By Anonymous

“The one who is averted from the torment on Day of Judgement, Allah swt has surely been merciful to him. That is the manifest success. “[Anam:16].

In numerous ayaat, Allah swt tells us of the success of the believers on the Day of Judgment. When Allah swt speaks of success, we are obligated to understand the definition of success by His terms. He swt says in Surah ali’Imran: 200

“…and have Taqwa of Allah, so that you may be successful.”

By Allah swt’s definition, success necessitates Taqwa.

What is Taqwa? Taqwa is to perform every act with the consciousness that our Lord is watching over every deed that we perform. Before we perform an evil deed, it is knowing that Allah swt is above the seven heavens watching us. It is realizing that there is not a secret that our heart contains that He is unaware of. [Hud: 5] It is being aware of the fact that with every deed we perform, witnesses are being created. For Allah swt mentions that on the Day of Judgment, the earth will throw out its burdens and it will report concerning all that it has witnessed. [Zalzalah:2-4] It, the earth, is a witness to each one of our actions and Taqwa is being conscious of the fact that witnesses against us are being created every second. It is understanding that as we speak, the angels beside us, Kiraman Kaatibeen, are recording every word we utter.[Infitar:11] These two angels are watching us constantly, just observing and writing. They are writing down every thought, every deed, every word, the speech we let our ears indulge in and the sights that we take pleasure in; every action, great or small is being recorded. We cannot fathom the intricacy with which the angels are writing this biography, for on the Day of Judgment we will exclaim,

“Woe to us! What is this Book that does not pass over any action without recording it. It leaves out nothing small or great.” [Kahf: 49]

Hence, being aware of this Meeting with Allah swt is part of our Taqwa.

But we forget this Meeting. We seem to live our lives in forgetfulness of the most important Meeting of our lives. This is the nature of man: to forget. In Arabic, the word for man, Insaan, comes from the Arabic verb nasiya (to forget). Simply put, this indicates to us an important lesson, that we are innately forgetful creatures. However, after realizing this fact, it is incumbent upon us that we remind ourselves of this Meeting constantly-constantly.

We must constantly be engaged in activity that reminds us of this fact. A perfect way to start is by humbling ourselves before Allah swt and asking Him to forgive us for everything and anything we have committed. We will never be at a loss for words when we ask Allah swt to forgive us. When we come to realize (and we will come to realize) the endlessness of our sinning, we are further comforted by the fact that Allah swt’s mercy unto His slaves is endless and unfathomable. Even if we were to come to Him repeatedly with sins that reached the clouds of the sky and sins nearly as great as the Earth, he reassures us:

“O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, wand I shall not mind…” [Tirmidhi].

Then there is the Qur’aan-the greatest of Reminders. We should not feel as if our day is complete unless we have recited a few ayaat from the Qur’aan and have contemplated over them. Allah swt asks:

“Will they not, then, ponder over this Qur’an? - or are there locks upon their hearts?” [Muhammad:24]

Allah swt has informed us in the Qur’aan of the Day of Judgement…of the questions we will be asked and the events to take place. He asks us repeatedly to ponder over these ayaat. If we truly desire to attain the Greatest Success, this is what our lives must be a preparation for. This is why we must strive to live our lives full of Taqwa. We must remember this Day ALL THE TIME because remembering it on the Day of Judgment will do us no good. “

And the Day Hell is produced, that Day man will remember; but how will the remembrance help him? He will say: “Oh! If only I had prepared in advance for this life of mine!” That Day no one will punish as He punishes. [al-Fajr, 23-25]

We make du’a to Allah swt that we are not forced to utter such words on the Day of Judgment. We make du’a that Allah swt make us amongst those who spend our youth in His servitude and amongst those that are not overcome by sickness or ailment in our old age. And we sincerely make du’a that He swt make our last deeds our best deeds and make the best day of our lives the Day that we meet Him swt; and that we be amongst those who enter the gardens of Jannatul Firdous bi ghayri hisaab wa laa adhaab. Ameen.