Life Death and Beyond

want. This is because a train is a train; it cannot be a substitute for your home. In the same way, in the present world, the fulfilment of all of one’s desires is impossible for us. The person who hopes for the complete fulfilment of his desires must work for the Hereafter, where, in the eternal home of Paradise, this might be possible for him. It is this truth that is expressed in the Quran (37:61) in the following words: “It is for the like of this that all should strive.” Nothing is Our Personal Possession There is a report attributed to the Prophet Muhammad that appears in different books of Hadith. One of the traditions appears as follows: A person often cries out: ‘My wealth! My wealth!’ However, of a person’s wealth there are only three portions for him: whatever he eats and is thus consumed, that by means of which he dresses himself and so it wears out, and that which he gives away [in charity] and thus stores up for himself [as reward in the Hereafter]. Apart from this, the remaining will pass away as he will leave it behind for people. (Sahih Muslim 2959) When a person spends his life in this world, he has access to several things that he regards as his own. He does a job, through which he earns money. He thinks that this money is his—his rightful earnings. He also thinks that the things he buys with this money all belong to him. He feels that he is the