Page 41 - Why Do You Deceive Yourself ?

Being Sincerely Religious without Deceiving Yourself 39
artist aims to be well known by everybody in his own country, loved
and respected and recognized as a great talent. When he succeeds in
this, his next target is to achieve the same thing on a world scale. We
can give examples of this type that concern many different people. In
the life of the world, these people work day and night to realize their
ambitions. They make many sacrifices, suffer many difficulties and
struggle to overcome problems and obstacles of all kinds.
But are their lives long enough to achieve what they want?
Everybody needs to think about this as a priority because success in

none of the plans outlined above is guaranteed. By contrast, it is cer-
tain that death comes to everybody. In spite of this, these people make
no plans and preparations for the Hereafter. They devote the whole of
their lives to the realization of their worldly ambitions. They never
even consider that one day death will come and with it all their plans
will be abandoned incomplete, because Satan has made them prom-
ises as described in the Qur'an, and they waste their lives by allowing
themselves to be deceived by these promises.
Instead of chasing long-term targets, a person should live in the
way Allah has shown us in the Qur'an, knowing that he is responsible
to Allah and will be called to account in His presence on the Day of
Judgment. If not, he may find himself excluded from the Garden be-
cause of failure to prepare for eternal life and missing the opportuni-
ties given to him. A person who wastes himself on worthless tasks

during the period that Allah has granted him will suffer great regret in
the Hereafter. We are warned of this:
… Did We not let you live long enough for anyone who was
going to pay heed to pay heed? (Surah Fatir: 37)
As we are told in the verse above, everybody is granted a period
in which to take advice and listen to the voice of his conscience. No