Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

Bismillahir- Rahmanir-Rahim

1. Introduction

Friends who are blessed by Allah, Have you ever imagined someone buying the latest model of a luxurious and extremely expensive sports car? The technology is advanced, the engine roars powerfully. Yet, he dares to drive it on a pitch-black night, through a dense forest with sharp winding roads surrounded by cliffs hundreds of meters deep.Suddenly... click! The headlights go out completely. What happens? It is only a matter of time before that luxury car plunges straight into the abyss of destruction. Was the car bad? No, its structure is very strong. It was destroyed purely because of one thing: it lost its lighting system.That is the picture of human life. No matter how high our position, how abundant our wealth, or how sophisticated our minds, without the light of religious wisdom [faith and knowledge], we are driving ourselves toward the ravine of ruin .Psychologically, a person who walks without a spiritual compass will always be plagued by existential anxiety. They have everything to live with, but do not know what they live for. Religion comes as a light [nūr] that soothes the soul, guiding the intellect so it does not get lost in the deceptive jungle of the world.

Allah SWT describes the importance of this guiding light in the Qur’an:

أَوَمَن كَانَ مَيْتًا فَأَحْيَيْنَاهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ كَمَن مَّثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِّنْهَا

“And is one who was dead and We gave him life and made for him a light by which to walk among the people like one who is in darkness, never to emerge from it?”[QS. Al-Anʿām: 122]

Without the lantern of religion, we are truly “walking in darkness.” Rasulullah ﷺ also warned us to always seek protection from the darkness of the heart through a hadith:

اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ فِي قَلْبِي نُورًا وَفِي بَصَرِي نُورًا وَفِي سَمْعِي نُورًا

“O Allah, place light in my heart, light in my sight, and light in my hearing.”

[HR. Bukhārī and Muslim]

2. Lessons and Message

Let us open the pages of the Hereafter, filled with regret. In the Qur’an, Allah immortalizes a deeply heartbreaking lament from the dwellers of Hell. When they have been cast into the blazing fire, their greatest regret is not that they lacked wealth or intelligence in the world. Their regret is that they did not use their intellect and ears to seek the “lantern” of religious wisdom.

They weep, scream amid the torment, while lamenting: “If only we had listened or reasoned [about the warning], we would not be among the companions of the blazing Fire!” A regret that comes too late, a cry of blood that is no longer of any use—only because in the world they proudly walked in darkness without divine guidance.

So that we do not join them in lament, let us make a simple analogy that is a bit thought-provoking. Imagine you are lost in the middle of a wilderness at night. You are carrying a small lantern. Suddenly, someone passes by carrying the latest smartphone worth tens of millions, but its battery is at 0%—completely dead. That person says arrogantly, “Look, my phone has a crystal-clear screen, the camera can zoom to the moon, and it’s expensive!”You might just smile faintly while thinking, “No matter how expensive it is, if the screen is dead, your phone can’t light the way to avoid a bite from a phantom snake, dude!” In a dark forest, a cheap kerosene lantern is far more life-saving than a dead luxury gadget. Let us not be like that person: busy showing off the luxurious “casing” of life, while the “battery” of faith and the lamp of wisdom in our souls is completely empty!

3. Conclusion & Closing

Friends, the high-level moral message from this analogy is very clear: never be enchanted by the luxury of life’s facilities if we ourselves have lost direction and purpose. A luxury car without headlights will only become a killing machine in the darkness of night. Let us illuminate the rest of our lives with the light of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Fill the tank of our wisdom every day with worship, knowledge, and righteous deeds. Do not wait until the light of our life goes out mid-journey, and do not let us become among those who lament at the end of the wrong road.

May Allah always keep the lantern of faith lit in our hearts until we arrive safely in His Jannah.

. والله أعلم بالصواب

الحمد لله رب العالمين

Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Abu Sultan Al-Qadrie