choose the Hereafter as their priority, and work righteousness, while believing, their efforts will be appreciated. [17:18-19]

Every person tastes death, then you receive your recompense on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever misses Hell, barely, and makes it to Paradise, has attained a great triumph. The life of this world is no more than an illusion. [3:185]

Road to Happiness

Our happiness in this life and in the Hereafter depends on whether or not we become submitters to God alone. As submitters, we should make pleasing God our highest priority. We should make it our ultimate goal to fulfill God’s expectation of us. We must not set up any idols beside God, whether the idol is a saint, the prophet, our ego, business, children, spouse, money, or what have you. We should aim to live a righteous life, and treat each other amicably. We should not lie, cheat, or backbite people. We should do our best to live a life in accordance with God’s commandments in the Quran.  Simply put, we should do the things that God wants us to do, and avoid the things that God does not want us to do. Our ultimate aim in doing all this is to get ourselves worthy of God’s blessing and mercy.

 

When pleasing God becomes the most important aspect of our lives, God makes everything wonderful for us:

God promises those among you who believe and lead a righteous life, that He will make them sovereigns on earth, as He did for those before them, and will establish for them the religion He has chosen for them, and will substitute peace and security for them in place of fear. All this because they worship Me alone; they never set up any idols beside Me…[24:55].

We have to strive to be righteous and to be in the right path in order to attain God’s promise. Therefore we should examine ourselves sincerely at every opportunity. Any time we have a problem in any aspect of our lives, we should search for the lesson, and learn from our lessons. We should submit to God’s will, and remember that God will test us through different means to see if we are steadfast.

No person and nothing else should take priority over God. Once we make this the most important aspect in our lives, we will possess the most valuable thing one can ask for - God’s support. But, if we make anything more important than pleasing God, we will be tested over and over. If we do not realize that fact after all the tests, and we keep confusing our priorities, then we may lose both in this life as well as in the Hereafter.

                                                                                    

Abdullah Arik