and now I am hanging with a hair in Haawiyah; I do not know whether I will be thrown into the fire or I will achieve salvation. (Hilya-tul-Awliya, vol. 4, pp. 64, Raqm 4762)

بے وفا دنیا پہ مت کر اِعتبار      تُو اچانک موت کا ہوگا شکار

موت آکر ہی رہے گی یاد رکھ!       جان جا کر ہی رہے گی یاد رکھ!

گر جہاں میں سو برس تُو جی بھی لے     قبر میں تنہا قیامت تک رہے

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب              صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلٰى مُحَمَّد

Dear Islamic brothers! The above-mentioned horrible parable contains many Madani pearls of advice and admonition for those who love the world. Alas! As we are getting away from the blessed era of the Beloved Rasool صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم, the love for mortal world and wealth is becoming very strong in our hearts; everyone is blindly following the world. The greed of a human is not satisfied even after having abundant wealth, many properties, pieces of land, factories, hotels, petrol pumps, shopping malls, markets, plazas, bungalows and splendid cars. If a compassionate devotee of Rasool presents such people the call towards righteousness, they rebuke him by saying: ‘This world respects the one who has wealth; only a wealthy person succeeds’, etc.

We should ponder whether we have become heedless of the admonitory end of the ones who used to love this world. Do we have to live in this world forever? Have we been forgiven? Have we forgotten the torment inflicted on the previous Ummahs? Don’t we learn an admonitory lesson from the funerals we observe frequently? Don’t we learn a lesson from the bedridden patients who are suffering badly? Shall we be able to bear the severities of the agony of death? Have we forgotten the narrow and dark grave?  Have we prepared to achieve salvation from the snakes, scorpions and insects in the grave? Have we prepared to answer the questions of Munkar and Nakeer? Anyway, it is safe for us to be busy preparing as much for the world as much we have to live in it and be busy preparing as much for the grave and the Hereafter as much we have to live in the grave and the Hereafter. Many