The Necessity of Self-Accounting
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Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets and the Imam of the Pious, and upon his family and his Companions, and those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
To proceed: We begin this blessed meeting (The Open Door) after the Hajj season of the year (1418 AH), on this Thursday, the twenty-sixth of Dhul-Hijjah, in the year (1418 AH).
We start this meeting by reviewing and holding ourselves to account: what have we done in this year that is about to pass? What good have we done, and what evil have we left behind? A merchant reviews his account books at the end of every financial year, and he is only managing worldly affairs that do not benefit him in the Hereafter except what he intended for the face of Allah therein. So what about us? Have we reviewed ourselves and seen a shortcoming in an obligatory duty that we can make up, or an evil deed that we can abandon? I hope to Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, that we are so.
This entire world is passing away, and everything in it is a lesson. If you look at the sun, it rises at the beginning of the day, then sets and departs at the end of the day. So it is with the existence of man in this world: he emerges and then departs. If we look at the moon, it appears at the beginning of the month as a small crescent, then it continues to grow and increase until it is full, and then it begins to wane until it returns like an old rope. Likewise, if we look at the months, you find a person looking forward to the next month with the longing of one who is far away.For example, he says: We are now in the twelfth month, and there are eight months remaining until Ramadan. How far away they seem! Yet they pass quickly, as if they were an hour of the day. So it is with life as well—the life of a man. You find him looking forward to death with a distant gaze and hoping, and then the rope of hope is cut, and everything has passed. You find him carrying others on the bier and burying them in the earth, and he thinks: When will this be my case? When will I reach this state? And then he reaches it, as if he had not stayed but an evening or the forenoon.
I say this in order to urge myself and urge my brothers to hasten in seizing the time, and not to waste an hour or a moment without knowing our account in it. Have we drawn closer to Allah with anything? Are we still in our place? What will be our state? We must make up for things before it is too late, and how near the Hereafter is to this world. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) often recited the words of the poet:
We are all morning in our homes, and death is nearer than the straps of our sandals
I ask Allah for you and for me a good ending, and that He make the future of our affairs better than its past, and that He help us to remember Him, thank Him, and worship Him well.
To proceed: We begin this blessed meeting (The Open Door) after the Hajj season of the year (1418 AH), on this Thursday, the twenty-sixth of Dhul-Hijjah, in the year (1418 AH).
We start this meeting by reviewing and holding ourselves to account: what have we done in this year that is about to pass? What good have we done, and what evil have we left behind? A merchant reviews his account books at the end of every financial year, and he is only managing worldly affairs that do not benefit him in the Hereafter except what he intended for the face of Allah therein. So what about us? Have we reviewed ourselves and seen a shortcoming in an obligatory duty that we can make up, or an evil deed that we can abandon? I hope to Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, that we are so.
This entire world is passing away, and everything in it is a lesson. If you look at the sun, it rises at the beginning of the day, then sets and departs at the end of the day. So it is with the existence of man in this world: he emerges and then departs. If we look at the moon, it appears at the beginning of the month as a small crescent, then it continues to grow and increase until it is full, and then it begins to wane until it returns like an old rope. Likewise, if we look at the months, you find a person looking forward to the next month with the longing of one who is far away.For example, he says: We are now in the twelfth month, and there are eight months remaining until Ramadan. How far away they seem! Yet they pass quickly, as if they were an hour of the day. So it is with life as well—the life of a man. You find him looking forward to death with a distant gaze and hoping, and then the rope of hope is cut, and everything has passed. You find him carrying others on the bier and burying them in the earth, and he thinks: When will this be my case? When will I reach this state? And then he reaches it, as if he had not stayed but an evening or the forenoon.
I say this in order to urge myself and urge my brothers to hasten in seizing the time, and not to waste an hour or a moment without knowing our account in it. Have we drawn closer to Allah with anything? Are we still in our place? What will be our state? We must make up for things before it is too late, and how near the Hereafter is to this world. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) often recited the words of the poet:
We are all morning in our homes, and death is nearer than the straps of our sandals
I ask Allah for you and for me a good ending, and that He make the future of our affairs better than its past, and that He help us to remember Him, thank Him, and worship Him well.