Believing in akhirah or the hereafter is one of the articles of faith in Islam. The belief that all people will be resurrected and held accountable for their actions and deeds is an integral part of a Muslim’s faith.  

The first stage of the akhirah is death. The Quran describes how people remain oblivious of death and the afterlife: “…until when death comes to one of them, he says, ‘My Lord, send me back that I might do righteousness in that which I left behind.’ No! It is only a word he is saying…” (Al-Mu’minun 23:99-100)

The Importance of Repentance

In order to prepare for death and the afterlife that awaits us, it is important to keep repenting to Allah and invoking His mercy. Allah states in the Quran:

“Say, ‘O My servants who have transgressed against themselves (by sinning), do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.’” (Al-Zumar 39:53)

This affirms that the door of repentance is always open, no matter how many mistakes or sins we have committed. Repentance should not merely be a matter of words and occasions, but a way of life. Delaying repentance or procrastination in good deeds is highly undesirable in Islam.

Therefore, it is never too late to repent and start over. We must prepare ourselves for the Day of Judgment wherein we will meet Allah, and our deeds will be presented in front of Him. It is only after repenting to Allah that we can truly look forward to meeting Him. The Prophet ﷺ informed us:

“He who loves to meet Allah, Allah too loves to meet him; and he who dislikes to meet Allah, Allah abhors to meet him.” (Muslim 2,686)

Preventing a Bad Ending

In order to attain a good ending and have an easy reckoning in the hereafter, we must identify the reasons for a “bad ending” and try to mitigate them from our lives. Some of these reasons are discussed below.

1) Corruption and Defects in Beliefs

Sometimes, there is distortion in our belief system, knowingly or unknowingly. We think we are on the straight path, but in reality, our good actions are in vain due to a false aqeedah. It is stated in the Quran: “Say, ‘Shall we inform you of the greatest losers as to (their) deeds? (They are) those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work.’” (Al-Kahf 18:103-104)

In order to be correct in our beliefs, we must seek knowledge from the Quran and Hadith, and pursue clarifications from eminent scholars, if required.

2) Diversion from the Straight Path

Iblees (Shaytan) disobeyed Allah by refusing to prostrate before the first human, Adam (AS). He then promised to mislead humans and tempt them into sinning. Shaytan often leads people astray by being nice to them. A reference is the popular tale of Barsisa, a pious man who was led astray by Shaytan.

The story goes that three brothers left their sister in the care of Barsisa, believing he was the most trustworthy person to look after her due to his piety. Barsisa agreed to care for the sister but Shaytan gradually persuaded him to bring her food directly to her door, leading to interaction and then the ultimate sin of adultery. Barsisa murdered his child, and later on, the mother too, and buried them both.

Eventually, he was confronted by the brothers who found out the truth through a series of dreams. Barsisa was sentenced to death but before execution, Shaytan appeared in disguise and asked Barsisa to prostrate to him for freedom and thus, Barsisa committed the ultimate sin of shirk. Barsisa died afterwards making his decades of worship worthless.

3) Insistence on Sinning

Minor sins, which we sometimes take for granted, ultimately put us in the habit of committing even greater sins.  At the time of our death, we will only remember whatever we spent our lives doing and loving. For instance, if a person found solace in the Quran, he will do the same at the time of his death; or if music soothed the heart of a person in his lifetime, the same will be his state when death approaches him.

In view of the above, it is necessary that we try our best to avoid sins and develop positive traits in order to have a good ending.

4) Weak Iman

Iman, literally translated as faith, refers to what is in our hearts regarding belief in Allah, fearing Him, loving Him, putting our hopes in Him, and being sincere to Him. Having a weak faith means that our love for duniya (worldly life) is far greater than our love for Allah’s obedience and akhirah wherein we will face Him.

In this respect, there is a beautiful saying of Abu Hazim (a narrator of Hadith from the taba’een generation). Someone asked him the reason why people feared death, to which he replied, “We have built our duniya (worldly life) and destroyed our akhirah, so nobody wants to go from an established place to a destroyed one.”

Muadh ibn Jabal, a close companion of the Prophet ﷺ embraced death happily and looked forward to meeting Allah because he strived for the Day of Judgment by fasting on long summer days and worshipping during long winter nights. He recognized the temporary nature of this life, as the Quran states, “…And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion?” (Aal Imran 3:185)

The ultimate aim of our life should be to attain success in the hereafter. The simplest definition of success in Islam is mentioned in Surah Al-Asr (chapter 103 of the Quran) which says that humanity is in loss except for people having four attributes: faith in Allah, performing righteous deeds, advising each other to truth, and advising each other to patience.