وَسَارِعُوا إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
Hasten towards the forgiveness from your Lord, and a Garden whose width is that of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous ~ Surah Al Imraan 3:133
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What is the meaning of Hastening Towards Khayraat (Good Deeds)?
When man ponders over his existence and creation … Why has he been created? … Who is his Creator? … and how Powerful, Mighty and Supreme He is, then his heart will be naturally inclined towards worshipping and obeying that Mighty Creator : Allah Subhaanahu Wa Ta’ala. There will be a strong urge coming into his heart to perform actions pleasing to Allah Taala…
Hence, in the verses above, Allah Ta’ala exhorts the believers to perform actions that are good and full of reward.
When the inclination to do good deeds comes very strongly in one’s heart, then one should not delay, but should immediately do the good deed that he is prompted towards … He should NOT procrastinate.
In Arabic there is a word for procrastination known as ‘Tasweef’. It comes from the Arabic word ‘Sawfa’ which means ‘soon’ … Soon I will do it, or, later on … not now … but, when I get the time …
So what happens … One says : ‘soon’, ‘later on’ , ‘afterwards’ etc etc. All these lead to procrastination, and ultimately one fails to perform that particular deed …
Shaytaan has different ways of luring and enticing a person, deceiving him, ie : by causing him to delay and not performing the good deed …
Therefore, when a person is prompted to do some good deed/action then he should NOT delay. He should rather hasten towards good actions and not leave it for the “tomorrow” that may never come …
Remember! Time is passing by rapidly …
We say that we will do this good action tomorrow, but this strong inclination and desire of doing good later on, may not linger for long, but it may disappear altogether …
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Hazrat Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) said, “Be prompt in doing good deeds before you are overtaken by trials/tribulations, which would be like huge chunks of a ‘dark night’. A man would be a believer in the morning and turn to disbelief in the evening, or he would be a believer in the evening and turn a disbeliever in the morning. He would sell his Faith for worldly goods.” – [Muslim]