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- February 22, 2024
Those who are crushed by their troubles, those who have problems with their spouses, those whose businesses are failing, those who cannot collect their debts, those who cannot pay their debts, those who are troubled by mother-in-law/daughter-in-law disputes, those whose spending is unbalanced, those who complain about the immorality of their colleagues, those who complain that their children do not listen to them, those exposed to one or more of these problems, and many others like them…
Our problems have grown so large that they weaken even the strongest among us. Those who are not prone to sinning have become drowned in haram. Things we don’t want to do but are forced to do have become indispensable in our lives. Not only are we unable to solve our problems, but there are hardly any people left to even talk to or share them with. These troubles prevent us from living according to the values we believe in. If only these problems were solved, how beautifully we would serve God, right? If only there were a solution… Does anyone know of a solution that could solve all these problems?
If only Allah (swt) would reveal to one of us the solutions to all our current problems and how to achieve them, and if only we could learn from that person and apply it, then we could serve Allah beautifully, right?
Once we believe that the solutions taught to us by that person are Allah’s teachings, it is inconceivable that they would not be a remedy for us. When the person He appoints learns these things and adapts them to his life, he will have produced a very beautiful recipe for life for us. In this respect, it is not necessary for the person He chooses to have lived in our time. Even if they lived in the past, once we learn the answers through reliable records and apply the prescription to our lives, we will be freed from these troubles, won’t we?
YES! Satan has always prevented millions of people, both in the past and in the present, from living a religious life with the same stories, making them believe that they must first solve their problems.
We often hear endless excuses like, “Once I have a steady income, I’ll quit my worldly job and stay away,” “Once I get these things sorted out, inshallah, I’ll start praying,” or “Let me get my life in order first, then you’ll see me!” When we look at how people who aim to practice their religion after solving their personal problems end their lives, we consistently see a legacy of troubled and postponed religious life. Think about the people you know who have passed away in this sense, and you will see that the result is always the same. If we acknowledge the existence of Satan but do not accept him as an enemy, he will aim to make us solve the troubles of worldly life by constantly postponing the deeds of the belief in the hereafter.
ALLAH (swt) says:
Indeed, Satan is an enemy to you, so take him as an enemy. He calls his followers only to be among those who will enter the blazing fire.[134]
What needs to be done is right. Worldly matters must be resolved as soon as possible. The devil’s trick, however, is not to suggest resolving the issue, but to constantly postpone the duties of worship while moving towards a solution, directing us only to solve worldly troubles.
ALLAH (c.c.) says:
Indeed, Satan’s scheme is very weak.[135]
A person who obeys Allah’s commands and avoids His prohibitions, performing the deeds required by belief in the hereafter, does not transgress the boundaries set by Him. As a result of acting within these boundaries, our Creator, EL-GANİ[136], will not leave us without help, and in any matter that cannot be resolved within the boundaries, He will provide us with His help as EL-VEKİL[137]. A person who lives without boundaries, unaware of the line between what is forbidden and what is permissible, will aim to achieve their goal by doing what they can and postponing the requirements of the belief in the Hereafter. The owner of this deception, Satan, by postponing the requirements of the belief in the Hereafter, has actually postponed the solution to the problem.
ALLAH (c.c.) says:
Because he, after coming to me, has indeed led me astray from remembrance (the Qur’an). Indeed, Satan is the one who leaves man alone and without help.[138]
Satan makes matters that need to be resolved within the day seem distant, while matters that are far in the future seem close. Anyone who approaches these events with straightforward logic will immediately fall for this trick. But in reality, this is not the case.
When we ask ourselves this trick consciously, we realize that death is closer than daily issues, and when we ask our hearts, we realize that our Creator is closer than our jugular vein. Because Satan is considered an enemy, his trick is rendered useless, and the mind finds the truth. Someone who takes out a twenty-year bank loan does not see twenty years as very far away when calculating their finances. They consider that day to be the “near future” and calculate, “How can I pay off this debt?” There is nothing illogical or unreasonable about doing this. What is interesting is that a person who calculates based on seeing twenty years as the near future considers becoming a resident of the grave or being brought to the place of reckoning and giving account to be a very remote possibility.
This is how Satan leads people into such distant misguidance. What is truly distant is yesterday, which you spent making calculations about this world and which will never return.
ALLAH (swt) says:
When the matter is settled, Satan will say: “Indeed, Allah promised you the truth. I promised you, but I was a liar. I had no power to compel you. I only called you, and you came to me willingly. So do not blame me; blame yourselves. I cannot save you now, nor can you save me. Indeed, I did not accept your associating me with Allah before. Surely, there is a painful punishment for the wrongdoers.[139]
A Muslim lives a dual life. He lives thinking about both this world and the hereafter. He knows that tomorrow is the Day of Reckoning and he will be asked how he lived his life. For this reason, a Muslim must certainly add the requirements of his servitude to his worldly accounts.
