How to Save Our Souls from Hellfire? Part-3

Planning for the failure!

Those who can’t plan for success, they plan only for failure. For failure, one need not seek any knowledge or skill; it thrives amidst ignorance. And the failure is about the eternal failure in the hereafter. The seed of such infinite failure is sowed during the short worldly life. Manufacturing such failure runs epidemic in the modern world. It is the moral and spiritual failure of the mankind. And it owes to cataclysmic obliviousness of the eternal hereafter. Nothing can be more damaging and pathogenic than such ignorance. While intoxicated with such ignorance, people lose the ability to foresee the ultimate fate or destination of the life. As a result, infinite life after death stays out of their sight. Such ignorance can even flourish in colleges, universities and research institutions; the modern civilisation is a testimony to that. While people lose faith in hereafter, they also lose interest in the roadmap (siratul mustaqeem) that take to paradise. The ignorant man then gleefully takes the roadmap to hellfire. This is the ultimate calamity of ignorance.

Knowing truth is the key to the ultimate success in life. It entails seeking Divine knowledge: it is the most important ibadah in Islam. Five-time Salah was made obligatory in 12^th year of prophet-hood, and the fasting in Ramadan was made obligatory two and half years after the hijra (migration) to Madina. But knowing the Qur’anic knowledge was made obligatory from day one. Such knowledge is not the subject of scientific invention or philosophical discourse or meditation. It comes only from Allah Su’hana wa Ta’la. Hence it can be discovered and understood only from the revealed Books that came from Him; and the holy Qur’an is the last in the series. There exist some common and fundamental Truths in all the Divine Books like the Bible, the Torah and the Qur’an. One such common Truth reveals that human’s life never ends with death. Death comes only as a break in between. The infinite part of the life remains in, the hereafter -either in heaven or in hell. Hence, for attaining the true and infinite success in life such a pivotal Truth must be incorporated in life’s planning and priorities. Otherwise, all planning will be the planning for utter failure.

Moral death: the key to failure

Out of ignorance of the hereafter, how can one plan for success in that eternal life? Such ignorance is the key to failure. The secularists live the life keeping its infinite part out of the sight. They are exclusively focussed only on the worldly part. The agenda for reaching the paradise and avoiding the hellfire does not exist in their plan. The most crucial issue in life thus remains out of their focus. Therefore, whatever they plan and whatever they do ultimately lead to hellfire. Such an awful planning is only possible with the demise of spirituality. And soul can never survive in a man or woman with spiritual death.

Living body needs foods and drinks; and the living soul needs Divine knowledge. Like dead body dead soul too, doesn’t have any appetite either. Hence they distaste and hate seeking Divine knowledge – a sure sign of spiritual death. The secularists and the materialists thus die a spiritual death long before their physical death. So, they live a life on earth with a dead soul. The secularists who claim to be Muslim, they also meet the same fate. The diagnosis of their progressive moral disease comes from the All-knower Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la: “There is a disease in their hearts, so Allah added to their disease and they shall have a painful punishment because they lied.” –(Sura Al-Baqara verse 10). Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la used a special narrative for these morally moribund hypocrites: “as if they were big pieces of dry wood”. –(Sura Munafiqun, verse 4). It is indeed the real curse of secularism cum materialism. Shockingly, such moral disease and death are more epidemic than the most killer diseases even in the Muslims World! So, stays far away from the path of salvation. No other disease has caused such huge damage to the humans than these evil ideologies. Satan firstly deployed the secularist ideology to drive Adam (alaihis salam) and Hawa out of the paradise; now using the same secularist concept to keep the children of Adam (alaihis salam) out of the heaven!

The secularists show their talent in scientific discoveries. They build cities, palaces, roads and industries. But discovering the Divine Truth, finding the Qur’anic roadmap and building the spiritual health that can ensure the real success both here and in the hereafter do not get any importance in their life. Here lies the real pathology of these morally sick people. With such a grave disease in souls, whatever they do cause disasters. Hence criminal practices like colonialism, imperialism, racism, ethnic cleansing, genocide, weapons of mass destructions, World Wars, gas chambers, Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay could flourish amidst the Western practitioners of secularism. The ancient Egyptians too, did miracles by building pyramids. But they showed utter intellectual incompetence cum moral death by worshipping kings like Pharaoh. The ancient Chinese could do miracles too. The raised several thousand miles long great wall zigzagging over the tall and tough mountains; but failed to discover the Divine Truth. Many outstanding Indian scientists and intellectuals still worship cows, snakes, dolls, mountains, rivers, trees and many other abject objects.

