Neither Allah, nor Muhammad (saw) need your faith or prayers!

Imagine a ship, sailing the ocean, full of travelers… Suddenly, the ship hits an iceberg and starts sinking. The captain makes an announcement notifying everybody that the ship is sinking and asks them to wear their life jackets or to obtain life rings. While most people heed this announcement and rush to ensure their safety, one man says: ‘I believe in the captain. I love the captain!’ yet does nothing to obtain a life jacket or ring. When the ship sinks, like everybody else, he finds himself in the water, but unlike the rest, he begins to struggle and drown, yelling out to the ocean: ‘Don’t drown me ocean! I believe in the captain! I love the captain!’

If the ocean could talk back, it would probably say, ‘If you had really believed the captain, you would have heeded his message and worn your life jacket! It is not the act of believing the captain, but following his instructions that would have been of benefit for you here. Merely believing the captain is only good for you while you’re on that ship. Out here, you live the consequences of your own actions, or lack thereof! Whether you believed him or not means nothing at this point!’

Similarly, many people spend their lives saying ‘I believe in Allah, I believe in Rasulullah’ but do nothing in heed of their message! In fact, they don’t even feel the need to research it!

Simply saying ‘I believe’ isn’t what is asked of us. Neither Allah nor Muhammad (saw) needs anyone to believe in them!

It is required to acquire certain powers by engaging in the practices advised by Muhammad (saw) so that we may be delivered from the tribulations and torments awaiting us in the life after.

Indeed, if we believe Rasulullah (saw), and hence follow his instructions in realizing our intrinsic potentials, we may be saved from the state (environment) known as Hell.

But no matter how much we claim to believe, if we fail to walk on the path shown by Allah’s Rasul, suffering from hell fire will be inescapable, as we would not have acquired what is necessary to accomplish the transition.

“All of them have degrees (formed) as a result of what they have done, so they may be fully compensated for their deeds, without any injustice.” (Quran 46:19)

“This is the result of what your hands have put forth. Indeed, Allah is never unjust to His servants (Allah is not the cause of your dual perception; it is the ego or your constructed identity that attributes a separate existence to itself, hence causing duality [shirq], which leads to suffering).” (Quran 22:10)

This being the case, do not wrong your selves by wasting your brain capital, energy, and life on things that will be rendered meaningless with death!

The verse “Allah does not like the squanderers” is not in reference to those who waste a little worldly capital here and there! It refers to those who waste their souls! It warns against wasting one’s soul, or self, and all its intrinsic divine qualities and potential of vicegerency.

Many Rasuls and Nabis, are quoted throughout the Quran as saying “I have wronged my soul, I have wronged myself” denoting this very reality. That is, they express their concerns of doing wrong by their selves by not duly and adequately using their intrinsic quality of vicegerency.

And would it be such a loss if we were to waste some worldly possessions that we are bound to leave behind anyway?

If, on the other hand, we squander away something that we will need for eternity and never again have the opportunity to retrieve it, we will have done such an injustice by our selves that it is impossible for me to express here the remorse it will result in.

Doing wrong by your soul, which will be your source of divine life and (godly) powers in the next dimension of existence, will only result in eternal disappointment and pain.

The realities of the afterlife are completely different to the realities of this world. Let me provide an example regarding the concept of time: