This Ramadan, MuslimMatters is pleased to host the Institute Of Knowledge‘s daily Ramadan series: Keys to the Divine Compass. Through this series, each day we will spend time connecting with the Qur’an on a deeper, more spiritual, uplifting level.

Previous in the series: Juz 1 Juz 2 Juz 3 Juz 4 Juz 5 Juz 6 Juz 7 Juz 8 Juz 9 Juz 10 Juz 11 Juz 12 Juz 13 Juz 14

Juzʾ 15: Choose Wisely from the Two

Bismillah-ir Raḥmān-ir Raḥīm. All praise to Allah and peace and salutations upon his servant and final messenger Muḥammad (pbuh), Assalāmu ‘Alaykum wa Raḥmatullāhi wa Barakātuh! Welcome to another episode of our Ramaḍān Reflection series, Keys to the Divine Compass, where we go over verses of the Qur’an from every Juz throughout the month of Ramaḍān so that we can derive lessons and apply them to our lives.

InshaAllah today I will be going over verses 18 and 19 from Sūrah al-Isrā’ (Sūrah 17) in which Allah (swt) says, “Whoever desires this fleeting world, We hasten in it whatever We please to whoever We will; then We destine them for Hell, where they will burn, condemned and rejected. But whoever desires the hereafter and strives for it accordingly, and is a believer, it is they whose striving will be appreciated.” Allah (swt) in these two verses is giving both a note of hope and a warning for the paths that are available for the creation to take.

Allah (swt) says that at the conclusion of sending all the messengers and all the revelations when the message is clear and the expectation of your Lord is clear, you have two paths to choose from. You can choose to live in this world as if you only have this life to live, choose to do as you please without any boundaries, rules, regulations, and without hesitation do as you wish and be your own master. Or, the second path that is available to you, is that you live a life of discomfort, sacrifice, live according to the boundaries and regulations that Allah (swt) has placed upon you, and you put an effort in the life of the hereafter where you expect the reward not to be given perhaps in this world but given in the next.

Allah (swt) says that a person who wants the immediate benefit of this life, the fleeting, temporary blip of existence compared to the rest of eternity, if a person chooses to put all their chips on the table and wants to only focus on their life in this world, Allah (swt) will give it to them. If a person wants the immediate benefits of this life, if they want to live within the glitz and glamor of this life Allah (swt) says that we will give them whatever they wish in this world. We will give them whatever we wish to whomever we wish, and this is something that we see around us today, that the people who are perhaps the most unethical and immoral have the most resources, and the people who covet the most have the most. Allah (swt) says that because they wished to just have everything in this world and to enjoy the comforts of this life and not to worry about anything else, He gives it to them because on the day of judgment they will not be able to say ‘Oh Allah, I did not know that there was another option available. I did not know that there was a better path available’ (because the messengers and revelations had been sent down to warn humanity of the hereafter). Allah (swt) in the meantime gave them what they desired in this world and destined for them a place in the Fire, and on the day of judgment they will enter the Fire in a state of disgrace, discarded, thrown in, and forgotten.

That is not a path that we want to take. Allah (swt) says the path of the believers is for the one who desires the hereafter. This verse does not necessarily mean that a person cannot enjoy the comforts of this world, it does not mean that a person lives a life of extreme poverty and sacrifice in this world. What it simply means is that during our worldly existence, as we go about our day-to-day and work to take care of ourselves, our families, our responsibilities, Allah (swt) reminds us that our ultimate objective is still in the hereafter. Our ultimate objective is to aim for the hereafter, so the one who aims for the hereafter and not just intends but tries for it as it will not come easily and without sacrifice. It does not come without denying ourselves our base impulses, without denying ourselves the things that we would also like to do just like everyone else.

Allah (swt) says the one who intends for the hereafter and works towards it. Yet there are many people who have a concept of the hereafter, many who hope for an afterlife, but Allah (swt) says that it must be in the right frame of mind, with belief and submission to Him. One who submits to Allah (swt), submits to the final Revelation, submits to the mission of the Prophet (pbuh) with the right frame of mind, when a person aims for the hereafter and works towards it Allah (swt) says that all of their efforts, sacrifices, denying themselves of what they had wished to do, all of it is very much appreciated by Him. Allah (swt) is Shakūr, He is the Most Appreciative. We know and believe that our worship and what we do for Allah (swt) does not increase Him in any way, and we are also aware that what we do not do, as in what the rest of humanity chooses not to do in not acknowledging and not worshiping Him, does not harm Allah (swt) at all.

At the end of the day whatever we put in our worship and sacrifice in terms of abstaining from sin, trying to follow the path of good, trying to stay away from the path of wrong, Allah (swt) says that all of this is being witnessed and written down by the angels. Allah (swt) sees all, hears all, and knows everything in His infinite knowledge, and our actions are appreciated because Allah (swt) knows that we are doing it only to please Him. For the believer, the pleasure of Allah (swt) that will be earned and declared upon them on the day of judgment, that ‘I am pleased with you’, that is the greatest reward a believer will receive on that day.

May Allah (swt) enable all of us to receive that declaration from Him, that He is pleased with us, that our efforts had been accepted, and that all the sacrifices that we had done during our lives were InshaAllah worth the effort. May Allah (swt) guide, bless, and protect us all. Assalāmu ‘Alaykum wa Raḥmatullāhi wa Barakātuh.