 |
| JUST ME AND MY DEED |
Hadhrat Kumail says: “Once, I was
with Hadhrat Ali RA on a journey. When we reached an uninhabited place;
he approached a grave and said: ‘O you dwellers of the graves! O
you who live amongst ruins! O you who live in the wilderness and
solitude! How do you fare in the other world? How has it gone with
you there? 'He continued: 'The news from our side is that all the
wealth and riches you left behind, has long been distributed. Your
children are orphans and your widows have long since remarried. Now let us hear about you.'
He then turned to me: 'O Kumail! If
they could speak, they would have informed us that the best provision
for the Hereafter is Taqwa. Tears flowed out of his eyes, as he
added: 'O Kumail! The grave is a container of the deeds; but one
realizes it only after death.’"
Our good or bad actions are stored up
in our graves. It is said in a Hadith that every person meets his
good deeds in the grave in the form of a trusted companion who
befriends and consoles him there. But his wicked deeds approach him
in ugly shapes and emits bad smells, which add to his misery. In
another Hadith it is said: "Three things accompany a person to
his grave viz: His wealth (as was the prevalent custom among the
Arabs of the time), his relatives and his deeds. His wealth and his relatives turn back after his burial, but his actions go in and stay
with him in the grave."
 |
| OUR WORST FAULT |
Once Nabi SAW asked the Sahabah : "Do
you know in what relation your relatives, your wealth, and your deeds
stand to you?" The Sahabah expressed their desire to know about
it. He replied: "It can be compared to a person who has three
brothers. When he is about to die, he calls one of his brothers and
asks him: 'Brother! You know what is my problem? What help can you
provide me at this critical moment?' The brother replies: ‘I shall
call the doctor to you, nurse you and attend upon you. When you are
dead, I shall bathe you, enshroud you and carry you to the grave.
Then I shall pray for you after you are buried.” This brother is his
closest family.
He puts the same question to the second
brother, who responds like this: “I shall remain with you as long
as you are alive. No sooner you are dead then I shall befriend
someone else.” This brother is his wordly wealth. He then questions
the third brother in the same way, who replies: “I shall not leave
you even in your grave and I shall accompany you into that place of
utter loneliness. When your deeds are weighed in the balance, I shall
immediately lend my weight to the scale of your good deeds and weigh
it down.” This brother is the represents his good deeds. “Now,
tell me which of the brothers you regard to be most useful to the
person?”
The Sahabah replied: “O, Nabi of
Allah! The last brother is really the most useful to him. There is no
doubt about it. The other two brothers were of no use."
