This World and the Hereafter

A materialist is concerned only about the life before death, whereas a Hereafter-oriented person makes preparations in this world for the life after death.

This world is all about life today, while the Hereafter is all about life tomorrow. Human existence in this world necessities being concerned about the life before death, whereas in the Hereafter the major concern is about having made preparations in this world for the life after death.

For a human being, there are two kinds of life: The world-oriented life and the Akhirat-oriented or Hereafter-Oriented life. The demands of the world-oriented life are that man should make worldly success his objective. This means that he is interested only in the things of this world. He understands both success and failure to be worldly matters. His thoughts are focused only on this world and his heart is entrenched in the affairs of the world. Such a person is a materialist.

A materialist is one who can feel love only for the world. He is happy to be in possession of the things of the world and when the things of the world are not available, he is disappointed. Finding a place of honour in this world gives him a sense of pride, while experiencing dishonour here leads to a sense of negativity.

The Hereafter-oriented life is quite different from this. The Hereafter-oriented person is one for whom the Hereafter becomes his sole concern, who is always thinking about the Hereafter, who is concerned about the eventualities after death, who remembers the accountability that will be required of him on the day of judgement. The Hereafter-oriented man is one whose mind is dominated by his apprehension of the Hereafter and who is so overwhelmed by them that everything in this world seems worthless. He is one who is avid for Paradise in the Hereafter, and is highly disturbed when he thinks of the future hell. He is one who sees Doomsday before it has actually come and who can vividly imagine himself standing before God on that fateful day.