The secularists do research to find the cause of everything and every event on earth, but they do not believe in the Creator of the universe. As if the whole universe with all its living and non-living creatures have come to the existence on their own! The ignorance (jahaliyah) of these modern secularists is worse than that of the illiterate Arab Bedouins. The Bedouins could quickly discover the Truth and join the Islamic ummah to make significant contribution. But the failure of the modern secularists has been a permanent feature. They can’t discover any beauty in Islam. Due to their spiritual death, even the highest moral principles that Islam added to the human civilisation goes unnoticed!

The real piety

The real success in life is never a short-lived one. It is about gaining an abode in paradise for infinity. The true failure in life is the failure to achieve it. Such failure takes one to hellfire. The real test of wisdom indeed takes place here to pursue the path of paradise and escape the hellfire. And it has never been cost-free, pain-free and effort-free even for the prophets. Nor does it come through mere supplication (dowa). One needs to earn it by paying the right price. And how to pay the price that has been one of the core subjects of the holy Qur’an. The price needs to be paid by deep faith in Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la (iman), by consistent compliance with His orders (taqwa), by doing righteous deeds (amalus saleh) and placing the best sacrifices in His way (jihad & shahada). While making such endeavours, one faces embedded trials; these are unavoidable. Even the great prophets had to face such harsh and painful trials. It is revealed: “Or do you think that you will enter paradise while the state of those who have passed away before you has not yet come upon you; distress and affliction befell them and they were shaken violently, so that the Apostle and those who believed with him said: When will the help of Allah come? Surely, the help of Allah is near.”–(Sura Baqara, verse 214).

In life, nothing is more important than paying the price for an abode in paradise. Nothing is wiser and more beneficial than converting the whole worldly possessions, potentials and talents into the currency of the hereafter. And the currency of akhera is the good deeds in the way of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Otherwise, with death one gets wholly dispossessed from all of the worldly possessions. The greatest piety in human life is indeed engaging in such conversion of worldly possessions to good deeds. With such a holy engagement, every act, every word and every effort become a precious good deed; and enhance the believers’ closeness to Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala. With such a deep sense of piety, a believer gets transformed into a Divine tool of enjoining the right and eradication the wrong. Thus he or she truly fits into the Divine vision.

While defining the piety or righteous deeds, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la made His Own specification. Spending some leisure time, stale money or unused potential for some good cause is not the real piety. It must be the best part of one’s possession for the best mission –as prescribed by Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Otherwise he or she doesn’t fit rightly into the Divine intention. It is like passing the most decisive exam in life. In such an exam, everyone invests his or her best efforts and the best potentials to get the best result. The same is true in passing the Divine trials which decide the fate in endless life in akhera. Hence it is revealed, “By no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend out of what you love.”-(Sura Al-Imran, verse 92). Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la wants to see the depth of sincerity of a believer in pursuing His proclaimed vision that Islam must overwhelm other faiths and ideologies.

Spending the best part of life and the best assets is indeed the expression of sincere iman (belief); the early Muslims set glorious examples for that. When it was asked by the prophet (sallAllahu alaihis salam) for a war preparation, Hazrat Abu Baker (RA) donated all of his household assets. Hazrat Omar (RA) donated half of his assets. The donations of other companions were also very commendable. More than half of the companions of the prophet Muhammad (sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam) sacrificed even their life in the way of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. In fact, the real iman (faith) comes to a believer’s life when he or she engages every moment and spends the best assets in paying the price for akhera. He or she thus becomes the true powerhouse of good deeds. In a state or society, such believers become the parts of the Divine army for promoting the right and forbidding the wrong. With abundance of such people, states achieve miracles in building best form of civilisation on earth –as was seen in the early days’ of Islam.

The culture of criminality

The disconnection from the Divine Truth and the consequent moral death has the awful consequences. Tendency to do more crimes and spreading the worst criminality comes as a part of it. The human history is full of such man-made calamities. The human mind has indeed proved to be very innovative to cause more failures by generating more wrong beliefs, more atrocities and more new ways to hellfire. Colonialism, neo-colonialism, secularism, capitalism, imperialism, nationalism, fascism, communism are such human inventions. Blood sheds, torture, ethnic cleansing, wars, class wars, World Wars, gas chambers, atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, chemical bombs, Guantanamo Bays and other barbarities are in fact the parts of the same criminality.