Thus, someone who forgets the existence of an unseen enemy (Satan) will forget that the Prophets sent by Allah (swt) were also sent to solve people’s worldly troubles. These people see the Prophets as messengers sent only to explain when and how to perform acts of worship.
ALLAH (swt) says:
And among them, Allah has bestowed a great favor upon the believers by sending them a Prophet who recites Allah’s verses to them, purifies them (from evil and disbelief), and teaches them the Book and wisdom.[140]
Our Prophet (s.a.v.) says:
O people! I leave you two things which, if you adhere to them, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah and my Sunnah[141]
In fact, while the solution to our problems lies at our fingertips in the form of the prophets who were sent and the authentic sources that describe their lives, we have become people who focus only on solving worldly problems and constantly postpone our deeds for the hereafter, as a result of falling for the tricks of the devils. Just look at our pitiful state… In the script of this movie called “life,” written by the Creator, Muslims should be the leading actors, adding value to human life and explaining the solutions to problems to the whole world from their own resources, through the pen, speech, or sword. they have instead taken on the role of beggars, sitting helplessly on top of a treasure they know lies beneath them, begging passersby for alms. Those who do this for worldly gain are no different from the unbelievers who ask, “Why was a human sent from among us? Shouldn’t an angel have been sent?” They denied the messenger sent to teach and implement Allah’s rules because they conflicted with their worldly interests and became disbelievers. Disbeliever means one who does not see the truth, but it also means one who does not accept it even though he knows it. These people clearly understood the mission of the Prophets and the purpose of the rules they brought, but because they conflicted with their worldly interests, they rejected the message and chose to establish their own rules.
ALLAH (swt) says:
The leaders of Noah’s people said, “He is nothing but a human being like yourselves. He wants to gain honor and superiority over you. If Allah had wanted to send a Prophet, He would have sent us angels.[142]
In reality, only one of us can teach us knowledge, regulate our behavior, and enable us to live as Muslims who earn Allah’s love and pleasure. If angels had been sent to this mentality that has existed throughout time, which makes excuses by saying, “Why was a human like us sent?”, they would have said, “They are angels, and we are humans. How can we do what they do?”
The reason we explain these things is that, although the remedy for our troubles is to follow in the footsteps of the Prophets, we have forgotten that a being like Satan is our enemy. We have become like those who say, “Why was a human being sent from among us?” We have become worldly beings who do not mix the requirements of their faith with their work because of their worldly interests and who live only for pleasure.
ALLAH (swt) says:
There are certain people (who praise Allah) whom neither trade nor commerce distracts from the remembrance of Allah, nor from performing prayer, nor from giving zakat. They fear a Day when hearts and eyes will be overturned.[143]
To prevent a person who has surrendered to religion from falling into such an error, Allah has not even granted believers the right to seek a solution elsewhere.
ALLAH (swt) says:
When Allah and His Messenger have decided on a matter, it is not for a believing man or a believing woman to have any choice in that matter. Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed strayed into clear misguidance.[144]
Prophets are people chosen from among us with the aim of living their lives with honor and dignity in order to earn Allah’s pleasure. When the Quran and Sunnah are referred to in this sense and the knowledge is put into practice, the truth will emerge in all its nakedness. After discussing the guidance that adds value to life, the choices that cause human unhappiness when not applied correctly, and the false belief in the hereafter that arises from dealing only with worldly concerns, we will address the necessity of approaching Islamic concepts from a wise perspective and incorporating their meanings into our lives in order to prepare for the death we will inevitably face.
ALLAH (swt) says:
Every soul shall taste death, and then you will be returned to Us.[145]
The only certainty we face is that we will die. Death is written in the destiny of every living being, whenever it may occur. Since the end of human life in this world is inevitable and there is no escape from it, the most beautiful use of reason can be defined as preparing for one’s own death. The attitude of the believer should be clear here. Because faith requires accepting the existence of the next life. Consequently, humans must prepare themselves for it, but this is not the case for Muslims today. While people should prepare their entire lives accordingly after believing in the existence of death and the afterlife, death has become something to fear, even when considering its severity. Along with this, everyone desires to enter paradise, but no one can enter paradise without dying. It is true that not fearing death does not mean that a person will gain paradise. However, living one’s life based on death means gaining the place one will go to with the aptitude given by one’s faith[146].
Since a person without faith will accept death as the return of matter, living life knowing that they will die will cause their lust for the world to increase twofold.
