There are two types of living, one is to simply get back with the course of time and other is to to live fully now matter how are the times. Every human being grapples with life and wrestles to live. All our efforts, from the time we make up in the morning to the time when we go to bed evolves around our struggle to live. We eat, excercise, procure, play and rest all so that we can live. But that is just our physical life, our apparent existence which soon comes to an end. The body ages, the hair grays, the heart fails and eventually all is reduced to dust. No matter how conscious we were of our calorie intake and however many miles we jogged each day, regardless how much wealth we saved - death is inevitable, inescapable reality for every human being. This shows that the objective of life is not living itself but something greater that we must do in life in order to reap its benefit after life.
Allah the Exalted says

, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ "

O you who have believed, respond to Allah and the Messenger when he calls you to that which gies you life." [8:24]

Responding to or obeying Allah and His Messenger offers us bliss in this life and an eternal, everlasting joyful life in the Hereafter. This is real life, the life worth living in the obedience of Allah and His Messenger (s.a.w) Otherwise animals, birds and marine creatures are also alive. They also are born, grow, eat, reproduce and die. A human being is far intelligent and sensible than anything else on Earth hence our life too, must prove to be far more meaningful and productive. The only way, this cane be achieved is by responding to the divine guidance of Allah and the blessed tradition of prophet Muhammad (s.a.w).

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Juzz 9 - Why does this happen to me?

"And We sent to no city a prophet [who was denied] except that We seized its people with poverty and hardship that they might humble themselves to [Allah]. Then We exchanged in place of the bad [condition], good, until they increased [and prospered] and said, "Our fathers [also] were touched with hardship and ease. So We seized them suddenly while they did not perceive."

[Qur'an, 7:94-95]

The seemingly bad circumstances in our life are meant to remind us of our meek, modest and minute state before Allah. Tragedies are to soften our hearts and bring us closer to Allah. It is like shock-treatment, when a certain muscle in the body refuses to function and instead becomes hard, it is shocked and stunned so that it would revive. Similarly, when we have forgotten Allah and our duty to humbly serve and worship Him, Allah helps us remember through poverty and hardship. But hardly any one translates a difficult situation so positively. Instead we grouse, wail and whine. We declare it is unfair, we suppose it is a conspiracy. We blame our "qismat" and/or our "naseeb". When mutaqqi person must always have his or her eyes on her mistakes. The moment he/she is distressed and or finds himself/herself in a difficulty, they do istighfaar. They call to mind what they have done wrong and instantly turned to Allah in repentance.

Similarly, fortune and wealth, economic prosperity and military success are neither a coincidence or our own earning. When Allah takes us out of an ordeal and opportunities again knock on our door, and blessings overflow our lives, all this again is meant to humble us before Allah, to help us realize that He is the Praiseworthy, the Merciful, the Most Generous and that we are His servants. Ancient Sparta and Atlanta to present day Pompey and New Orleans were cities once at their supreme zenith, today they are nothing but ruins. Its glory extinguished, its buildings crumbled and its people lost.

This is life, a struggle between positively responding to the Divine Guidance, the Heavenly manual, the scared Prophetic traditions versus ignoring the Divine Guidance, not given any importance to the Heavenly manual and not realizing the worth of the sacred Prophetic traditions.

By: Asfiya Irfan