THE DAILY ISLAMIC REMINDERS. Yaum Ath-thalaatha. 18th day of RabeeulAwwal, 1445AH (Tuesday, 3rd October, 2023). WHAT ARE YOU PROUD OF AS A MUSLIM. BismilLah. 

There is a very strong and beautiful message in the Quran among many is in Suurat Al-Kahf that sometimes we forget to ponder.

The message is in this verse:

“Wealth and children are [but] adornment of the worldly life. But the enduring good deeds are better to your Lord for reward and better for [one’s] hope.” (Qur’an 18: 46).

Many of us spend majority of our time and attention in this life working on those two aspects: accumulating money and raising children. Almost everything in life revolves around those two things.

For many people, the measure of one’s success is his job and how much money he has. If you meet someone that you haven’t met in a long time, you’ll probably get asked “so where are you working now? How is the job?” Or even more bluntly, “How is the pay? :).

If you are a woman and you meet a friend or a family member you haven’t seen in a long time, you’ll probably get asked “So did you get married? What does your husband do? Do you have kids? How many? Etc” We put so much emphasis on these aspects as if they’re the only measure of one’s success.

You’ll hardly meet someone who asks you, “so how is your eemaan  with ALLAH? How is your dhikr (remembrance of ALLAH)? Are you engaged in any community work that I could join too? How is the Qur’an with you? Are there any good deen lectures or gatherings you’re attending that I could attend too? Etc” You hardly hear anyone asking such questions. 

This rarely happens because most of us are more focused on what is temporary than what ALLAH told us is better and everlasting.

This may be why it is a great aspect of this deen that we are encouraged to read Suurat Al Kahf every single week, every Friday so that we can get a reality check and put our minds and hearts back on the right track.

There is an interesting story regarding this. There is this great and pious sister who hasn’t gotten married yet, while most of her counterparts are married with children she said. She was visiting her family members one Thursday when she was hit with a wave of sadness and negativity because of how everyone made her feel. They were complimenting and referring to the success and blessings of other ladies in the family who now have great luxurious homes with their husbands and really cute kids. The entire setting and insinuations kept reminding her that she may be a failure or that others are more blessed than her. This made her heart really heavy and she started dwelling in sadness.

Next morning it was Friday and like she always does, she started the day by reading Suurat Al Khaf. She reads the Suurah every Friday, but she said that this time, it hit her the most. It was as if ALLAH was directly speaking to her. ALLAH says to the nearest meaning:

“Wealth and children are [but] adornment of the worldly life. But the enduring good deeds are better to your Lord for reward and better for [one’s] hope”

The verse hit her so hard that she started crying…Allahu Akbar. 

All the people she was with the previous day were only praising and glorifying those who have wealth and children.

ALLAH reminded her that this is nothing but a temporary adornment that won’t really benefit their owners if they weren’t directed for the sake of ALLAH, and that what is better and more everlasting is one’s good deeds and dhikr of ALLAH.

The reality is, wealth and children in-and of- themselves are not a sign of success. Rather they are a test. ALLAH is The One who gave them to certain people in the first place as a test. How we manage these wealth is key to our success bcs these wealth may be a source of Paradise or Hellfire. May ALLAH (Al-Haadi, The Guide) keep guiding us all and protect us from any satanic influences. Aameen.