Everyone operates a bit differently. Some people are motivated by hope, and others by fear. I can
confidently say that I fall pretty squarely in the latter. The fear of regret has led me
to form some of my most life-changing habits. Because, all the time, I imagine that moment of
how everything will end. Will it be a sudden car accident? A long battle with cancer? How exactly
it’ll happen isn’t really what concerns me, but I imagine myself the seconds before my eyes close
for the very last time and I think to myself at that very moment, what will I wish I had done?
Because on the Day of Judgement, when the trumpets have blown and the souls are assembled,
Allah (swt) gives us a very vivid image of what will
happen. Wa-ji’a yawma idhin bi-jahannam, yawma idhin yatadhakar al-insan [89:23].
It’s at that moment, when hellfire is brought forth,
that everyone suddenly remembers all of the sins they’ve committed-- wa-anna lahu al-dhikra,
But what’s the point of remembering then? It’ll be too late. Yaqul ya laytani qaddamtu li-hayati
[89:24]--and that as reality hits so hard, we’ll be left to say, “If only I did more in life.”
If only, I spent my time wisely. If only, I was willing to wake up early and instill good habits.
If only, if only, if only, but no matter how many times we regret not doing enough,
it will do us nothing if we start too late. Now is the time to start. Not next week,
not on new year’s, and not tomorrow. We never have a moment to lose. And while the fear of
regret can really push us to stay away from sin, it can be empowering with the right mindset.
Take for example the hadith of the Prophet (s) who said, "The one who was devoted to
the Qur'an will be told on the Day of Resurrection: Iqra, wartaqi, warratil
'Recite and ascend in ranks as you used to recite when you were in the world.
Your rank will be at the last Ayah you recite." If you developed a habit of reading the Quran in this
life, on the Day of Judgement, you will be asked to recite. And for every single ayah that you
recited, you will rise in your ranks in Jennah. I used this and continue to use this hadith
partly out of motivation, but primarily out of the fear of regret. I imagine myself,
on that Day, simply reciting one verse and I see myself physically rising.
And as I stare at my Quran and read ayah by ayah in this world, I imagine to myself--really--there
you are flying through the ranks of jennah because you kept reciting and you’re gonna stop here?
You’re not going to try to recite just a few more verses now? Tomorrow? Everyday? It’s precisely
this visual of myself rising and then suddenly coming to a stop--I ran out of verses. And there
I am, looking up high above me to see the hundreds and thousands of ranks I could have ascended if
I just read a few more verses every day. Or think about other ways the Prophet (s)
gave us some of the easy tips in this life to score big in the next. Simply glorifying Allah
by saying, Subahanallah wa-bihamdihi subhanllah al-atheem, just once, you plant yourself a date
palm tree in Jennah. When you are empowered with this type of knowledge, how can you not help but
imagine walking into groves of trees in jennah? If you reflect deeply on how such a small saying
can go so far, how can you not help but feel the need to be on auto-repeat glorifying God?
Make it a priority to go out and seek this type of knowledge because the Prophet of God was sent
to give us all the tips and tricks we’ll ever need. Once you’re equipped with even more of this
insider information, use these prophetic pointers to visualize those moments as you leave this world
and enter the next and think to yourself if only I did more good. Because even the most righteous
of people will have wanted to squeeze in just one more astaghfirullah, one more verse of the Qur’an,
one more good deed pleasing to their lord. Until then, we’ve got to put in our best effort to
maximize our reward. And there’s no better way to do so then revolving our days around good habits.