life, he will be rewarded accordingly in the Hereafter. No doubt, those people who live in this world and prepare themselves for the Hereafter and take the gift of good deeds with them in the afterlife, they are the fortunate ones. In today’s weekly Sunnah-inspiring Bayan, we will listen to parables full of advice and admonitions with regard to the Hereafter, as well as sayings of our pious predecessors to awaken our thoughts about the hereafter. Let’s first listen to a faith-refreshing parable:

No one cries when contemplating about the Hereafter

It is written in Part 1, ‘Uyoon-ul-Hikayaat, a book of Maktaba-tul-Madinah, Page 137: ‘Hadrat Yazeed Bin Salt رَحْمَةُ اللهِ عَلَيْه states: “Once, I travelled to Basra to meet my pious and devout friend. When I reached his house, I saw that he was in a very delicate situation and due to the severity of his illness, was close to his death. His children, wife and parents stood around him crying and their faces were covered with despair. I said Salaam and asked, ‘What are you feeling at this moment in time?’ Listening to this, my friend said, ‘At this moment in time, I am feeling as if ants are wandering inside my body.’ Meanwhile, his father began to cry. My friend asked him, ‘O my kind father! What has made you cry?’ The father replied, ‘My beloved child! The sorrow of being separated from you is making me cry. What will happen to us after you die?’ Then his mother, children and wife also began to cry. My friend asked his mother, ‘O my kind mother! Why are you crying?’ The mother replied, ‘My beloved child! The sorrow of being separated from you is making me cry. How will I live without you?’ He then asked his wife, ‘What has forced you to cry?’ She replied, ‘My dear husband! Our life will be difficult without you. The sorrow of being separated from you is causing a wound in my heart.’ He then called his children close to him and asked, ‘My children! What has made you cry?’ The children replied, ‘After you die, we will become orphans. We will be deprived of a loving father. What will happen to us after you die? The sorrow of being separated from you is making us cry.’ After listening to everyone, my friend said to me, ‘make me sit.’ When he was made to sit, he said to his family members, ‘All of you are crying for this world. You all are not crying for me, but are crying because of the fear of losing your own benefits. Is there any one from you that cried over the fact that after death, what will be my condition? Soon, I will be left in a dark and frightening grave.