Vacate When Visa Expires

Excerpt from Mufti Muhammad Mustafa Miftahi book
Published in Muslim Murasu, May 2013

Man goes after immediate gains and misses the eternal life. Surah Qiyaamat, 75, verse 20 – ‘bal tuhibboonal aajilata watazaroonal akhirata’.
A person visiting foreign country works hard and sends home money. If he spends lavishly, he will have to return home and suffer. Enduring, lasting pleasures should not be traded for ephemeral luxuries. Fools will do so. Smart people will put the limited time available to best use. Daarul amal. Earth is farming land for the hereafter. Till here and you can see the harvest there.
People have to leave when their visa expires. We will have to leave this earth after death. Those who aspire for honor, respect and peace should bear the training and efforts that are demanded of them. Approach towards education and work will be lax when there is no firm belief in future. It will show in callous attitude.
People educate their children expecting a good future. They don’t allow them to while away time in wasteful ways. People select frugal, simple, cheap methods to live in visiting places and focus on returning home. Man is given an opportunity in this world to make his hereafter pleasant. He won’t get another chance to return to earth after this.
Surah Baqara, 2, verse 28 – ‘kaifa takfuroona billahi wakuntum amwaatan fa ahyaakum shumma yumeetukum shumma yuhyeekum shumma ilaihi turjaoon’. You were dead. Allah gave you life, He will cause you to die, and again will bring you to life. You will return to Him.
Man has a long life. It doesn’t start with his birth in this world nor does it end with his death here. A long life awaits him.
This verse first mentions death and then turns towards life. Understanding this will get us rid of worldly obsessions. Surah Mulk, 67, verse 2 – ‘khalaqal mauta wal hayaata’. In man’s version, death comes after life. The Quran establishes death-first-life-later idea.
Birth is one door and death is another door. Man comes to earth through first death and enters another world through his second death.
Man does not know of the events that took place before his birth. His life after death is not in front of his eyes. The life here continuously deludes him. The teaching of the Quran is to remind him of death. That will mend his actions. People thinking of life first will forget death. Those focused on death will spend every day as the last day and every night as the last night. Life is given to examine and learn. Freedom will be tested. Every action is being recorded. Death is doorstep to the hereafter.
Kalipha Umar bin Abdul Ajeez requested for a loan from state treasury. “Death can come anytime”. His request for loan was rejected. The events man witnesses in this cause-and-effect world confuses him. Things in the hereafter will be different from what we see here. There process is completely different and incomprehensible.