This World is Nothing but a Facets of Garbage and Waste

Garbage. 

You can have it, really, I don’t mind.

That’s how we perceive garbage, we don’t want it, we don’t even want to come near it, we don’t even want to see it.

But then, it is what we actually chase, care, cling and want.

YES, you heard me right! This world is but pieces of junk and you will see this on the day when the world will be nothing but ashes! - the day when the whole world will perish. Authubillah.
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Let’s say you want to have a gadget so much so you go to your parents, Mama, Baba I want the latest iPhone, and your parents who are so loving gives you that, after few little drops, few malfunctions, its nothing anymore, then it becomes a waste as well as the money spent on it.

Or you want to gain fame, so you start uploading videos on youtube and doing whatever you think you are good at and intention is nothing connected to Allah Azza Wa Jall but for your own sake, few likes and you get to be little famous and boom comes the bashers, the haters and you want to end your life, so all your effort and time went into waste.

Astagfirullah.

These are just a bit of what is happening, really.

Well, if these are not enough (which I know aren’t) for you to realize that this world is nothing but a facets of garbage and waste, then here’s a bit of poignant words from ‘Umar Ibn Al Khattab Radiyallahu Anhu himself.
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Did you know that one of the best sermons and reminders that ‘Umar was known aside from salah [prayer] was about the dunya [world]?

It is related by Abu Al-Ashhab that one day, ‘Umar and a group of his Companions passed by a pit [trench or excavation] that was used for the disposal of garbage and sewage.

For some reason, ‘Umar was forced to stop for a short while beside that pit; he soon noticed looks of disgust and nausea on the faces of his Companions. And so he said to them,

"This is your world that you strive to gain and that you cry over (when you do not get something from it)."
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Subhan’Allah this is one of the stories of the life of ‘Umar that highlights the deep knowledge and wiseness that he had. Radiyallahu Anhu.

Indeed, ‘Umar was a man who preferred the Hereafter over the dunya, and he was such a stern person on this principle.

One day, Saalim Ibn Abdullah said that ‘Umar would talk about various delicious foods and drinks; and that he would then say that, while he and his companions could have eaten and drank delicious foods and drinks, they preferred not to, desiring instead to save their share of pleasures and good things for the Hereafter.

'Umar would then recite the following verse, as if to say that he didn't want to be among the people regarding whom it was revealed:

"You received your good things in the life of the world." Qur’an 46:20
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'Umar didn't just say and reminded people of giving up dunya for the akhirah but he also portrayed that.

Once, after he became the Leader of the Believers, he was seen delivering a sermon while wearing a lower garment that was patched in 12 different places, meaning it was very old and had become teary. 

He was also seen with the same garment when he was performing Tawa’f around the Ka’bah.
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O my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, we are ordained to strive as we are ought to strive but for the akhirah and not this world, make this world a means of gaining pleasures in the akhirah.

This world is temporary, it will perish, do not let it delude you of your sole purpose. Protect yourselves, at the end of the day, no one can truly motivate you but yourself, so yearn for the Hereafter, yearn for Jannah, yearn for Allah Azza Wa Jall.

So let me ask you once again, what can this garbage give you that you strive so much for it?
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And we pray that this story of ‘Umar enlighten the hearts of everyone that we may realize that there is so much more in Jannah, and that not even a single percent can this world come near to the beauty and pleasures that Jannah has. 

Amin.

-Zohayma-
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Story taken from Az-Zuhd by Imam Ahmad, p. 118 and Al-Hilyah: 1/50