I know this might not be your typical story of the day but I am sure you might have had an experience like mine or even a different one from it. Yet the final reflection after it is o he silent reminder, which some of us still don't want to acknowledge.
I had spent a lousy week at school and was looking forward to going home. So I left school quite early on that Saturday' and .headed for home. I was so excited that getting caught up in the traffic at Ajah could not dampen my spirit. I had barely waited for ten (10) minutes when I heard what sounded like a gunshot and saw people running towards me.
I was confused and didn't know what to do. I put the gear in reverse and almost hit the vehicle behind me. After sometime, I looked back at the commotion, it seemed there was no bloodshed and everything had died down so there was no need to panic. Just as I was starting to relax, I saw a policeman throw a canister of tear gas right in the middle of the traffic. That was it; I had to get out. Luckily, I was at a place where I could make a u-turn and so I fled.
All this while, I had been praying to Allaah to save me from death. For a while back there, I thought I was going to die and I knew I was not prepared for death because I did not want to die.
Thinking about this later on made me feel bad because it made me realize I was too in love with the life of this world and preoccupied with it. I had neglected my duties as a Muslim. To make matters worse, I had experienced the death of friends and loved ones, both young and old, and I thought I had learnt a lesson from their deaths.
Death is an unexpected event and it has no regard for age. I guess the somber feeling always stayed for a while before finally giving way to the demands of this world.
Now I understand why the Rasul(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) asked us to remember death often. Remembering death helps one to realize that the life of this world is temporary and when one dies, all that matters are the good deeds one was able to achieve during his lifetime. The only way these deeds can be achieved is to obey Allaah completely, doing all He has commanded and avoiding all He has forbidden.
This may seem like a difficult task but having the knowledge that Allaah has created us all from a male and female for the purpose of worship, and He has promised to make it easy for His slaves who worship Him (with all sincerity) is enough to motivate us. There's also the promise of Jannah, a reward for those who strive to worship Him, and Jahannam as a punishment for those who choose to disobey Him.
Remember the hadith of the Rasul (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in which Allaah showed Jannah to Jibril and asked him what He thought. ...
This is enough proof that gaining entrance into al-Jannah is not an easy task. We will have to strive for this continuously because only Allaah knows which of our deeds will be accepted. We can't afford to relax for a moment because death is lurking in the shadow and no one but Allaah knows when it will decide to come out.