A Muslimah's Reflection on Final Exams

 Bismillahi Ar Rahman Ar Raheem

As college students, we constantly find ourselves stressing about our exams, but not enough about the greatest exam--The Day of Judgement. This is my sister in Islam's letter to herself as she finds herself losing balance on what is truly important--pleasing Allah S.W.T. 

Finals. After that last final exam, there will be no more tests, quizzes or other opportunities to change your grade. What you end up with is what you end up with. I mean, that’s what makes it so stressful right? You have a limited amount of time until your final exams so you want to make sure every single minute spent is worth it. There’s no more time to waste. You have finals coming up! AH THEY’RE YOUR FINALS! SubhanAllah, there’s not even time to sleep. Oh the lovely all nighters. J It’s during this last week that you spend less time socializing, and more time focusing, gaining knowledge about your studies, getting study groups together- whatever it takes to pass, and succeed.

Now let’s flip the script. Imagine if we prepared for our death the way we prepare for finals. We all know we are going to leave this world, and will be ultimately judged and graded on every minor thing we did in this world. (There’s a reason why the Day of Judgment is called the Final Day). We will receive our books, of our entire lives. SubhanAllah. You know how nervous we get when we find out that our final grades are up? Imagine receiving the book of our entire lives, our final judgment. SubhanAllah, it will be given to us all. And there will be no turning back. It will be our final judgment. All the good we’ve done, the bad, will be written for us- whether we regret it or not, it will be all be too late to repent, and go back to the dunya. We will plead Allah to take us back to the dunya and change our ways but it will be too late by then.

 We pull all nighters studying for our academic tests, yet we have no problem sleeping through Fajr. Tahajjud  pssh is for the sheikhs right? That’s way too hard to do. Can you imagine sleeping in and missing your final exam? Yet we SNOOZE our alarm clocks during fajr and don’t even remember it going off when we wake up. May Allah have mercy on us. Do we really take advantage of every single minute we have in this world? Do we prepare for the day of judgment the way we prepare for our final exams? What’s the purpose of a study group? To put ideas together and work together to pass the final. What’s the purpose of the Muslim Ummah? To work together and help each other get into jannah.

May Allah give us success in this life, and success in the next life, and save us it from the punishment of the Hellfire. May He allow us to receive our books in our Right hand, and be satisfied with what is in it. May He allow us to pass all of our finals- in this life and the Next. May He increase our imaan and increase the love  of the Muslim ummah. May He increase us in knowledge, wisdom, and faith. & may He send his peace and blessings on our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAWS). Ameen, thumma ameen.