There was once a man, a Muslim whom people used to call Mullah-ji. He reared buffaloes and sold their milk for a living.
Mullah-ji had a friend, a trader, who had a business in iron goods. One day, one of Mullah-ji’s buffaloes died. He mentioned this to his friend. His friend said to him, “Mullah-ji, your business is in things that breathe, and
their breath lasts for only a short time and then they are dead. A buffalo is only there as long as it can breathe.
Once it stops breathing, that’s the end!”
What Mullah-ji’s friend said is true not just for buffaloes but for every human being, too. Like buffalo and other animals, we, too, breathe for a short time and then we are dead!
“Many people spend their entire lives earning as much money as they can, only to be taken to task by God in the Hereafter.” With great pain, these words
often tumble out of my mouth.
When I look at people around me, I see them frantically busy, spending all their time and other resources only to amass money. Their days and nights
are spent in this obsessive pursuit.
Reflect, in this regard, on what the Quran (102) relates:
Greed for more and more distracted you [from God] till
you reached the grave. But you will soon come to know.
But you will soon come to know. Indeed, were you to know
the truth with certainty, you would see the fire of Hell.
You would see it with the eye of certainty. Then on that
Day you shall be questioned about your worldly favors.
It is not just secular people, people who do not believe in religion or who do not take religion seriously, who are caught up in this obsession of earning as much money as they can. Many so-called religious people are no different at all in this regard. Externally, they may look religious, but their religiosity is simply ritualistic. They, too, have made money their purpose and goal.
They use every possible means to maximize their money. There is just one use of all this money—and that is to increase what people regard as their material welfare. That is what they see as the purpose of their lives.
But our stay on earth has to end one day, and we have to be separated forever from all the material things that we may have accumulated here. In amassing material wealth, people think they are making great progress. But death tells them that they were only journeying towards their own destruction.
How strange it is, isn’t it? People spend the best part of their lives and most of their energies in manner that would make them regret in the Hereafter. Those who dream of luxuriating in a heaven of material pleasures in this world will soon be taken away from all that they have built around themselves. They will then be standing before God to account for their deeds.
Source: Reflections on Life and Death