SERMON 86
About getting ready for the next world and
following Allah's commandments
Allah knows hidden matters
and is aware of inner feelings. He encompasses everything. He has control
over everything and power over everything. Everyone of you should do
whatever he has to do during his days of life before the approach of
death, in his leisure before his occupation, and during the breathing of
his breath before it is overtaken by suffocation, should provide for
himself and his journey and should collect provision from his place of
halt for his place of stay.
So remember Allah, O'
people, about what He has asked you in His Book to take care of, and about
His rights that He has entrusted to you. Verily, Allah has not created you
in vain nor left you unbridled nor left you alone in ignorance and gloom.
He has defined what you should leave behind.
Taught
you your acts, ordained your death, sent down to you. "the Book (Qur'an)
explaining everything" (Qur'an, 16:89) and made His Prophet live among you
for a long time till He completed for him and for you the message sent
through the Qur'an namely the religion liked by Him, and clarified through
him His good acts and evil acts, His prohibitions and His commands.
He placed before you His
arguments and exhausted his excuses upon you. He put forth to you His
promises and warned you of severe retribution. You should therefore make
full atonement during your remaining days and let yourselves practice
endurance in these days.
These days are fewer as
against the many days during which you have shown obliviousness and
heedlessness towards admonition. Do not allow time to yourselves because
it will put you on the path of wrong-doers and do not be easy-going
because this will push you towards sinfulness.
O' creatures of Allah! the
best adviser for himself is he who is the most obedient to Allah, and the
most deceiving for himself is he who is the most disobedient to Allah.
Deceived is he who deceived his own self. Enviable is he whose Faith is
safe.
Fortunate is he who takes
lesson from others, while unfortunate is he who fell victim to his
desires. You should know that even the smallest hypocrisy is like
believing in more than one God, and keeping company of people who follow
their desires is the key to obliviousness from religion, and is the seat
of Satan.
Be on your guard against
falsehood because it is contrary to Faith. A truthful person is on the
height of salvation and dignity, while the liar is on the edge of ignominy
and degradation. Do not be jealous because jealousy eats away Faith just
as fire eats away dried wood. Do not bear malice because, it is a scraper
(of virtues).
And know that desires make
wit forgetful and make memory oblivious. You should falsify desire because
it is a deception, and he who has desires is in deceit.
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