The Biggest Day in your life!

No it is not your birthday, or the day you turn 16 and get your driver's license. It is not even your wedding.

 Birthdays are a big deal for kids. For almost all kids, life is about balloons, streamers, inflatable bounce houses and slides, especially birthday cake and presents. Kids love to chose their birthday party theme, colour their birthday invitation cards, dress up like their favourite superhero or princess, lick the icing off the cake and tear the gift wraper to find the toy they always wanted inside. When my little cousin was turning 5, he nearly called all our close relatives to remind them of his birthday. Even now, he likes to show off on his tiny stubby fingers how old he is. He is proud that he is growing up (especially since he is getting presents for it every year). Still no matter how much of a blast a birthday can be, it is not the biggest day in life. In fact it is not even halal to celebrate birthdays! Birthdays are actually a part of the pagan religion. See my dear Shaykh Anwar's explanation here.
Just want to add one thing about birthdays before I move on...birthdays are turning our kids into brats. An average 21-century child is more self-centered and egocentric than the kids from the past generations. Why? Because parents nurse their every whim and desire so much so that today's children cannot see beyond their own feelings and thoughts. Not only do they cry and throw a fit to get what they want but they also bite and beat the person they want it from. When parents see this out-of-control behaviour, they get scared and do whatever the kid demands. This magnifies the problem instead of mending it. Because the parents give-in, the kids think that the more they continue the rude and reckless routine, the more attention they will get. Raise your kids with the Prophet's sunnah (s.a.w), that is the only way to save them from shaytan.

So where were we?
Yes, the biggest day in your life!

Driving - which teenager is not excited by the sound of V12 super charged turbo engine roaring? At 16, many of us dreamed of power steering a high agility scorcher on four wheels with convertible roof mechanism, crisply geometric nose, strong deep shoulders and chopped off rump. My brothers are still in their teens so all they ever talk about is acceleration this and rpm that. Their vehement passion is getting their license and driving a blazing orange Pagani Zonda or Yellow (marrane Apus) Lambourghini Gallardo. Yes, it'll be intensely exhilarating and emphatically wild to cruise 350 km/hr in a car with a body that can snap necks...but it is still NOT the most important thing in life. The sahaba (r.a) enjoyed their rides but they didn't worship them. Yes, they cared for their horses and camels; named them, washed them etc but I cannot for the life of me, think of any sahabi (r.a.) who watched youtube videos all day about a ride that he wanted to buy or had posters of his ride all up his room. Besides the freedom and a the rage, driving comes with a lot of responsibility. The moment you get your license, guess what? You get to drive your siblings to school, to soccer practice and take your mom shopping. Not to mention pay for gas, insurance, maintenance...HURRAY! (sighs).

Wedding - am grinding my teeth on this one....nearly every (deranged) man and woman (who has nothing better to do in their lives) looks forward to marriage as the ultimate ticket to the happiness. Okay, maybe not deranged? Marriage is from the Prophet's sunnah (s.a.w) and it is part of completing one's faith. The Prophet (s.a.w) encouraged Muslims to marry young and keep the wedding ceremony simple. But because all movies and songs grossly romanticize marriage as a once-in-a-lifetime celebration, people ditch the Sunnah and go with superficial standards of society. Thousands of dollars, months of planning and manpower is wasted on just one day that flies by. The bride and the groom merely sit in one corner, which defeats the purpose of a 86’x 56’x 11’ banquet hall (you can rent that much space if you were going to play football or something but for a wedding? Come'on! Just do Nikkah in the Masjid). The dress is so heavy (with embroidery and elaborate ornamentation) that it itches and is too warm to wear. More often than not, the bride just suffocates and sweats under the weight of her dress. Moreover, to this day, I have actually never seen the bride or her family eat the wedding food so I have no idea why they cater a seven course meal with three deserts, drinks and chai.
 

What is more crucial than the wedding itself I think, is the person one is getting married to. Do you really know your future partner? How much Deen, Da'wah spirit and good akhlaaq are you both bringing in to the relationship? Do you fully understand the rights and responsibilities of a spouse in Islam? How will you deal with the inevitable speed bumps ahead? (Don't forget, Shaytan loves to break marriages). So the wedding day is not all that glamorous and glossy as it is fantasized to be. PS. next time you know someone who is getting married, please have them read, "Companions of the Prophet" Vol. 1 by AbdulWahid Hamid, pages 14-31 to see what the wedding of Fatima (r.a) with Ali (r.a) looked like and take lesson. 


That being said, what is the biggest day then? It is not graduation, not anniversary, not when you have your first baby. Then?

The biggest Day is the Day of Judgment.
Allah introduces the Day of Judgment in Surah Naba (Ch. 78 of the Noble Qur'an) as, "the greatest news". There is CTV News, CNBC, CNN and Al Azeera. These are man-made and clearly manufactured news. But the Day of Judgment is news from Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. The Day of Judgment is detrimental not to a group people, of a certain religion or economic circumstance in a particular country but the entire human race. So this is one news we need to read about an read it NOW!

