Set aside a short period of time in the morning and the evening or at the time of going to bed. During this time, sit in seclusion and as far as possible free your heart from all thoughts. Thereafter, address yourself and your nafs in the following manner: O nafs! Understand well that you are similar to a merchant in this world. Your capital is your life and its profits is that it should attain salvation in the hereafter. If you have attained this wealth, your business will be considered to be profitable. If you have wasted this life and have not attained salvation in the hereafter, you will suffer a great loss in that you would have lost your capital and made no profit as well. This capital is so valuable that every minute of it, in fact even a single breath, holds great value. No treasure, irrespective of how valuable it may be, can equal this capital. The reason for this is that if one loses his wealth or treasure, he can strive and try to re-obtain it. As for this life, even a single moment cannot return. Nor can one get another life. The second reason for this is that the wealth that one can acquire with this life, it will be impossible for him to acquire similar wealth through treasures. It is for this reason that the capital (your life) is extremely valuable.
O nafs! Be grateful to Allah that death hasn’t overcome you as yet whereby your life would be finished. Allah Ta’ala has granted you another day in your life. If you begin to die now, you will beg to Him with thousands of hearts and lives that if He gives you one more day, you will make a genuine taubah from all your sins and that you will never commit them again. And that you will spend that entire day (which you have asked for) in His remembrance and His obedience. If this will be your condition and these will be your thoughts at the time of death, then think in your heart and consider this time to be the time of your death and that because you have asked Allah Ta’ala, He has granted you one more day and you do not know whether you will be granted another day or not. So you should spend this day as though you have been informed that this is the last day of your life. In other words, repent from all sins and do not involve yourself in any minor or major sins. Spend the entire day in remembering and fearing Allah. Do not leave out any command of Allah. When the entire day passes in this way and the following day commences, think that this is probably the last day of your life.
O nafs! Do not be deluded into thinking that Allah will forgive you because how do you know that He will forgive you and that He will not punish you? Once He starts punishing you, what will you do and how much will you regret? Even if we had to assume that He will forgive you, you will not receive the rewards that will be given to those who did good deeds. Later, when you see with your own eyes that others are being rewarded while you are being denied these rewards, how much will you regret, and how remorseful you will be! If your nafs asks you: “Okay, tell me what to do?” Then inform it that it should abandon all those actions and habits which will leave it at the time of death, i.e. it should abandon all the vanities of the world and all evils. And that it should immediately adopt all those actions which will help it in the future and without which it cannot exist, i.e. all those actions which will please Allah Ta’ala. Furthermore, it should occupy itself in the remembrance and obedience of Allah Ta’ala. All evils and their cure, have been mentioned in detail previously [Hazrat is referring to Reformation of the Heart, a section ing Bahishti Zewar]. In making efforts in this regard, the evils will be uprooted and the good deeds will be easily executed.
Address your nafs saying: “O nafs! You are similar to a sick person. You know that a sick person has to be extremely abstinent and cautious. Sinning is a sign of self-indulgence and carelessness. It is therefore necessary to abstain from it. Allah Ta’ala has laid down this abstinence for the entire life. Think to yourself that if any ordinary doctor informs you that a particular delicious dish is harmful for your sickness and that it will cause you great discomfort and that if you take a certain bitter medicine daily, it will benefit you and decrease your discomfort; then it is obvious that for the sake if your life which is dear to you, you will abandon the most delicious of dishes for the rest of your life and you will close your eyes and take the most bitter medicine day after day for the rest of your life. We have accepted that sins are very delicious and pleasing and that good deeds are burdensome. However, since Allah Ta’ala has shown us the harms of these delicious things and the benefits of these burdensome things knowing fully that these harms and benefits are forever (in the form of jahannnam and jannah), then O nafs! How surprising and sad it is that because your life is dear to you, you have full conviction in the advice of any doctor but for the love of your Imaan, you are unable to restrict your heart to that which Allah has advised, you do not make any effort to give up sins and that you are still complacent in executing good deeds. What type of Muslim are you that you do not even regard the advice of Allah Ta’ala to be on par with the advice of any ordinary doctor? How stupid are you in that you do not even regard the everlasting comfort of jannah to be equal to the fleeting comfort of this world. You do not even regard the sever punishment of jahannam to be equal to the few days of hardship in this world.”
“O nafs! This world is a place of travel. When on a journey, one does not experience full comfort. One has to bear various difficulties and hardships. However, the traveler bears all these burdens in the belief that when he reaches home, he will experience complete comfort and rest. If he becomes fearful of all these difficulties and therefore decides to stop over at a place, make it his home, and gather all his possessions over there; he will be unable to reach home for the rest of his life. Similarly, as long as you have to live in this world, you will have to bear all the burdens and hardships. Great effort goes in ibaadah and it is extremely difficult to abstain from sins. And many other hardships are experienced in this world. However, the hereafter is our home. Upon reaching there, all difficulties and hardships will terminate. All the difficulties and hardships of this world will have to be borne. If you search for comfort over here, it will be difficult for you to experience any comfort at home (i.e. in the hereafter). Once you have understood this, don’t ever desire the comfort and pleasures of this world. You will have to bear all difficulties willingly so that your hereafter will be proper.”
In short, the nafs will have to be guided to the straight path by addressing it in this way. It will have to be made to understand this daily. Remember that if you do not try to reform yourself in this way, who is going to come and advise you and wish good for you? Now that we have explained this to you, it is left to you to do whatever you wish (i.e. either to your advantage or to your detriment).
From Hazrat Thanvi's Bahishti Zewar
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