Dear brother! Take an investigating glance at your past days: What have you provided for your Hereafter in them? Examine yourself critically for this. Maymun bin Mihran said, “The man cannot become pious until he holds himself accountable as he would his business partner.” The rightly guided person is therefore he who examines and criticizes himself for his shortcomings and then mends his ways. Lack of self-investigation is not a good thing for a Muslim. For the disbelievers caused perdition to themselves because they never thought that there was someone watching them. Allah says,
“For truly, they used not to expect any reckoning.” (Surah Al Naba’ 78:27)
Seeing one’s faults prevents one from going astray. And knowing that one’s end is the grave makes one become more humble to Allah and prevents ostentation. Abu Darda said:
“The Muslim cannot have proper understanding of Islam until he criticizes people for the sake of Allah and criticizes himself more.”
Dear brother! When you sit with people, advise yourself. People watch your outward deeds but Allah watches your inner deeds. Whoever reforms his inward habits through self-examination and sincerity, Allah will adorn his outward deeds with success.
Regular remembrance of Allah’s right upon man and His great blessings makes man bows his head for Allah as it makes him recognise his weaknesses. It also let him know that there is no salvation except by obeying Allah and that He should be obeyed and thanked. A scholar said,
“The first step in self-examination is to compare Allah’s blessings to your sins. Then it will be clear to you that you can never escape from His punishment except by His mercy only.”
Malik bin Dinar said,
“May Allah bless a man who tells his soul: ‘Are you not the perpetrator of so and so sins?’ And he then reproaches his soul and forces it to abide by the Book of Allah.”
The most dangerous thing that a legally responsible Muslim can do to himself is to abandon self-examination and to indulge in lusts until he perishes. This is actually the situation with those who are deceived by the beauties of this world and depend on Allah’s forgiveness without making any repentance or abandoning the sins. Allah says,
“O man! What has made you careless about your Lord, the Most Generous?” (Surah Al Infitar 82:6)
Al-Hasan Al-Basri said,
“A believer should admonish himself and say: ‘What do I intend by the word I utter? What do I intend by the food I eat?’ As for a disbeliever, he does never admonish himself. But the Muslim should always be a watcher over himself.”
Allah says,
“Verily, those who are the pious, when an evil thought comes to them from Satan, they remember (Allah), and (indeed) they then see (aright).” (Surah Al A‘raf 7:201)