Al Ghazali on The Remembrance of Deaththe Afterlife From

[Ms DD]

Salaam

 

Ghazali, he is a master of the written word and writes in emotional,spiritual,fluent, writing style with his imagination using the Quran and Sunnah to put you on the spot.

 

If you are serious about Ihsaan and gnosis (knowledge of Allah watching you) then buy that book. http://kitaabun.com/shopping3/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=6&products_id=31

 

The first few pages are very very emotional. He purrs and softens you up with Islam and your Imaan and the fact you are Muslim and it is a gift.

 

Then blasts you to the moon with memories of childhood freinds you may have known, who are now dead and buried in their graves. The worms going through the skulls of the sinners, whilst the one who is safe is surrounded by goodness and light.

 

The tyrant king who has snaked writhing between his ribs (realities of the the punishment of the grave) as we sit and read the book, all these things are real and happening now in the unseen and seen world.

 

Yet here we all are, none of us remember Death. He writes about Umar Bin Abdul Aziz (ra)sermons and how he wept and cut down the congregation by rememberance of death and the realities. The Prophet Salalahu Alayhi wasalaam said in authentic Hadith.

 

"The one who is most intelligent amongst men, is the one who remembers death often, and prepares for it"

 

It is a natural element to be engrossed in this world I think and I think Shaytaan tries to keep our thoughts away from preparation for the next life as much as possible. For me, my biggest fear is that I have put off too much that which I could have done today and that the reality of death is very real and ever present - only Allah swt knows our time and I pray for a long life insha'allah so that I have as much chance to come as close to Allah swt as possible and do all the things I need to do to please him. Every new day we wake up is another chance to come closer to Allah swt and repent our sins insha'allah.

 

its all about prioritising - its too easy to think that a present material need is more important that a future spiritual one, when in reflection it seems absurd to put things in chronological order like this. We do not do this with many other things in our lives - if my child was sick and urgently needed to go to the hospital down the road and at that moment my favourite TV programme came on - I wouldnt sit down on the sofa to watch it - I would be out the door with my child on the way to the hospital! Just because 1 task is present in the moment and material and the other is more spiritual/emotional and requires a time lapse before seeing the results insha'allah - is not a reason to put the 'latter' one off. Things should be prioritised in order of importaance and benefit - and what could be more important or benefical than worshipping Allah swt?

 

Once, I was at home and bored with nothing to do and I thought "oh well might as well go do my prayers now" ( zuhr I think it was) but then I felt bad cos it had only occured to me to pray because I was bored and boredom isn't a reason to pray and so half of me was saying "pray" and the other was saying" but you only thought to pray because you are bored" . But then I realised that boredom is even LESS of a reason NOT to pray and alhamdulillah, of course I did my prayers.

 

Anyway enough of the ramble but what I think I am getting at is how the human mind ( and therefore also with Shaytaan's influence in part) can come up with the most irrational and illogical and down-right ****** reasons to not worship Allah swt - be it through salat, charity, dhirk etc and yet we often fail to realise when we assess ourselves that we would not make such ****** irrational decidions and thought-processes in other areas of our life. So why do we do it for the most important part??

 

Hence - many of us, if not all of us, should be aware that we may not, cannot, have done enough to worship Allah swt when our time comes - and we should make du'a that we accomplish even half of what we intend before our time is up, ameen.

 

This is Ihsaan. Knowledge of Allah knowing he is watching you, but you cant see him.