FROM THIS LIFE TO THE NEXT Iman

When we were children, the days felt endless. Time passed by slowly, pleasantly, and patiently. As we get older, time becomes faster, more difficult, and leaves us in the dust. Why is time so harsh? Why does it feel like our lives started out as endless, and that it eventually slips through our fingers faster than we realize? Maybe it’s because the longer we live, the less we live. I don’t just mean that we come closer to death. Rather, our time spent living holds less weight. In the first 24 hours of being alive, an hour was 1 out of 24 of our lifespan. When we reach 20 years, an hour becomes 1 out of 175,320 of our lifespan.

As we get older, an hour becomes nothing.

Days become nothing.

Years become nothing.

Yet, despite our lives slipping through our fingers like grains of sand, we are taught to exist bountifully. To balance our deen and the dunya. To use those experiences and fill our hearts and days with a life worth living. Part of that life is how we interact with others—the good we do for people that will one day speak on our behalf. Yes, our lives become shorter and shorter, but there is so much we can do to make our legacies last.

Islam’s concept of Sadaqa Jaariyah reflects the characteristics every person should strive to have. It is the charity that follows us into the afterlife. Islamic Relief Canada describes it as words of advice to people who then pass it on to their children who pass it on to their childrenthose words will ring through and testify on your behalf. If you pass away, and your family gathers money to build a well, everyone and thing to benefit from that source of nourishment can save you by the will of Allah (swt).

Sadaqah Jaariyah is universal. It can come in the form of many things, but ultimately it will follow you into your next life. Regardless of whether your time in this dunya is short or lengthy, the endless afterlife is what will truly define your existence. It is the result of your work in this world, either through your own efforts or the legacy you leave behind.

Our existence is an Amaanah. We will be asked what we did with our time. We will be asked if we made our time worthwhile. When our deeds are being weighed on the scales, will we have someone to say that the good we have done or the good done on our behalf has helped them? Will our children carry our legacy? When we meet our loved ones who had passed on before us, will they ask us about what we did to ensure that their acts of goodness did not cease? More importantly, will we be able to confidently tell our brothers and sisters that we continued to help others in their name?

When we live our lives, we do what we can to make a lasting impact. But there is only so much one can do in such a short amount of time. That is why the Prophet (pbuh) told us “When a human being dies, all one’s deeds cease, save three: a Sadaqah Jariyah, [religious] knowledge [one leaves behind] from which others benefit, and a righteous child who prays for one” (Sahih Muslim 1631).

That being said, we should strive to live our lives in a way that associates us with acts of kindness, charity, and goodness. Live a life that urges others to do things that will benefit their community. Speak with love, spread knowledge, and do something that will bring peace to another.

If we truly must live such short lives, where every passing second becomes a smaller fraction of our lives, why not hold the memory of those who are gone in a way that will help them? In a way that will reach them no matter what and from a place of good intention, out of love for our Ummah. Love that our Prophet (pbuh) encouraged us to have and that Allah (swt) made us with.

In regard to us as individuals, we must do our best to let acts of good seep into our afterlife. Or make it known to our families that goodness should follow us to our graves. Let that speak for us on the day of judgement, rather than our mistakes.

Hala Sheta

All around me, I see God

This piece is inspired by the Islamic philosopher, Ibn Tufayl’s book, Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, which tells the story of a man living on an uninhabited island who finds God through his contemplation of the island and experimentation with its elements. I especially wanted to emphasize how Hayy engages in taffakur [contemplation] of the world around him and how he admires The Creator’s touch in everything he sees.