The Final Flashback

There have been these Facebook movies going around lately, where they show you a flashback of your time since you joined it. Take a moment to imagine your “Duniya movie.” You’re about to stand before your Creator, and you’re watching your time in this world flash before your eyes. Imagine the first moments of your life that you can remember… your best memories, and biggest accomplishments… how you influenced others in both good and bad ways… your friends, and how they influenced you… that time when you gave sadaqa without telling anybody… all the times you talked back to your parents, shamelessly… the time when you made sincere du’a for someone else, and didn’t tell them… every time you looked twice, but shouldn’t have… the time when you cried in prayer and repented, but fell back into the same sin again afterwards… all the skeletons in your closet… every grudge you held, only hurting yourself… every hour you wasted… every corrupted intention… and every regret.

Is this a movie you would share with others, like the ones people have been sharing on Facebook? And if you could go back, would you change anything?

The Prophet (saws) told us that this world, compared to the hereafter, is like the drops leftover on your finger after dipping it in the ocean [Sahih Muslim]. The ocean is so huge that you can’t even see 1% of it while standing at the shore, let alone count all the drops that make it up; and it’s still nothing compared to the afterlife, because the ocean ends somewhere, but the next life will never end.

Is it worth it to sacrifice the ocean, just to cling on to those two drops?

However, we can’t fully wrap our heads around that concept as human beings, which is why we were given a metaphor to reflect on. This duniya is like those two or three droplets of water on your finger, compared to the massive ocean you dipped it in. That means that every moment you thought of while imagining your “Duniya movie” was included in those drops; the moment we’re in now is included in those drops; and every moment that you’ll live in your life, even if you live to be a hundred years old, will be a part of those few drops. Every year that goes by, every tear that you shed, every temptation and struggle you face, every tragedy, everything that you and I get stressed out about, is all included in those tiny drops.

So my question is… Is it worth it? Is it worth it to complain about how “everything is haram,” and how “life’s not fair,” just so we can break some rules and become enslaved to our trivial desires? Is it worth it to sacrifice the ocean, just to cling on to those two drops?