Repent before death

One of the prayers that I learn in school was this: (Doa Selamat)
'O Allah, we ask of You... and sincere repentance before death'

As we sleep everyday, we should remember that sleep is a sister of death. This is the time when Allah lift up the soul from our body. If we were destined to live another day, the soul will be returned to the body, otherwise, we will meet the end of our time in this world.


The point is, it is wise upon anyone to take account of himself everyday and do sincere repentance, especially before sleep. This is the conclusion of our day, and wise person should always keep track of where he is heading. Yes, we all have this big dream of entering paradise, but are our actions helping us to achieve that dream?

It is tempting to postpone repenting. Even in business and work place, we see that those who delay in taking actions will be left behind. Similarly are those who delay his repentance.

One example was brought forward by one of my friend, and it goes like this:

A student met a Sheikh and ask him to teach him. The Sheikh agreed and took him for a brief journey. At the beginning of the journey, he ask the student to pluck out a budding seed from the ground. He did just that and they continue the journey. After a while, the Sheikh then instruct him to uproot a handful of grass. Obedient to his instruction, the student did accordingly but with a bit of struggle, and there are some marks on the ground as well. After that, they continued the journey until they saw a small tree, about two feet tall. Now, you know what's going to happen. Yes, the Sheikh again instruct the student to uproot this tree. Of course, this time, he put a hefty amount of energy to take the tree out, as the root is deeper and the trunk is harder. He needed a hoe to do this job. Alhamdulillah, after a hard effort, he managed to uproot the small tree. And this time the soil is more scattered. Does the story ends here? Not yet...next they came across a huge tree. And you guessed correctly, the Sheikh again ask the student to pluck this tree out. He sighed, but determined to do as instructed. This time, he needs more powerful tool. And more men power, so he hired some workers to finish the job. (pakai jela bajak, kan?)...to cut story short, he managed to uproot the big tree....and of course with much much more difficulties and spending. OK, there should be an ending somewhere right? right, I'll stop there. So, the student, drenched in his own sweat asked the Sheikh, what's the meaning of this journey?
The Sheikh said that the plants that the students uprooted are like sins. At the early stage, it is really easy to get rid of it. But if a person delay his repentance, the sin will grow more and more, until it is very hard to take it out from someone's life. He will face more struggle to get himself out from the sins and as a consequences, there are also more scars left.

Moral of the story: Don't delay! Shaitan will promise us long life and persuade us to indulge more in sins. But Allah also sends reminders to do good and stay away from evil on top of warning us that Shaitan is our open enemy. In the end of the day, he'll go away from us as soon as we involve ourself in sins. He will not help us if we were doomed to eternal fire, as he's also incapable of absolving himself from the fire.