Accountability of the Soul
The Almighty says in Sura Al-Hashr, ayat 18:
O you who have believed, fear God, and let a soul wait for what it has sent forth for tomorrow, and fear God. Indeed, God is aware of what you do.
Dear brothers and sisters, Allah SWT will bring us to account for everything, the small and the great and as Allah SWT said in the Quran:
So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it
And so dear brothers and sisters, those with sound hearts and conscious minds know that Allah SWT is waiting for them, and that He will not save them except by the necessity of accountability and demanding the soul and holding it accountable for the breaths and movements it conducted in this life.
And so the wise and discreet believer must hold himself accountable, because obedience and obligations are paramount, and disobedience is loss.
The believing person should have a time in his day in which he holds himself accountable. A time in the day where he reflects on the day that has been spent and whether his actions and his behaviour was aligned to the day when he returns to his Creator and is held accountable for the actions of this world.
Among the benefits of self-accounting is that it reminds us that Allah SWT is ever-present in our lives and that we are not alone and therefore that knowledge prevents us from being reckless in our actions and prevents us from misbehaving.
The first step of this self-accounting should be spent on pondering on the blessings of Allah SWT on their day. Things such as wellness, security, riches and the favours that one can remember. Remember, there are immeasurable favours that we can’t even ponder over, such is the blessings of Allah SWT in our everyday lives.
And so, the reminder concludes with some benefits of performing self-accountability in the hope that we can all make it a part of our lives:
1- Through accountability, a person becomes aware of their own shortcomings. He who is aware of his own faults knows his worth, and the knowledge of the slave by his self-worth causes him to be humble in front of Allah SWT, glorify and worship Allah SWT, so he does become arrogant in his own worship, no matter how great it is, and does not become complacent in his sin, no matter how small it is.
2- Through accountability, a person recognizes the right of Allah SWT over him. And so when he compares the grace of Allah SWT upon him vs his level of worship of Allah SWT, then this will be a motivation for him to improve his acts of worship and a deterrent for him to perform bad deeds.
Dear brothers and sisters, some people rejoice over the provisions of this life. Their lives are enveloped with building a life worth living, and in many cases, the justification we give to ourselves is that we are building a life for our loved ones and therefore it justifies the sacrifice we make on our own souls.
After all, we tell ourselves, Allah SWT will understand if we miss prayers or if we don’t do other acts of worship because we are spending times on noble causes such as raising our families or working for our families etc.
Dear brothers and sisters, nothing takes away from this point. Especially the brothers, we have a heightened sense of responsibility towards others because that is the position Allah SWT has bestowed upon us.
However, we need to understand that part of the test of this life, and in many cases, the hardest part of the test of this life, is finding the balance between the performance of our role in this life but also performing as a slave of Allah SWT.
And it is that second part that many of us overlook because it becomes too difficult to manage both things. We tell ourselves Allah SWT will understand because we are working so hard anyway.
And how do we do this? The reminder concludes with 3 ways to achieve this:
- We ask Allah SWT to give us ease in our roles and our responsibilities so that they do not overwhelm us to the point we forsake our worship of Him. We ask Allah SWT to give us clarity everyday so that we can separate the roles as people in this dunya from the role we have as souls in this dunya.
- We learn to prioritise our day so that the worship of Allah SWT is first. For example, anchor the prayers in your day and make everything else work around those 5 meetings with Allah SWT. Put the recitation of Quran before other acts, even if they are for the sake of others. If nothing else, wake up 10 minutes earlier daily to fit this in, and ask Allah SWT to not let it sacrifice your health or energy.
- Understand the primary role of Shaitaan in your every day is to entice you with wrongdoings and part of that may not be to sin but to distract you away from good. The most valuable asset we all possess is time. Nothing can buy you more time and so make each minute of each day count for you.
Dear brothers and sisters, the most important thing we must take from our reminder today is that we cannot forsake our self-accountability and so our own actions and behaviours as a creation of Allah SWT must come before the roles and responsibilities that Allah SWT has given us.
