Page 67 - Why Do You Deceive Yourself ?

The End Awaiting Those Who Deceive Themselves 65
conform to what is right and true will bring them serious punishment
in the Hereafter. Wherever they go, whatever they do, this pain never
lets them alone. Even if they own the biggest fortune in the world and
travel around from one country to another, they are never spared this
spiritual pressure.
The truth is that this tormented conscience is a warning from
Allah to these people to turn back from their wrongdoing. For this rea-

son, to the faithful it is a great blessing because it encourages people to
come to their senses, repent and correct their behavior. However, for
people who have abandoned religion and sincerity, it is torture in the
full sense of the word. Although they know the reason for this torment
they experience, they ignore its cause instead of taking steps to rectify
it. As a result of the tension brought about by this contradiction in their
lives, they can never be truly happy and at peace.
So, as we said at the beginning of this book, people who deceive
themselves by ignoring and refusing to understand the truth even
though they know it, live their entire lives in spiritual torment. While
their consciences are under this spiritual pressure and suffering this
torment, they try to ease their discomfort with artificial pleasures, but
they can never succeed because the only way of easing a tormented
conscience is to repent and submit to Allah.

If, instead of listening to your conscience, you too deceive your-
self with various excuses and follow your own selfish desires and pas-
sions, you too will experience an inner torment against which you can
never defend yourself. However, the gravest consequence of this form
of self-deception is that the pains you suffer are not solely limited to
the life of this world because Allah tells us that people who deceive
themselves in the life of this world and ignore the Day of Judgment