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As you stand the check-out lanes in grocery stores, you are sure to be barraged by glossy magazines that tell you 5-ways to earn extra money or 7-ways to loose extra weight. If you are a student, you have books that tell specific steps to score higher in your tests. Players are instructed specific steps that guarantee a better score. If you watch TV on a Saturday morning, you will get simple, specific steps to make your home beautiful, or to do a weekend project. If you follow the instructions in these glossy magazines, most likely you will shed some weight or gain some money. May be you can learn a software in 7 days if you follow the step-by-step directions from some 'dummy' books. It is fine to learn some techniques to enhance our worldly life. That helps our life in this world. We can do things little more efficiently, we may look little better, and we can decorate our homes nicely with few steps. Would it not be nice to find some instructions, which will make our Hereafter successful? Instead of the advice coming from some writers of glossy magazines, if the instructions came from the Expert, should we not follow it? Of course, we should. However, none of the glossy magazines deals with the life Hereafter. How do we find the Expert who can give tips for a guaranteed success in the Hereafter? Finding the Expert is simple. He is with us all the time. Finding the instructions are simple too. In addition, the instructions are rather simple. Best of all, its only four steps! Obviously, the Expert is Allah (swt) Himself. He is the only one Who has the knowledge of the Hereafter. He is also the Judge that will determine our fate—whether we become successful or loser. Because He is most Merciful, He gave us simple instructions to be successful. Consider the Declining day. Surely man is indeed in loss, except those (i) who believe and (ii) do good, and (iii) exhort one another to Truth, and (iv) enjoin one another to perseverance. (103:1-3). The first verse of the Surah Al-Asr is very dramatic. It is short yet ominous. It start with wa, literally meaning 'and'. The Qur’an has repeatedly used wa as the beginning of a sentence to draw intense attention to the reader or to the hearer. It reminds us of the Asr time, not yet dark but fast approaching to the darkness that envelopes us. It is not sunset yet, so man has some time to hurriedly finish all the works that he has lazily postponed during the bright sun. Tasks remained unfinished or may not have been even initiated. At Asr we realize that the time remaining is rather short now, and that we foolishly wasted the whole day on matters that brought us nothing fruitful. Such is the drama in this short verse wal asr—it brings the ominous approaching darkness and the desperate feeling of man to accomplish things which he knows well that he can not even finish. He touches several tasks hoping to get something done, but fails miserably in all. The
second verse also brings in yet another ominous message. This message
is even strengthened with the word inna-surely.
There is no doubt about the loss that man is going to face. Allah(SWT) will help us to become successful. Let us not underestimate Him. He is generous, and let us not perceive Him to be miserly Master who pinches away His resources. Allah(SWT) has abundance, and He does not worry in distributing success for us. Only four steps, and Allah(SWT) guarantees us success! Subhan-Allah! |
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