Today is all that you have

When you wake up in the morning do not expect to When you wake up in the morning, do not expect to see the evening - live as though today is all that you have. Yesterday has passed with its good and evil, while tomorrow has not yet arrived. Your life’s span is but one day, as if you were born in it and will die at the end of it. With this attitude, you will not be caught between an obsession over the past, with all its anxieties, and hopes of the future, with all its uncertainty. In this day you should pray with a wakeful heart, recite the Qur’an with understanding, and remember Allah with sincerity. In this day, you should be balanced in your affairs, satisfied with your allotted portion, concerned with your appearance and health.

Organize the hours of this day, so that you make years out of minutes and months out of seconds. Seek forgiveness from your Lord, remember Him, prepare for the final parting from this world, and live happily and at peace. Be content with your sustenance, your wife, your children, your work, your house and your station in life.

(“So hold that which I have given you and be of the grateful.”  - Qur’an 7:144)

Live today free from sorrow, bother, anger, jealousy and malice.

You must engrave onto your heart one phrase: Today is my only day. If you have eaten warm, fresh bread today, then what do yesterday’s dry rotten bread and tomorrow’s anticipated bread matter?

If  you are truthful with yourself and have a firm, solid resolve, you will undoubtedly convince yourself of the following: Today is my last day to live. When you attain this attitude, you will profit from every moment of your day, by developing your personality, expanding your abilities, and purifying your deeds. Then you say to yourself:

Today I shall be refined in my speech and will utter neither evil nor obscenity. Moreover, I shall not backbite.

Today I shall organize my house and my office. They shall not be disorderly and chaotic, but organized and neat.

Today I will be particular about my bodily cleanliness and appearance. I will be meticulous in my neatness and balanced in my walk, talk and actions.

As I am to live for Today only: I will strive today to be obedient to my Lord, pray in the best manner possible, do more voluntary acts of righteousness, recite the Qur’an and read beneficial books. I will plant goodness into my heart and extract from it the roots of evil – such as pride, jealousy and hypocrisy.

So I will try to help others – to visit the sick, to attend a funeral, to guide the one who is lost, and to feed the hungry. I will stand  side by side with the oppressed and the weak. I will pay respect to scholar, be merciful to the young and reverent to the old.

O’ past that has departed and is gone. I will not cry over you. You will not see me remembering you, not even for a moment, because you have travelled away from me and never return.

O’ future, you are in the realm of the unseen, I will not be obsessed by your dreams. I will not be preoccupied about what is to come because tomorrow is nothing and has not yet been created.

Today is my only day, is one of the most important statements in the dictionary of happiness for those who desire to live life in its fullest splendor and brilliance.

Excerpt from the book: “Don’t be sad” by Sheik ‘Aaidh al-Qarni