Page 38 - Why Do You Deceive Yourself ?

36 WHY DO YOU DECEIVE YOURSELF?

they regard every target they set for themselves as the most important
thing in the world. For instance, the most important aim of a secretary
is not to forget the boss's meetings; of a student, to earn the highest
possible marks; of a shop assistant, to sell the most shoes on a given
day; of a businessman, to win a major tender; of an athlete, to take the
biggest prize in his event; of a singer, to have more people listen to his
CDs; of a young girl, to wear the most beautiful dress at a party she is
going to; of a high school student, to become the boyfriend of the
school's most beautiful girl; of a translator, to find the perfect words;

and of a writer, to write the most successful books and articles. Of
course, in all these things it is natural for a person to want to do and be
the best but as we said at the outset, they are not the most important
tasks in a person's life. There is no more important task for a person
than earning Allah's good pleasure and becoming a servant of Allah
who deserves Paradise.
If a person deceives himself, ignores the truth and believes that
his worldly desires are the sole purpose of life, he will suffer great re-
gret when suddenly, he finds himself face to face with death. Up to
that moment he has believed that the most important things were his
house, business, wife, car, diplomas, friends, family and circle of busi-
ness acquaintances; but at his first sight of the angel of death he real-
izes how fleeting they were and that they were just parts of his test in
life. Immediately afterwards, with the boundless blessings of the

Garden on one side and violent physical and mental torment of the
Fire on the other, he suffers an insupportable helplessness and regret
when he gives the account of his deeds to Allah.
At that moment all that is important is what he has done to earn
Allah's approval; but this person has done nothing of the kind during
his life. He has not attempted to gain the approval of Allah. Then he