No “Options” on the Final Day

We are today in an age of “options.” For almost everything we need in life, we have many different choices that we can make. Take food, for instance. You can now get two dozen brands of just one particular food item in a supermarket where, a few years ago, just one brand was available. From the clothes we wear to the pens we use and now smart phones, it is all a “business of options.” The media is no exception to what has now become a rule, with thousands of newspapers, television channels and internet websites easily accessible from across the world.
Religion has also not been exempted from the world of “options”. Looking at it positively and taking Islam as an example, there are thousands of organizations the world over that are dedicated to conveying the message of God and the Prophet (pbuh), through the Internet, magazines, books, and television.
From the preachers of the ‘classical’ past to the new age preachers using the latest technology, Islam has made pathways into people’s homes and hearts. Some may say that today, each one is practising their own form of Islam, influenced by whatever or whoever they have been reading or listening to. Whatever be the case, we ought to remember that the spiritual essence of Islam reflects a way of life that should guide us in each aspect of our lives. We need to be conscious that each word we say, each thought we think, each feeling we experience, and each deed we do is recorded by Almighty God and that we will be asked to account for all of these on the Day of Judgment.
This basic principle, if remembered always, will make understanding of Islam and the Prophetic life easy and simple. So, no matter which particular interpretation of Islam one follows, which translation of the Quran one is reading, which master one has made allegiance to, and which organization one is affiliated to, the core principle to be kept in mind is that one’s personal connection to God has to be an individual and personal spiritual journey based on constant God-awareness.
Affiliation to any organization, ideology, or group should not work as an obstacle in the path of a person who wants to discover God through his or her heart-to-heart conversations with God in the silence of the night. In other words, one’s personal commitment to God and seeking of spiritual knowledge should be so strong that his or her affiliations should not distract from the chief goal of “God-realization.”
After all, one should remember that on the Day of Reckoning, all of us will be called to account for our lives individually. No person, organization or ideology will then be around to rescue us!