Pearls of Islam

Attachment of Dunya

When people say you shouldn't be attached to dunya, what does that make you think of? Money, fashion, property? Normally something tangible, something materialistic; but how often do you think of people?

If you are spending a lot of time trying to move on from someone, then remembering death will make you realize the value of time. Death puts into perspective how much time you are wasting. As morbid as it sounds, whenever a situation becomes very dramatic or intense, I remind myself that one day we are all going to die. Always remember that we are going to be buried under the ground one day, and that we are going to be asked about every hour we spent in our life. Think about the hours, days and months of wasted time that you spent moping, regretful and wondering why things didn't work out. All that time that you spent doing nothing thinking about someone else, you will have to answer Allah subḥānahu wa ta'āla (glorified and exalted be He) for. Imagine yourself on the Day of Judgement, with your whole life before you; how will you explain to Allah subḥānahu wa ta'āla (glorified and exalted be He) all the precious time that you wasted?

As people who have responsibilities and deadlines, we need to remember that when something upsets us, our exams aren't going to wait until we feel better nor are our responsibilities and deadlines going to pause whilst we take time to get over someone, so really evaluate whether the time spent moping is actually worth it.

As humans, we naturally try to fill a void in our life by replacing it with something similar or something temporary that will give us momentary happiness, such as constantly seeking to be with other people or in some cases binging on ice cream and chocolate, so-called 'comfort foods'.

When we are hurt, we sometimes like to remind people of everything we have done for them to somehow justify our anger toward them, as if they are indebted to us. Don't let your good deeds be wiped away with the slip of your tongue. Don't do things for other people if you expect loyalty from them.
Instead, do them for Allah ; that way even if people let you down, on the Day of Judgement, you will see all those good deeds making your scales heavier. We sometimes also neglect life truths. We all know that throughout life, people will hurt us, and a lot of times, it is the people closest to us who cause us the most pain. So rather than allow our tongue to strip us of our good deeds, why not accept what we know and ask Allah  for patience and strength during difficult times?

Don't waste time, don't waste time, don't waste time. The time that you spend watching movies, wondering why your life didn't turn out the way that you wanted and feeling sorry for yourself...you will regret it in the long term. If you are fortunate enough to have access to education, a bed to sleep in at night and food to eat, you are better off than many people in the world!