Life is a game
In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Ever Forgiving. It was mentioned in the Qur'an that life is a game. Disbelievers see this world as it is but believers see this world as a journey. A journey which is filled with forwards, backwards, left and right turns. There is that need to plan your goals so that you would achieve them. Analysis needs to be carried out to determine which would give the best output on earth and hereafter. A person who just sits around and waits for a miracle to happen is simply irrationally absurd.
Effort and doa is important for muslims. Those who rarely raise their hands to beg & ask from Allah are those people who are known are arrogant and proud. They do not need Allah in their life, they do not need assistance from Allah. Ironically, when asked who created earth? They all say Allah! But so little do they remember Him. It is part of our duty as muslims to really begged for his mercy and ask for His forgiveness because humans are naturally weak and are susceptible to errors. Humans have been warned to not create ally for Allah because once you do, your days are over, literally. Allah is the sole provider of our rezki and He will only help those who are willing to help/improve themselves.
As muslims, we ask from Allah what we want and what we need. Its not all about earth really. Its actually about wanting what is best for us during hereafter. It was mentioned by many great muslims scholars that the more pleasure we get on earth, the LESS pleasure we will get on the next world. For example, we all know the bliss of drinking a cold icy water during a heat of summer or eating ice cream during a hot day. So, you will get less reward during hereafter since you have already taken it up here on earth. It was mentioned that our extremely miss beloved Prophet Muhammad preferred drinking water which is not too hot and not too cold, perhaps room temperature.
In conjunction with the earlier statement, a great care needs to be applaud to determine which directions are in our best interest, the best interest of our family and especially in the best interest of the All-Mighty. Allah mentioned in the Qur'an that nobody for certain knows what he will do tomorrow. We can only plan and it is up to Allah if he wishes to agree or disagree. This is actually part our iman, to accept that everything that is good or bad. What happened/will happen to us in the past, present and future are in the hands of our Lord. Each and everyone of us must learn to accept this fact because the sooner that we do, the better off we will be when confronting with other matters.
There are times when all contingency plan had been prepared and all the necessary precautions have been taken, our plan just didn't work. That is why it is vital for us to rely heavily on Allah because humans naturally rely on each other. Relying on Allah is by far the best option anyone could take. Birds are the best example of this. They would fly into the sky in search for food and in the end of the day, they would return with a full stomach. We are most of the time inconsistent and we are often take things so lightly up to the point where we take things for granted. Therefore, the plan we have must not have loopholes and must be perfect or at least close to perfect.
Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to determine whether we have device a plan well because maybe there are certain aspects we might overlooked. To create THE perfect plan needs detailed information. Some say its luck but hitting a hole-in-one is actually a well-thought out strategy which includes both the mind and our mental ability. If we see things well ahead, perhaps we can avoid certain things which we will be condemned for for the rest of our lives. This is called anticipation, we try to see ahead before anything happens and this is what table-tennis players have, they have a sharp imagery and will react in fraction of seconds. Not like fortune telling. Lies, lies & lies.
When building a house, the person needs to visualize how he wants his house to stand out physically and he will need to tell this information to the architect so that he can draw his thoughts in a piece of sheet. The same concept can be applied to plan ahead for our life here on earth and ESPECIALLY our plans to meet our Lord in the near undetermined time. Yes, there will be trial and error but the underlying idea of it is either to:
1) Learn from people's mistakes & avoid
2) Make own mistakes, learn & repeat
3) Make own mistake, learn, & avoid.
As well all know, the airplane had countless runs before it actually got off the ground. Countless crashes and deaths were reported before the wright brothers actually managed to create an object which had tail and wings. If we look closely, in order to perfect a certain invention, it will need to be tested before it can be sold. But for humans, we are only allowed to make mistakes at least once because death will only come once and death is inevitable. The worse kind of person would be the 2nd kind. For example, drug addicts, those who had been in and out of rehab center or those burglars who kept stealing monies, jeweleries or cars even though they have been in and out jails for many times. They just never learn from the mistakes they have made in the past. If its safe to say, the perfect or at least trying to be perfect person would be those who are in number 1 because they are fully aware that these negativities are out there and they try as much as they can to avoid these things knowing of the consequences they will bear here and after. Such as drinking alcohol, create ruins, backstabbing, stealing, having affairs and so on. This is just isn't the ways of how muslims should be. It just isn't. Never will be.
So, the way to do it is to have knowledge on certain things, educate ourselves with earthly things whether it be positive or negative things because knowledge is power and if we know certain things, we tend to think about it before we actually go ahead and decide to pursue it. A perfect example would be smoking. Almost everyone knows that smoking is not good for the health and is NOT the way of Islam. Meaning, smoking is a trendy trend created by Jews, Christians & Atheists to poison the minds of muslims. We all know that our Prophet Muhammad saw never smoked and we as his follower should follow his footsteps and not exacerbate his ways. It is actually the lack of knowledge why certain people for certain things and its the act of ignorance that caused the ummah to be stomped down in the society.
Muslims should be the most educated people on earth because we have The Qur'an and the sayings of The Apostle as our shining shield and armor. Non-muslims actually have none. Zilch. Nada. These people only revealed some of the truth in the Taurat, Zabur & Injil and hid MOST of the truth in these books. Most of the contents of the book before the The Qur'an were slaughtered by those who had made lusts and false desires as their God. BUT Allah mentioned in the Qur'an that this final book will be guaranteed protected by Allah until Resurrection Day. Wallahu'alam.
