TIME TO AUDIT Your Balance Sheet of Deeds.

                                                     Time To Audit Your Balance Sheet

Keep Your Scale
Of Good Deeds Heavy
To Attain Salvation

(M. Javed Naseem)

"And those whose scales are heavy
(with good deeds), it is they
who are the successful."
(al-Quran 23:102)

Allah has drawn the line between winners and losers; and success and failure. Believers with good deeds, who follow and promote the Truth and Patient Perseverance, are the winners or the successful. Everybody else is a loser!

Man is a social animal who cannot live alone – by himself. He needs others and that makes us a community and a society. It is up to us if we want to make it a material society or balance it with spiritual and sentimental feelings. For that, the rules and regulations have been laid out. There are man-made rules and then there are God-made rules or laws that the Almighty Creator has conveyed to us through His Messengers or the Prophets. While a man judges other people’s success on material wealth, the Almighty has declared His own criterion. God judges us on the scale of righteousness or piety and commands us to do the same.

If we look around, we find evil and misery everywhere. Man is not happy with what he's got, so he tries to amass as much wealth, property or material things as possible. We have forgotten that this world is a test for us. This is an opportunity to work on our next life in the Hereafter which is everlasting. We commit sins and crimes, without any regret. And then we don't repent or ask Allah for forgiveness. This attitude merits punishment.

"Evil has become rife on the land and at sea
because of men's deeds; so He (Allāh) may
let them taste part of what they have done that
perhaps they will turn back (from evil)."
(al-Quran 30:41)

The Word of God, the Holy Quran, tells us what is liked by our Creator and what merits God's punishment. We all commit sins but those sinners are better in the eyes of Allah who repent and beg for Allah's forgiveness and mercy. That's the way to move forward. Allah the Most Merciful never closes the door of mercy. It's up to us how we benefit from it.

Say, "O My servants who have transgressed
against themselves [by sinning], do not despair
of the mercy of Allāh. Indeed, Allāh forgives
all sins.1 Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving,
the Merciful."
(al-Quran 39:53)

In today’s material world, success is measured with money. Anybody who is wealthy and who owns buildings, is considered ‘successful’ while the poor are labeled as losers or failures. Money is the yardstick used to measure people’s success. But, as they say, money is not everything. And it is true too. You can buy a lot of things with money and make your life more comfortable with wealth, but the true wealth is not measured with the yardstick of money or material. You righteousness, your love, your sincerity, your honesty, your wisdom, your knowledge and your sense of justice are a lot more valuable than money.

At the end of the day, it is your good conduct or righteousness or piety that counts. Allah loves righteousness and rewards it with mercy, blessings and forgiveness. That's the way which leads us to Paradise and protects us from the Hellfire.

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