With so much going on in our lives, its sort of hard to fathom all of this will actually come to an end one day. We see many endings, just 2 nights ago, after Taraweeh, the Imaam told us that some 33 year old brother died an hour ago from cancer. We all made duaa for him and then home. Every day, there are over 156,000 deaths.  Every minute, 108 people on earth breath their last.  Every second, 2 souls are perished. Still we remain so careless with our time as if we are going to live forever. No car accident, cancer, or natural catastrophe conjures our consciousness.

I partially blame television. We are constantly exposed to movies that downplay the magnitude of the Day of Judgment. "2012" for example, made the blockbuster top 10 hit list. Every man, woman and child, Muslim and non-Muslim, either saw it or heard about it. And what did this hit movie
depict? A doomsday scenario (earth's crust displacement / basically an earthquake and mega tsunami that devastates the entire planet), killing millions. But of course the hero and his lover secure an Antonov 500 aircraft that takes them to an ark and float to some distant land (South Africa) where they live happily ever after. "Core" was another blockbuster hit of 2003. It showcased another end of the world scenario, reversed thanks to a team of expert scientists that make a top secret space-shuttle-type-rocket to go to the core of the earth to fix the electromagnetic field. In the 1990s the movie "Epidemic" had the storyline of this diseased monkey from Vietnam infecting the entire human race with its virus. People began to die in scores until a genius doctor saves the planet with his new strand medicine. ---- You see what I am getting at? The TV mocks the coming of Day of Judgment. And because TV is watched in our homes 24/7, we consciously accept the TV's message and do not perceive the Day of Judgment as a fast-approaching and all encompassing reality. The TV suggests that even if the world is coming to an end, don't worry, some geologist, scientist, brave heart, epitome of good looks and elegance will rescue you.

Allah says, كَلَّا سَيَعْلَمُونَ and ثُمَّ كَلَّا سَيَعْلَمُونَ Nay, soon you will know and then nay soon you will find out. All these plots and narratives on TV about the Day of Judgment are a joke. They have nothing to do with reality. Its just their wishful thinking. These people are مُخْتَلِفُونَ. They have all these ideas of what might possibly happen on the Day of Judgment but they don't have a consensus. Sometimes they say (show in a movie) that an astroid or a meteorite will hit the earth. At other times they parade the Aramagadon (end of times war) synopsis.

Apart from being brain-washed by TV, why else don't we take the Day of Judgment with the seriousness that it deserves? Because we don't know Allah and revere Him with the love and respect that He deserves.
Who is Allah?  He is the One Who made the earth. He made the mountains, people, the day and the night. Allah made the sun and the moon; the sky and the clouds. He sends down rain. He cultivates the earth with plants, trees and gardens.

 The earth is 32% iron, 31% oxygen, 15% silicon and 13% magnesium. 70% of the earth's surface is water, only 30% is dry land. 70% of water makes up the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic oceans. The dry land entails seven continents - Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antartica, Europe and Australia. These continents host 196 countries and are home to 10,000 birth species, 30 million animal species and 10,000 reptile species. There are over hundreds and thousands of mountain ranges on earth and 400,246,300 trees. The mountains give us natural gas, petroleum, iron, zinc, salt, magnesium, tin, titanium, diamonds and pearls. There are more mountains in the oceans than there are on land.  The largest mountain range, called the mid-ocean ridges is 5000 km in length under the Indian Ocean. The second largest range, called the 90 east ridge consists of a series of 90 mountains, also under the Indian Ocean. Trees produce all our food, juices, salads, and medicine. All in all, the earth is a an intricate and incredible planet - full of Allah's blessings and mercy. Allah made earth, our home; comfortable and convenien.

The earth's tectonic plates crash into each other, forming mountains as the sides of the plate crumple like cars in a head on collision. Mountains also form along fault lines; blocks of the earth are lifted as two plates grind together. The uplifted part forms a mountain and the lower part is filled with eroded material. Lava bulging from a volcano also forms mountains made up of left over rock and ash collection. Allah created the mountains as pegs to stabilize the earth's surface, lest it quivers or sinks beneath our feet.

Allah created humans, all 6.93 billion of us, with brain impulses that travel 70 miles per hour through the body, generating enough energy to light a 10-watt bulb. Allah created in the brain, the capacity to store 5x more information than encyclopedia Britanica (that is 1 million gigabytes of information. The fastest computer in the world today only stores 250 gigabytes of information, and the latest phone - iphone only 16 gigabytes). Allah gave us a heart that can squirt blood up to 30 feet. Blood vessels that can be stretched 60,000 miles (the earth's distance is only 25,000 miles).  Lungs that have a surface area equal to the size of tennis courts. Liver that has over 500 functions. Bones that are stronger than steel and over 59 bones in the feet alone. Of course the human body is far more complicated and astounding than these random facts. Just as there is a universe outside of us, of the different things on the earth, hidden in mountains and under the oceans, there is a universe inside of us, of an array of organs, veins and cells that work round the clock. A hairline discrepancy in their system can cause serious sickness or even death.  What is even more stunning is that Allah created the humans in two opposite pairs - men and women. Allah created women more cooperative, nurturing, cautious and emotionally responsive. In contrast, Allah made men more assertive, competitive, reckless and physically strong.  The unique talents and personalities of both men and women, make them compatible partners (not competitive rivals).

