Ramadan 2021 – Juz 17 – Accounting for good

“Every soul is certain to taste death: We test you all through the bad and the good, and to Us you will all return.” 21:35

“كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَآئِقَةُ ٱلْمَوْتِ ۗ “

As the adage goes, “The only thing certain in life is death and taxes”. The taxman sorts out the second half but what about the the first? What is our legacy after we die? What do we leave behind on this Earth? What do we save for the next life?

It is our good deeds that we will be grateful for, on a day when our deeds are weighed up, our good vs our bad. We will be so grateful for every small kindness we performed and every misdeed we avoided.

In the moment it works as a guiding-principle for living our lives: “What would be most pleasing to Allah for me todo right now?”, “On the day of judgement what am I going to remember about this evening? What am I just going to have forgotten by next week?”

Longer term – Saddaqah-jariyah (ongoing charity that continues to benefit), the idea of building a school, a water well or even raising good children that will continue to bring benefit to people long after we pass on, God willing.

When talking about economic-stability this is termed “moving from Survival to Success to Significance”. Significance is our legacy and impact; that reaches and benefits people even after we die, sadaqqah jariyah. Be that through traditional “charity” donations, or even our day to day legacy of being a part of causes we care about. Helping them to grow, through our work, family, community or even by ourselves.

We strive to make our actions as impactful as possible both in the moment and thinking of the longer-term picture. Always trying to do good and please Allah 😌