Real Respect

[ummtaalib]

Real Respect

 

If we use the strength, energy and keen intelligence of youth in opposing Shaytān and in pleasing Allāh ta‘ālā, the Giver of youth, then Allāh ta‘ālā will give us honour in this world too. A young person who lives a good life is looked on with respect by the whole community and he feels contentment within. One who does not live such a life, regardless of how cheerful he may look from the outside, will be suffering from a guilty conscience. When he sleeps, he sleeps with guilt on his mind; he knows deep down that he has no real status.

 

A young person may strut around with pride and arrogance, acting big, but in his own eyes he has no respect for himself. In his own eyes he is detestable and useless. What status can a person have when he does not even have self respect? What greater disgrace can there be than when a man no longer has respect for himself?

 

As for the one who dedicates his youth to Allāh ta‘ālā, he is gifted with self-confidence, self-satisfaction, self respect and peace. His heart is always happy because he knows he is trying to please his Lord. He cheers himself by thinking how happy Allāh ta‘ālā must be with him for sacrificing his desires to please Allāh ta‘ālā. He is happy that Allāh ta‘ālā loves him, knowing that it is He who has helped him to avoid sins and do good deeds. He is respected within his entire family and the whole community points him out as a role model for others.

 

And when the time comes for his soul to be taken to the hereafter, an assembly of angels will rush to greet him. They will wrap his soul in a silk cloth, put it on a tray of gold, and take it to Jannah. He will be honoured in this world and honoured in the hereafter. The people of the earth will mourn him and utter words of praise in his remembrance. The good deeds he did for people in secret will then also be revealed. People will inform each other of how well he treated them, how he helped them in their hour of need and how he guided them to the right path. The angels will rejoice upon his arrival and Allāh ta‘ālā will order them to take His beloved servant to Jannah-al-Firdaws, the highest ranking Jannah.

 

(Extracted from ‘The Gift of Youth’ 

by Shaykh Mawlānā Muhammad Saleem Dhorat hafizahullāh)