Allah created night and day, a time to rest and sleep and a time to exert and work. This division of activities is fabulous. Sleeping is restorative for the brain. A specific growth hormone is secreted during slow wave sleep. Memory consolidation occurs during slow wave sleep, meaning that the different pieces of what we've learned during the day come together coherently so that the knowledge can be accessed when needed. A lot of young brothers and sisters, especially those studying the Deen or busy with Da'wah - do not sleep. In fact, many of us think that it is against piety to sleep. But Allah made night as a covering, to allow us to unwind, take the load off, lie down, put up our feet and catch some Zs. Remember that only Allah is لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ Insufficient sleep in humans is associated with a higher incidence of behavioral problems, especially attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), moodiness, anxiety, aggression and stress. Lack of sleep has also been linked to difficulty making good decisions and night terrors. Too little sleep can also lead to weight gain by altering levels of the hormones that regulate satiety and hunger, leading to overeating, overweight, and obesity.
Even the Prophet (s.a.w) used to sleep a night part of the night. So don't miss out on this sunnah. Plus the Prophet (s.a.w) made duaa to Allah to bless his followers in the hours of the morning. Now imagine a person who stays awake all night, supposedly 'working' and then goes to sleep after Fajr. They just lost all the blessings of the morning for which the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) made duaa. A good night sleep is crucial for a great day of work. Follow this pattern which Allah has ordained and inshaAllah you will see the difference in the quality of your performance. Not only you will be awake but inshaAllah you'll find yourself motivated to work more diligently because of which inshaAllah you will accomplish more in a few hours as compared to staying awake the entire night and then sleeping after fajr only to start your day at 1:00 pm and finding it difficult to concentrate on anything. Coming home tired and disappointed for being unproductive, then staying awake all night again to lay off the guilt assuming that we can achieve what we didn't during the day - but that usually never happens!

Allah creates the clouds and sends down rain. Clouds are formed when water droplets cool and condense in the atmosphere. Eventually, if the rising currents persist long enough, the water droplets become too heavy to be kept in suspension within the clouds and they fall on earth as rain. Its a beautiful process that requires just the right combination of heat and light from the sun, water of oceans and lakes, and wind. Without the absence of any one of these elements, the land suffers with drought and then famine.

Moreover, it is also a miracle how Allah germinates the seed to grow into plants and trees. In the damp, warm and dark soil, Allah gives life to a tiny seed. First the young root appear then the skin of the seed splits and the shoot straightens, pulling the cotyledons with it. The main root gets bigger and grows side roots, then eventually leaves sprout.

No aspect of our lives is absent of Allah's blessings. His mercy surrounds us and is as far as the eyes can see and beyond. The sky that covers us and brings us rain. The earth that supports us and feeds us. The night and day which are subservient for our sleep and work, are all Allah's generous favours. I am thinking فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ  Everything that breath, eat, see, touch, know and feel is a blessing of Allah and His mercy. Just looking at His creation overwhelms and overpowers us so how will it be to finally look Him? Meet Him and talk to Him? Certainly the Day of Judgment is the Biggest Day in our lives because it is the Day we will go back to Allah.
 

The Day of Judgment is the Biggest Day because...
1. It is due by surprise - it will come suddenly and envelope everything without warning, in its clutches and jaws.
2. The sky will open -reality as we know it will shatter and fall apart. Even the sky will break and split.
3. The mountains will be removed and become a mirage - nothing will stand erect on the Day of Judgment. All buildings and towers will be uprooted. The entire infrastructure of this planet mashed into bits. There will be no scientists and secret agents to save humanity, everyone will be slaughtered.
4. The angels will be scared and standing silently in rows. No one will be allowed to speak except whom Allah gives permission.
5. Hell will ambush and pounce on the disbelieving and disobedient slaves of Allah. They will remain in scourge, suffering for ages unending. When they will cry out of heat and thirst, the angels will give them scalding water and pus to drink. When they will beg for food, they will be served poisons thorns.
6. Paradise - gardens and grapevines, delicious wine (free of intoxication) in overflowing cups, perfused with the echoes of peace and fragrance of prosperity, will be granted as reward and generous gift by Allah to those who loved and feared Him.

We may only plan a month in advance (i.e. for Eid at the beginning of Ramadan) or just six months from now - winter break etc.  We may not keep track of time or where we are spending a bulk of our money or what the Qur'an says. But Allah has enumerated every minute and major detail about our lives in writing and He will recompense us accordingly. It is the day when our fate for all eternity will pronounced. The day after which there is only happiness with Allah, His Prophets and righteous servants in Heaven or just stinging sorrow with Pharaoh, Hamaan, Abu Jahal and Abu Lahab in Hell. So if we were smart, we would stop obsessing with birthdays, cars and weddings; instead we would consume ourselves with concern and preparation for the Biggest Day of our lives - the Day of Judgment. I pray that Allah makes this Day the Best Day of our lives aameen.