Page 16 - The Day of Judgment

14 THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

desires, anger, expectations, lusts, enmities, and pleasures will
cease. Plans made for the future will become meaningless, for those
who had forgotten that they will be returned to Allah, preferring
this world over the eternal life and its misleading wealth, beauty,
and pleasures, will have met their end. On this Day, everyone will
witness clearly Allah's existence and will come face to face with the
death that they had tried so hard to forget. Their attempt to forget
Allah and the Hereafter is finished, and a new beginning, one which
will be eternal and bring no happiness to the unbelievers, is
awaiting them. From the very first moment of this eternal life, the
punishment is so fearsome that those who experience it will beg for
"death" and "annihilation." The beginning of this life is the Day of
Judgment and, "the Hour is coming without any doubt."

LIFE ON EARTH IS TEMPORARY,
AND DEATH IS A CERTAIN REALITY

From your earliest childhood onwards, you head for certain
goals or are guided by others. You probably will have a family and
a job, try to earn more in order to have a better life, educate your
children, and hope that they will have a better life than you did.
Once a week you meet the other members of your extended family.
You take vacations, go to work, and spend the rest of your time at
home. Except for a few incidents which seem to be hiccups on the
way, your life progresses orderly and you usually encounter
nothing outside the ordinary.
Everything in your life seems to be premeditated by the majority
of the society, and everyone's life is like everyone else's. You need to
work to realize these goals, and you need to have a family to