I was raised as a non-Muslim with the belief that, because of my religious convictions at the time, I would automatically enter Paradise.
Naturally, my focus was not on what I thought had already been secured for me in the Hereafter, but rather on this worldly life.
Not that being preoccupied with the Dunya is wrong: in the Qur’an, Allah ﷻ says:
“Rather, seek the ˹reward˺ of the Hereafter by means of what Allah has granted you, without forgetting your share of this world. And be good ˹to others˺ as Allah has been good to you. Do not seek to spread corruption in the land, for Allah certainly does not like the corruptors.” (Qur’an 28:77)
In his Tafsir, Ibn Kathir (rahimahullah) explains the phrase “without forgetting your share of this world” as “That which Allah has permitted of food, drink, clothing, dwelling places and women. Your Lord has rights over you, your self has rights over you, your family has rights over you, and your visitors have rights over you. So give each of them their due.”
At the same time, the beliefs that led me to be almost entirely focused on the Dunya eventually contributed to my developing major depression; by that stage of my life, I had experienced many hardships, was deeply dissatisfied with my circumstances and struggled to understand how this could be my reality as someone who believed they had been “chosen” by God and had sincerely tried to live according to what they had been taught was right.
As Muslims, we too live in environments and are exposed to influences that can gradually cause us to lose sight of the Akhirah and become overcome by worldly concerns.
The following hadith serves as a powerful reminder to submit to Allah rather than to worldly dictates, to trust in the justice of His decree, and to seek relief through turning to Him. It also contains a du‘a that, by Allah’s permission, replaces anxiety and grief with joy:
Imam Aḥmad, Musnad (1/391), and others reported upon the authority of Ibn Masʿūd that the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) said: “No slave is afflicted with anxiety and grief, and then says:
‘O Allāh, I am Your slave, son of Your male slave, son of Your female slave. My forehead is in Your hand. Your judgment upon me is assured and whatever you have decreed for me is just. I ask You by every name belonging to You which You have named Yourself with, revealed in Your Book, taught one of Your creation or which You have preserved in the knowledge of the Unseen with You that You make the Qurʾān the spring of my heart and the light of my chest, a banisher for my grief and a reliever for my anxiety.’
“Except that Allāh will replace his distress and grief with joy.”
He was asked, ‘O Messenger of Allāh, should we not learn it?’ He said, “Of course, whoever hears it should learn it.”
[Authenticated by Shaykh al-Albānī in al-Silsilah al Aḥadīth al-Ṣaḥihah (1/198)’ with a slightly different wording. And this wording was declared ḥasan (sound) by Shaykh ʿAlī in his checking of al-Fawāʾid al-al-Fawāʾid pg. 49.]
If what I have said is correct, it is from Allah ﷻ; and if it is wrong, then it is from myself and Shayṭān.
Assalaam Aleykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatouh.