Rasulullah
S.A.W said, "An intelligent person is one who is constantly
thinking about and preparing for death."
Think about it.
How does
one prepare for death?
1)
By seeking knowledge of Islam.
So study about Allah, his Prophet, of good deeds and evil deeds.
But knowledge itself is useless without...
2)
Practising it. Perform good
deeds, small or big, and avoid all evil deeds. But all
performance is useless unless you are.....
3) Sincere
(Ikhlas). To do lillahi ta'ala. But you will
never achieve sincerity, as long as you do not have....
4)
True Faith (Iman). You must
- truly
believe in Allah,
- truly
be in awe of Allah,
- truly
depend and ask only from Allah,
- truly
hope from Allah,
- truly
fear Allah,
- truly
put your trust in Allah.
But such
faith does not come from reading books or talking about Islam or
listening to fiery speeches about Islam; it come from...
5)
Striving hard in Allah's path (Jihad). This does
not mean going around trying to convert the world to Islam; it
does not mean waving a sword at disbelievers showing them the
'terror' that Islam can inflict. It means
fighting hard to cleanse the evil in yourselves -
- the
jealousy,
- the
greed,
- the
stinginess,
- the
arrogance,
- the
pride,
- the
laziness,
- the
hatred,
- the
lack of faith,
- the
stupidity,
- the
blindness of the heart,
- the
backbiting and
- all the
terrible sins that we day day after day, year after year, until
death comes a calling.
That is
jihad. As you can see, this is a full
time job, that will take all your life to complete.
But you will never start to strive for all this, until you begin
to....
6)
Realise..
-
Realise that you will die soon.
-
Realise that you will be shown all
your deeds (good and bad) on Judgement Day.
-
Realise that Allah watches you all
your life, and that no deed escapes His repayment.
-
Realise that money, and fame and
property cannot buy your way out of Hell.
-
Realise that only iman and good
deeds can.
-
Realise that you live only once.
-
Realise that you are responsible
for yourself.
-
Realise that in the end, you are
the one who will gain or lose.
So many
people have realised, and have studied Islam, and yet have gone
astray - becoming terrorists, extremists, and fundamentalists.
Why?
They have
forgotten the most important thing in Islam. Which is that.......
7)
Islam is about YOURSELF.
Correcting YOURSELF. Cleansing
YOURSELF. Not about fighting with
people or proving other people wrong.
- In the
grave, you will be asked about YOURSELF.
- What
YOU did.
- What
YOU said.
- What
was YOUR intention.
Then Allah
will tell YOU, what is
YOUR final destination.
"And do not be as those who forget Allah,
then Allah makes them forget about
themselves...."Al-Qur'an.
Have you
thought of yourself lately?
For every
man who forgets about himself lands in Hell.
Ponder...and practice.