Yet he himself will soon be just another item of news. Right now we speak of our teachers, our colleagues, our brothers, our fathers as pieces of information, as though they had never existed in this world, as though they were no more than dreams—and the same will be true of you. This world is no more than a place to earn one’s living; it is not a permanent abode. If someone is granted success to perform righteous deeds here and turns worldly life into a benefit for the Hereafter, then how excellent that is. But if he labors only for this world and not for the Hereafter, he will forfeit both worlds—may Allah protect us.

Hence the supplication says, “wherein lies my livelihood”—it is only a livelihood; a person lives in it for a while and then departs. “And set right for me my Hereafter, to which is my return.” The Hereafter is the inevitable destination; there is no escape from it. Allah the Exalted says: “Say, the former and the latter will all be gathered for the appointed meeting of a known Day” (Q 56:49–50). The first and the last—every one of them—Allah will assemble on a single plain on the Day of Resurrection; they will hear the caller and every eye will see. He also says: “That is a Day for which all people will be assembled, a Day that will be witnessed by all. We only defer it to a numbered term” (Q 11:103). A numbered term, not an open-ended one; numbered, counted—yet it will pass quickly until that Day arrives, the Day that is every person’s return.

The wise poet said:

Every son of a woman, though his well-being last for long,
will one day be carried on a hump-backed plank.

All of us will be borne upon the bier, no matter how long our lives, or we will burn and be consumed