Checklist for Your Life

(Sura Mu’minoon,v. 1-11)

As we are going through life, one initially begins with a goal, and that for us as Muslims is to attain paradise; we do this by first submitting ourselves to Allah, and thus enter into Islam, but as we struggle to work on our souls and our sincere in attaining Allah’s pleasure, then we are blessed with the gift of Iman, or faith, and then can be one of the Mu’mins

Just like at work, when you have reviews, your boss has a checklist to see what your progress has been, how you are doing, where are you lacking or need improvement; in the same way, there must be a checklist that Allah or the Prophet left for us as well, otherwise how can we know we are headed in the right direction? Sure the Qur’an can be that checklist, but most of us don’t have time to go through the Qur’an and use as a checklist, it is just way too big;

Alhamdulillah, that He has given us such a checklist for life; Allah says in the Qur’an:

Qad aflahal mu’minoon
Successful indeed are the believers
Alladheena hum fi salaatihim khaashi’oon
Those who offer their prayers solemnly and full of submission
Walladheena hum ‘anil laghwi mu’ridhoon
And those who turn away from falsehood
Walladheena hum lizzakaati fa’iloon
And those who pay the zakaat
Walladheena hum lifuroojihim hafidhoon
And those who guard their chastity
Illa ‘ala azwaajihim aw malakat aymaanuhim, fa innahum ghayru maloomeen
Except from their wives and those their right hands posses
….
Walladheena hum li amaanaatihim wa ‘ahdihim raa’oon
Those who are faithfully true to their duties and covenants
Walladheena hum ‘ala salawaatihim yuhaafidhoon
And those who guard their prayers
Oolaa ikahumul waarithoon
These are indeed the inheritors
Alladheena yarithoonal firdausa hum fihaa khaalidoon
Who shall inherit the Paradise and live there forever

So this is the checklist we need to follow and constantly refer back to it to analyze how we are doing; here, Allah lays out the characteristics of a successful person, and even though Allah is mentioning the qualities of a successful believer in the hereafter, the also apply to the present life; if you can do these things, then you are also going to be successful in this life and the hereafter




Qad aflahal mu’minoon
Successful indeed are the believers
Alladheena hum fi salaatihim khaashi’oon
Those who offer their prayers solemnly and full of submission

The first thing that Allah mentions is the prayer to show how important it is; and it is the only one he mentions twice in this formula or checklist for success; here it is not about whether we perform, but how we do it; with concentration, understanding, reverence to Allah? Or just do the ritualistic actions to get it over with; and many people do the prayers and as soon as they say Allahu Akbar, they do everything, think of everything, but concentrate; that is why my grandmother used to tell me, if you can’t remember where you left something or forgot something, just pray 2 rakat, you will remember; I thought she was saying this cause if I prayed Allah would help me find or remember it, but really it was because she knew that people think of everything in their prayer even where they left their keys;

Walladheena hum ‘anil laghwi mu’ridhoon
And those who turn away from falsehood

And here, the falsehood that Allah is mentioning is all kinds of falsehood; and the goal here is a moving target in that the more you stay away from, the more you will find you will need to stay away from as falsehood is all around us in large and small firms; one begins by staying away from the large ones, backbiting, cursing; so the falsehoods are those things that you personally get yourselves involved with, but then from here a believer must move on the seeing no evil, hearing no evil, and speaking no evil; the hearing and seeing are very difficult, but not impossible; they way to begin to do this is what Allah says in the Qur’an in Sura Furqan:

Walladheena laa yash-hadoonaz zoora wa idha marroo billaghwi marroo kiraama
And those who do not witness falsehood, and if hey pass by some evil play or talk, they pass by it with dignity

That you stay away from it and as is life, you will encounter it some times, and dignity is that you don’t repel falsehood with falsehood, but falsehood with that which is better – repel evil with good

Walladheena hum lifuroojihim hafidhoon
And those who guard their chastity
Illa ‘ala azwaajihim aw malakat aymaanuhim, fa innahum ghayru maloomeen
Except from their wives and those their right hands posses

That a person is modest in their dress, and protects themselves, their bodies with from evil; staying away from fornication, is just the last step, and believer should not even find himself in a situation that would lead to this; that in this case, anything that leads to this, is evil in and of itself; similar to when Allah forbade Adam and hawa from even approaching the tree, let alone eating from you: laa taqraboo hadhihish shajaraa
But with certain people, letting down your guard, not only is it ok, but sometimes even encouraged, like your spouses; that you should take one another as a source of comfort for each other

Walladheena hum li amaanaatihim wa ‘ahdihim raa’oon
Those who are faithfully true to their duties and covenants

The biggest Amana we have to fulfill is the amana of the shahada; that when we say it as an oath, we are pledging to Allah and His messenger our devotion and to follow His way; but the duties and covenants are many others in our lives, from the covenant of marriage, to employment, to the everyday business dealing we have; we must always be fair, honest, fulfilling our pledges; and remember that even before our Prophet was a messenger, he was known as Al-Ameen, the trustworthy;

Walladheena hum ‘ala salawaatihim yuhaafidhoon
And those who guard their prayers

And finally a full circle is made, as we started with prayer, we end with prayer as well; and here Allah is mentioning that we, to be successful, must be protective our our 5 dialy prayers; and we shouldn’t let go of the importance of this issue of prayer;

1) it should be something we do no matter what; it is the only active pillar that we cannot leave; not fast if sick or on journey; no zakaat if no wealth, no hajj if no money; but prayer, no excuse; you must pray whether you are healthy or sick, rich or poor, tired or active;
2) that if we hold fast to our prayer, then we will naturally avoid the other things that Allah is mentioning; and even more importantly, going back to the khushoo’, if we have it, then we will taste a sweetness that we not only fulfill the other items on checklist, but we will do it, including prayer, with a sweet zealousness

last thing is that in order to make sure we hold fast to the prayer, we revolve our lives around prayer, and not our prayer around our lives; that the five prayers are the pillars in your daily life and everything else gets scheduled, around it; and if you miss a prayer or delay it, something inside your heart is missing;

Oolaa ikahumul waarithoon
These are indeed the inheritors
Alladheena yarithoonal firdausa hum fihaa khaalidoon
Who shall inherit the Paradise and live there forever

And if we do the above, then Allah promises us Paradise; one thing to note here is Allah uses the term inherit; which implies a rightful ownership; in Islam, when you inherit property, it is rightfully yours because it is stated in the Qur’an; similarly, if we do fulfill our checklist and are successful believers, then it is our right to get paradise; because it is a fulfillment of a contract;