What can be more noble and benevolent than finding a way-out from such culture of crimes? Many humans made some efforts to find the way-out. But, they couldn’t show any success. Instead of showing the way-out, they could only add up more fake religions and more bogus ideologies to complicate the problems. They indeed became the parts of the same crime. Now even the Buddhists have emerged as the worst genocidal forces on earth -as recently witnessed in Myanmar and Sri Lanka against the Muslims. The way-out from such manmade calamities could only be prescribed by Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la –the only Knower of all inner illnesses of mankind and the underlying pathologies. The revelation of Islam and the Divine chain of the prophets like Hazrat Adam (alaihis salam), Hazrat Nuh (alaihis salam), Hazrat Ibrahim (alaihis salam), Hazrat Musa (alaihis salam), Hazrat Isa (alaihis salam) and many others are indeed the parts of Divine plan to show the way-out. Prophet Muhammad (sallAllahu alaihi wa sallam) is the last prophet and Qur’an is the last revealed Book of the same chain. Hence Islam stays as the only route for the salvation.

The true believers can never be a party to any crimes. They are the party only to enjoin the right and eradicate the wrong. So, they don’t do any unjust war, nor do they join any imperial or colonial army. Neither do they fight for any ethnic, nationalistic, linguistic and tribal cause. These are haram in Islam. Those who want to save their souls from hellfire must abstain from these forbidden deeds. One can join such crimes only with full detachment from Islam. Such wars caused huge wastage of human lives and wealth in the past. Only in two World Wars, more than 75 million people were killed. Thus the greatest war crimes were committed in human history. Such destruction of human habitat and resources never happened before. What can be the worst khiana (betrayal) of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la’s gift than this?  No disease or calamity, not even the all wild animals could do such damage to the mankind!

The same ugly criminals still continue with the same mission. In fact the culture of criminality has never died. Rather, how to kill more people and how to destroy more houses and properties and how to evict more people from their homeland is the most innovative industry in the modern world. Even two World Wars and dropping two atom bombs couldn’t appease their lust for more bloodbaths. So the bombs are still being dropped in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza, Somalia and many other parts of the world. More bombs were dropped in Vietnam than were dropped in German in World War II. Now unarmed drones have been added to their armoury: hence can kill thousands of people while sitting in a distant room. War tactic thus has entered into a new phase; it is now a homicidal craze of the greedy cowardice. What can be more certain route to hellfire than this? Those who have the slightest sense of accountability in the court of the Almighty, do they indulge in such crimes?

The infinite success

The real success is the success in the hereafter. The worldly success -whatever great it may be is in fact nothing in comparison to that in the hereafter. And the suffering in the world –whatever painful may be is nothing in comparison to burning in hellfire. A drop of water can be compared with water of all oceans; because, both are finite. But comparison between the worldly life and the infinite life in the hereafter is unthinkable. Therefore, pursuing only the worldly success and forgetting the hereafter is an extremely dangerous folly. Those who have no understanding of the hereafter, they are the only people who can ran after such madness. Allah Sub’hana wa Tala warns against such perilous distraction from the hereafter (akhera): “But you prefer the life of this world. But the hereafter is better and everlasting.” –Sura A’la, verse 16-17).

There are thousands of ways that breed failure; but the roadmap to success is only one. It comes only through following the Qur’anic roadmap. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la gives the testimony to such success: “They are the people who are on the path that has been revealed by their Lord; and they are the people who are successful.” –(Sura Baqara, verse 5). One can’t attain such success on his or her own. It comes as the greatest gift in life from Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la for the participation and sacrifice in a Divinely assigned task that entails calling people to the right, enjoining the good and forbidding the wrong. To qualify for such a gift, a believer needs to stay in siratul mustaqeem; and enjoys no option to disengage from the Divine assignment. So, a believing man or woman, by default can never be a party to crime. Nor can spend a single day or moment to serve any anti-Islamic agenda of a person or a party. His or her taqwa doesn’t allow such deviation.