The building blocks of the worldly test are so magnificent that they are designed so that anyone who wishes can look through any window they choose and find the view pleasing to them. Death is a common feature among living beings. Reason is a common feature among those who are tested. However, because those who are tested adopt different lifestyles, the truths, ideas, approaches, feelings, emotions, and pleasures they form on their way to the outcome are constantly different from one another. Because of these different lives, Islam requires that a person die with faith.
Because wherever, whenever, and however it may be, the lifestyle adopted is determined by the faith within the person. Within a world created to be valued, humans have answers to be gained with their own values. While there are questions whose answers are sought, there are also questions for which humans themselves seek the answers. The only thing that fundamentally solves these issues is faith. Faith gives a person such an understanding that issues begin to resolve themselves. The servant first divides issues into two categories: “only Allah knows” and “answers I can reach through my own efforts.” As a result of this distinction, the person not only minimizes the issues, but also gains greatly by avoiding wasting time and falling into errors that would lead to doctrinal corruption and being associated with the ignorant. He tries to solve issues within the limits of the commands and prohibitions assigned to him, and where he cannot solve them or fears crossing the line, he refers the issue to its owner. For this reason, prayer is the weapon of the believer. The weapon of the faithful and those who do not cross boundaries…
The situation Muslims find themselves in today stems from their lack of weapons. You can find the reason for this by first asking yourself. When was the last time you prayed, for whom did you pray, or what actions did you take to ensure it was accepted? If you don’t pray, why not? If you do pray, is it only for yourself?
Then you say, “My troubles never end, I can’t find a way out, I can’t get results from my own actions.” For desires to arise and be realized, the individuals who make up Muslim societies must recognize this situation as a deficiency and act with a sense of the need for change.
ALLAH (c.c.) says:
The reason is this: Allah does not change the blessing He has bestowed upon a people until they change what is within themselves. Allah is indeed All-Hearing, All-Knowing.[147]
The unbeliever, on the other hand, tries to make sense of the whole universe. His sole purpose is to prove his superiority to other people. To this end, he knows no bounds.
We can also understand how intelligent a person is by looking at whether or not he prepares himself for death. Because a truly intelligent person will undoubtedly prepare himself for the situations he will encounter.
“The more prepared you are for death, the more intelligent you are.”
When we look at society, we see that while we should be striving to achieve the life we believe in by preparing for death, the fear of death adapts us to itself and condemns us to be dragged wherever the ego desires. Since we aim for death itself rather than life after death, we live based on the belief that “since we are going to die, we must consume everything before we die.”
We approach events in such an insensitive, thoughtless, and emotionless manner and embrace this state of life so readily that if we could understand the language spoken by other living beings, we might hear them say, “YOU ARE DEAD!” Who knows, perhaps they are shouting in their own language, but we do not understand.
If death brings insensitivity, thoughtlessness, indifference, and individualism to the living being it comes to, then what can remain of the effect death will have on us if we cannot be people who take death as their fundamental goal and live as they believe? Only breathing remains.
The only difference between living and not living is breathing…
Conscious people who see those who live only to breathe for the sake of pleasure become hopeless and begin to live their lives as individuals. However, living one’s life as an individual, for whatever reason, is sufficient to act according to the desires of the self. Life today is lived in exactly this way. This should not be the case for conscious people. Even if others live life alone, considering that ignorance is spreading, these people must convey knowledge with the aim of passing it on to future generations. They must carry out this conveyance not alone, but in an environment where they can put their actions into practice. Many words are not as explanatory as a single action.
As long as this situation exists, not only those who live solely for pleasure but also those who get angry at them and break their fast are responsible for this situation. Because fasting means abstaining from pleasurable things. The real thing is to accept this abstinence as a duty of servitude. Abandoning this duty brings responsibility to the servant, just like deliberately breaking the fast.
Just as the sum of all breaths forms a life, the sum of all lives forms a population. Population is the plural of self. The collective service of the breaths that form populations to a single life invites us to unity, that is, to monotheism.
[134] Surah Fatir, Verse 6
[135] Surah Nisa, Verse 76
[136] The wealthy, who is not in need of any created being
[137] Who fulfills the duties of creatures in this world and the hereafter, provides sustenance, and is worthy of trust
[138] Surah Furqan, Verse 29
[139] Surah Ibrahim, Verse 22
[140] Al-i Imran Surah, Verse 164
[141] Jamiu’s Saghir: 2923; Feyzu’l Kadir: 3/443; Beyhaki Sunan: 10/114
[142] Mu’minun Surah, Verse 24
[143] Surah An-Nur, Verse 37
[144] Surah Al-Ahzab, Verse 36
[145] Surah Al-Ankabut, Verse 57
[146] Ability, talent, human power
[147] Surah Al-Anfal, Verse 53