By: NISAR HUSSAIN
All praise be to Almighty Allah who is the creator and sustainer of this world. Since everything in this world is ephemeral and transitory and is subjected to decay with the passage of time,same is the case with humans whose average life span ranges from 60 to 100 years. Despite that, no one is ready to accept the reality of transient nature of this world and this is the reason we witness so many evils prevalent in our society. Adultery, dishonesty, falsehood, theft, deception, anger, hypocrisy, butchery, patricide, matricide, fratricide, infanticide, infidelity, duplicity, unscrupulousness, treachery, callousness, scams and many more have become talk of the town. Such incidents surface day in day out in our society.
Almighty Allah says in the Holy Quran“O’ you who believe, fear Allah, and let every soul look to what it has put forth for tomorrow- and fear Allah. Indeed, Allah is acquainted with what you do”-(AlHashr 18). Allah has already guided the believers that in the short period of worldly life you need to dogood and abstain yourselves from bad deeds to be successful in the life hereafter. Since one more year has passed and New Year has already dawned in our lives.
This is one more inkling from the dark that Allah provides us, telling that you are given one more opportunity to correct and mend your evils ways and wrong doings. Last time when the year 2022 had passed, year 2023 was as well welcomed with great enthusiasm and vigour but alas! That year has also passed now. This shows the temporal nature of everything that is associated with this world. However, during the year, the lessons you have learnt need to be pondered upon.
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) says in one of the Ahadees, “Introspect yourself before you will be introspected.” At the end of each passing day or week or month or year, introspect yourself and see what you did and what you didn’t do? Whether you did wrong and evil deeds or good deeds? In this way prepare yourself for the next day or week or month or year with the intention that whatever you did wrongly should not be repeated rather try to work out and explore new ways of doing good.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has also advised the believers to recognize and acknowledge five things as a boon and blessing from Allah before five things. Life is a boon before death means we should spend life in doing those deeds that are good for ourselves as well as for the whole society because after death we can’t get chance to do such things.
Second we should recognize pastime as a blessing and should utilize it fully for the benefit of mankind. Next we should acknowledge health as a boon, before illness befalls on us because one realizes the importance of being healthy only after falling ill. So when you are healthy indulge in such activities that are beneficial and helpful to weak and under privileged. Next we should be thankful to Allah the Almighty for bestowing us wealth and should spend part of it in charity before it is too late.
Lastly we should accept and realize our youth as a blessing and worship Allah during that period because worship done during period of youth is dearest to Allah. So it is a blessing to be young and energetic before turning into old.
In conclusion this world is the things associated with it are ephemeral and transitory and we ought to utilize the time in a fruitful way so that tomorrow we may not wail and repent over bad and evil deeds. Further more welcoming New Year is not bad in itself rather it is good in the sense that Allah has given us one more opportunity to mend and correct the evil and bad deeds and prepare ourselves for the life here after.
