — nothing more and nothing less — and lets the future come as it will, since a person will never be free of being tested by the decree, the qadar, of Allah (swt) for as long as he is breathing: one moment brings a blessing, niʿmah, to be recognised and met with gratitude, shukr; another brings a difficulty, sometimes real harm, to be recognised and met with patience, ṣabr. This — half patience and half gratitude — is what Islam consists of, and the duty owed is to bring this heart to Allah (swt) sound and pure; everything else is no more than a passing story, empty air that comes and goes. A servant needs, then, to come to his senses, to be a person of taqwā, to labour at purifying what is within, to strive to be a good Muslim. It remains the abiding hope, and the abiding prayer, that Allah (swt) will accept His servants among the sincere, mukhliṣūn, and bless them with Jannah and with His beauty, jamāl, in the company of the Prophet (peace be upon him).