Those who strive for enjoining the good and for forbidding the wrong, they indeed move towards the paradise. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la describes them as the successful people on earth. It is the true religiosity of a human to form rank to survive with such mission. So it is revealed: “And from you, there must be an ummah (party raised and bound by faith) who will invite people to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and those will be the successful.” –(Sura Al-Imran, verse 104). So, the success is defined. Inviting the people to good, enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong is the route to eternal success. The true believers must fit into that Qur’anic mission; otherwise run into utter failure.  People make the most crucial mistake in life not in their profession or trade, but in understanding and pursuing the real success in life. A believer in Islam may differ from a non-believer on hundreds of issues, but the most crucial and most decisive difference is indeed on the perception of success and failure. A non-believer considers worldly pleasure, power and influence as the markers of success. Life’s real problem starts from such wrong perception; it is indeed the mother of all problems. With such wrong perception, the people live with a wrong mission and with a wrong goal. So everything goes wrong in their life and ultimately enters into hellfire.

The spiritual death

Having physical ill-health or disease is not a sin; hence, not a bar to paradise. But spiritual ill-health or death is a self-engineered moral assassination. The disbelievers thus kill their own souls. They destroy the most invaluable endowment of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. So it is a huge crime. Every disbeliever thus turns a true killer; and a perfect candidate for hellfire. To testify their criminality, Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la labels them jalem (oppressor cum transgressor): “And the disbelievers: they are the oppressors.” –(Sura Al –Baqara, verse 254).  Spiritual disease or death kills the insights of a man. After such a moral death, one can’t foresee and pursue the right path (siratul mustaqeem); rather gets easily seduced by the lucrative paths of hellfire.

Sin breeds more sins. And more sins bring more punishments. Hence defiance against the Divine Truth doesn’t go unpunished; it invites more punishment from Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. So, it is revealed: “Allah has set a seal upon their hearts (spiritual heart) and their hearing and there is a covering over their eyes; and for them is a great punishment.” –(Sura Baqara, verse 7). What can be the worse punishment than getting such incapacitated heart, eyes and ears? Due to sustenance in disbelief, it turns even more awful. They are labelled as “deaf, dumb and blind”; their disbelief becomes a permanent feature, therefore “they will not turn back (to Islam).”–(Sura Baqara verse 18).

The spiritual or intellectual inability of a man or woman is more punishing than the physical inability. The victims of spiritual or intellectual inability lose humanity, morality and the power of contemplation. They move on earth with the human body and shape, but not with human mind or morality. Due to their spiritual ill-health or death, they easily fall in the hands of the evil forces and turn tools of massive destruction. Hence becomes a curse on earth. Nimrod, Pharaoh, Hitler, the colonialists, the imperialists, the autocrats and other forces of evil in all ages recruited their foot-soldiers from such hordes of dead spirituality. So they could kill people on industrial scale and could build empires on vast expanses of occupied lands. The criminals need fresh recruits to feed their evil intention for all the time. They also understand that sound moral or spiritual health makes people incorruptible; and turns them incompatible with the criminal gangs. Therefore, the evil forces always hate people growing up with spirituality.

The war is real

Hence, the secularists’ war against Islam and Qur’an is very real. Taking Muslims from the holy Qur’an and sowing the seeds of corruption in Muslim societies is their key strategy. The European colonialists carried out such a strategy in all over the occupied Muslim lands. The ideological viruses of atheism, materialism, secularism, nationalism and communism were deliberately injected into the Muslim polity. As a result, the de-Islamisation of the Muslims went much deeper; and the Muslims started living without Islam. Before the advent of the colonialists, there was not a single Muslim country without shria law. But now, there is none.

By default, a Muslim cannot accept or practise any other law except sharia. Because, incorporation of man-made law in a Muslim judiciary is indeed the incorporation of kufr; it is betrayal against Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. It is haram in Islam. Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la has given stern warning against such practice in 3 verses in Sura Maida: “And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed -it is those who are kafir (disbelievers)” -(verse 44).  “And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed -it is those who are zaleem (oppressors)” -( verse 45). “And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed -it is those who are fasik (sinner or disobedient)” -(Maida, verse 47). But such Divine warning doesn’t impact people with dead soul. They are unable to take any advice or admonition. The intellectual and spiritual death has been so huge among the Muslims that they can’t take any lesson from the holy Qur’an! Hence, even the dazzling red signals of Qur’anic roadmap go unnoticed in their journey! With such noncompliance, can one approach the gate of paradise? 22/08/15

(To be continued)