Only Imagine

Salam,
Bismillah.

Our teacher did this activity with us, she made us close our eyes, take a deep breath, empty our minds and imagine deeply.

 The reader of course, cannot close his eyes but he is required to close his ‘eye-for-the-outer-world’ to every other thing in his surroundings, take a deep breath, empty his mind and imagine.
Read very slowly and carefully. Pause after each sentence.

Imagine that you’re standing in a huge empty plain; it is very white and flat and stretches over miles and miles and miles. Its vastness is limitless. You’re standing there. The plain land is crowded with people, loads and loads of people. But none of them care about you, you’re still alone. When you try to talk to anyone they turn their face away. They don’t want to listen to you.
Your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your husband, your kids, your friends everyone is there. But when you try to go near them they run away from you. And when anyone tries talking to you, you run away from them. It is extremely hot, very very hot.
You’re lonely; worried as to what will happen next and…..you’re waiting.
You’re waiting but the wait gets only longer. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, centuries pass and the wait is still not ending. You so much want it to end that you stop caring about what will happen, you’re ready for the worst but you want this waiting period to end.
Finally, the wait is over. A book is handed to you in your left hand. It has the story of your life. In a minute or so your name will be called and you’ll be held accountable for it. The scales await you. Then it will either be the Big Fire forever or the Beautiful Garden forever. You open that book. Your heart starts pounding like mad. You start trembling. Your eyes pop out of your head ———- Because there is nothing good written in your book of deeds. It mentions all the bad things that you ever did, that you don’t even remember. You shouted at your mom, you were rude to your dad, you laughed at that girl, you back-bited that guy, you hurt that kid, you turned away from a pleading face, you hardly ever prayed, you didn’t care about hajj or zakat, your fasts were spent in watching vulgar movies, you spent your nights thinking about that guy/gal, you made fun of your teachers, you gave people dirty looks, you were very ungrateful to your husband, you never told your kids who Allah is, you never thanked Allah for your blessings, you thought you’re the best, no one is superior than you, you never repented for any of your sins, you knew there would be an end but you never really believed in it. You never did any good deed —- and now —- you’re helpless. You can’t do anything about it. The time….. Is way past. You’re horrified!

Open your eyes now.

You have time today, now. There is yet time. You can write a new book. A book in which everything is ‘right’ (according to Allah’s commands). Tear up this previous book and throw it away. Write a new one. Write a new book with your good deeds. Because that day no one will care about you.

Wassalam,
Hajrah.