Mend your ways

When one sees on TV, and reads in the newspapers the horrendous acts that have been committed, one can’t help but be shocked and wonder whether they are actually being done by human beings, let alone by Muslims. My late older brother, former Chief of Bhopal Municipal Corporation, was also a poet. Quoted below are two of his verses:
Neki pe jo aajaey to bunjaey farishta/Insaan jo sarrkash ho to bunjata he shaitan
(If a person is inclined to good, he behaves like an angel, but if he is a wrongdoer, he becomes the devil incarnate)
Zalimon ne samajh ye rakha he/Jese dunya men ab khuda hi nahin (Sinners are under the illusion that there is no God [to see their sins])
I am writing on this topic because Ramzaan is a holy month for all Muslims and both the Almighty and His Prophet (pbuh) have given strict orders not to commit sin or immoral acts. Despite these edicts and severe warnings, people have been indulging in all kinds of misdeeds – the kind of actions which will surely give them passage to hell. It makes one wonder how people could be so oblivious to clear instructions given.
The majority of the nation in general and the rulers in particular, seems to be under the illusion that there is no God to see what they are doing. To jog their memory, here are some relevant Quranic verses:
1) How many populations that insolently opposed the command of Allah and His apostles did we not then call to account? We imposed on them an exemplary punishment. Then did they taste the evil result of their conduct and the end of their conduct was perdition. Allah has prepared for them a severe punishment in the hereafter, therefore fear Allah, O you men of understanding who have believed. For Allah has indeed sent down to you a Message (Quran) (65:8-10).
2) But indeed people before them ignored and rejected My warnings. Then how terrible was My rejection (retribution) of them (67:18)
3) If you turn back from the path of Allah, He will destroy you and

substitute in your place another people, then they would not be transgressors like you (67:38)
4) And to many populations did I give respite, which were given to wrongdoing. In the end I punished them, to Me is the destination of all (22:48)
5) Do they not travel through the earth and see what was the end of those (wrongdoers) before them. They were superior to them in strength (30:9)
6) How many countless generations (wrongdoers) before them have we destroyed? Can you find a single one of them now or hear so much as a whisper of them? (19:98)
7)When we decide to destroy a population, We first send a definite order to those among them who are given the luxuries of this life and yet transgress. So that the word is proved true against them. Then We destroy them utterly (17:16)
8) If any person goes astray, Allah extends the rope to them until when they see the warnings of Allah being fulfilled, either in punishment or in the approach of the hour – they shall at length realize who is worst in position and who is weakest in forces (19:75)
9) Never did we destroy a population that had not a term decreed and assigned beforehand. Neither can a people anticipate its term nor delay it (15:4-5)
10) Think not that Allah does not heed the deeds of those who do wrong. He but gives them respite against a Day when the eyes of the wrongdoers will fixedly stare in horror (14:42)
11) Your Lord is full of mercy, all embracing, but for the sinful and wrongdoers, never will His wrath be turned back (6:147)
12) O mankind! Fear your Lord! For the convulsion of the hour of judgement (Roze Qiamat) will be a thing terrible. The day you shall see it, every suckling mother will forget her suckling babe and every pregnant woman shall drop her baby unformed. You shall see mankind as in a drunken riot, yet not drunk: but dreadful will be the wrath of Allah (22:1-2).
In Surah Infitaar (82:1-7), Allah described the situation on the Day of Judgement in the following words: “When the sky is cleft asunder, when the stars are scattered, when the oceans are suffered to burst forth and when the graves are turned upside down, then shall each soul know what it has sent forward and what it has kept back. O man! What has seduced you from your Lord most beneficial, Him who created you, fashioned you in due proportion and gave you a just bias.”
In Surah Zilzal (99:1-8) we have been told: “When the earth is shaken to her utmost convulsion and it throws up her burdens from within and man cries (in distress) what is the matter with her! On that day will she declare her tidings, for that day your Lord will have given her inspiration, on that day will people proceed in companies sorted out to be shown the deeds that they had done. Then shall anyone who has done an atom’s weight of good see it. And anyone who has done an atom’s weight of evil shall see it.”
These are the warnings which the Almighty has conveyed through the Holy Quran to all wrongdoers and sinners. But when you look around, both at the rulers and at the masses, one shudders at the thought that they have no fear of Allah and of the Day of Resurrection. People seem totally and exclusively intoxicated by power and wealth, no matter how it is achieved. They have no fear. They forget that they will be thrown into the blazing fire. The Almighty has warned us thus: “Those who reject our edicts, we shall soon cast them into the (blazing) fire. As often as their skins are roasted through, we shall change them for fresh skins that they may taste the pain, for Allah is exalted in power, wise.” (4:55)
My request to my fellow countrymen is: mend your ways and obey Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) lest you face the grievous consequences of your misdeeds.
Note: Many Eid greetings have been sent to me by friends and well-wishers, for which I am very grateful. May Allah shower His Blessing on you all – Ameen.
Email: dr.a.quadeer.khan@gmail.com