In Malawi life expectancy is about 31, 52 and for others, it’s less or longer than that.
Normally school starts between the ages of 2 and 5 (nursery school). Then 8 years are spent in Primary and with 4 in Secondary level of education. Tertiary level covers about 4-5 years. Some people add extra 4 years to further their education. So a person ends up using 20 to 23 years just to learn ‘stuff’ that will help him survive for the next remaining few years of his/her life.
Unfortunately the battle does not end here. After all the trouble he/she went through the education system, he or she is still required to work from morning up to the evening just to make sure that he or she ‘survives’ during the night up to the next morning.
Can you imagine how cruel this world can be? A person pays rent, water and electricity bills yet the only times he or she spends at home are nights (most of his/her time is spent at work).
Due to time limit, a human being has even set a working limit for himself. He respectfully refers to this concept as ‘Retirement’. Some unlucky ones meet their demise before hitting this retirement age. Only those who have survived all episodes of school-work-saga are able to retire.
But…hey! Wait a minute! Scientists inform us that as people age, their body organs’ functions start to decline continuously. Hence it’s a fact that, old people experience healthy problems most of which are classified natural. At the end of all this trouble, they cease to exist … and sometimes their names are eventually forgotten.
We, the living, are also probably going through the life-process describe above.
And we wonder, is this why we exist on earth? To struggle and end up exhausting ourselves?
Is it true that the ‘grand prize’ after all that work through out our lives be healthy problems and inevitable death?
Or is there any rationale behind all these struggles?
Indeed, logic tells us the opposite. The fact that this world is more of struggles, exhaustion, trouble and pain than the enjoyment or happiness, this is an evidence enough that the world is nothing but a step towards a bigger life adventure.
The Qur’an, in Chapter 67 Verse 2 explains that;
“[He-Allah] who created death and life to test you [as to] which of you is best in deed – and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving –”
Everybody who has a shred of sense will bear witness that getting ready for a test or an exam is not a joke. No wonder man goes through different pain in this world.
If you study this world carefully, then it will be clear that no matter how hard you try, you will never get maximum happiness, enjoyment or satisfaction. Hence only by doing what our Creator commanded us to do will we be able to get the true and evalasting happiness, enjoyment and satisfaction.
It’s time we realised how useless this world is and stop doing those sins. Life is too short for us to obtain those short-term pleasures through sins.
Even if you feel some pleasure for a day or two, or for a month or a year… what will come after that?
Death… then the grave… then the Reckoning… then torment, when all pleasure will vanish and only sorrow will remain.
If you feel ashamed to let your brother see you committing any sin, then how can you think of Allaah as the least important of those who watch you?
Think about what will become of you after you sin: worry and distress in the heart, alienation between you and Allaah, loss of humility… you give up praying at night (qiyaam al-layl)… you forsake fasting… Tell me, by your Lord, what is this life worth?
