Ramadan 2022 – Juz 17

خُلِقَ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ مِنْ عَجَلٍۢ ۚ سَأُو۟رِيكُمْ ءَايَـٰتِى فَلَا تَسْتَعْجِلُونِ ٣٧

“Humankind is made of haste. I will soon show you My signs, so do not ask Me to hasten them.” — Quran 21:37

There will come a day for all of us when we will look back on the past and we will wish that we could just have one more day to experience everything again.

This happens to some of us at many junctures throughout our journey. We don’t realise what we have until it is gone. Be that wealth, friends, family or time.

If we find ourselves in tough times financially, we may look back and wish that we hadn’t wasted so much in the past. If we find ourselves exceptionally busy with work and family, we will look back on times when we were more free and we will wish we had better spent the time. When friends or family move on we look back on our time with them and wish we had invested it better.

Similarly a day will come when we are raised to Allah and we will look back on our lives and wish we had spent the time better. The day of regret.

وَأَنذِرْهُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْحَسْرَةِ إِذْ قُضِىَ ٱلْأَمْرُ وَهُمْ فِى غَفْلَةٍۢ وَهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ٣٩

“And warn them ˹O Prophet˺ of the Day of Regret, when all matters will be settled, while they are ˹engrossed˺ in heedlessness and disbelief.” — Quran 19:39

The day of Judgement is called the day of regret because everyone will have some form of regrets. Be that regret of good or evil. Even the most righteous of people will regret something. They will wish they had invested their time more prudently and done more good.

With our worldly lives and the afterlife it is important for us to take stock of things early.  We should evaluate our lives and what we’re grateful for each day. We should make sure to thank Allah for everything and to make the most of what we have before it’s gone.

There are so many things we mostly take for granted on a daily basis, our faculties, our family, friends, even things we may consider basic amenities like food, running water and clean air.

وَءَاتَىٰكُم مِّن كُلِّ مَا سَأَلْتُمُوهُ ۚ وَإِن تَعُدُّوا۟ نِعْمَتَ ٱللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَآ ۗ إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَظَلُومٌۭ كَفَّارٌۭ ٣٤

“He has granted you all that you asked Him for. If you tried to count Allah’s blessings, you would never be able to number them. Indeed humankind is truly unfair, ˹totally˺ ungrateful.” — Quran 14:34

It is important we take a minute to think, what would we miss if we woke up tomorrow and it was gone. How much were we grateful for today? Imagine we woke up tomorrow with only the things we had been thankful for today?

Similarly on a larger scale, when we look at our lives, there are so many things that we will look back on after we die. We will wish we could return for just one day and rectify all our wrongs. We will wish for one day to get in as many good deeds as possible.

Even the best of people will wish for one extra day, not just to do good, but to be excellent.

Let us not wait until we’re filled with regret. Let us seize the day, strive to live our best life, and make today that one excellent day.