Yes, we all live with a feeling that never ends or wears out, that is always flourishing in our hearts; hope. People do not live only on food or oxygen. They live by the faith they carry in their hearts, their love of God and fine hopes. Any other life is not really life at all. Living with a hollow spirit, a loveless, faithless and hopeless heart, unaware of God, is not living at all.
But does that apply to believers? We live with a hope that is renewed and flourished anew in our hearts every single day.
We hope to be a better servant to God.
We hope that God will forgive our sins.
We hope to be better than we were the day before, and to draw closer to God every day.
Along with those hopes, we carry the hope of being a servant with whom God is pleased and that we shall enter Paradise.
Of course people are tested in the life of this world. They fall sick and are from time to time tested with hardships, poverty and all kinds of difficulties. This world is a place of passage to Paradise or Hell for all created things. The world is a place of unending tests; one test ends and another begins soon after and in the time that passes by the blink of an eye, a Muslim exhibits behaviors that are pleasing to God by displaying fortitude and submission in the face of troubles. And we never, under any circumstances, lose hope in our Lord.
… Do not despair of solace from God. No one despairs of solace from God except for people who are unbelievers… (Surah Yusuf, 87)
He said, ‘Who despairs of the mercy of his Lord except for misguided people?’ (Surat al-Hijr, 56)
One of the most distinguishing features between deniers and believers is that the former immediately lose hope and begin to despair in the face of the slightest untoward event, and they lose hope in the mercy of God. They forget that in the brief life of this world, God sometimes tests us with wealth and plenty and sometimes with hardships, diseases and poverty. Despite enjoying many blessings they fail to give thanks and they constantly rebel. They are thus condemned to live in a state of rebellion, wretchedness and sorrow, with no hope constantly flourishing in their hearts.
If We let man taste mercy from Us, and then take it away from him, he is despairing, ungrateful; (Surah Hud, 9)
Those who reject God's signs and the meeting with Him, such people can despair of My mercy, such people will have a painful punishment. (Surat al-Ankabut, 23)
When We give people a taste of mercy, they rejoice in it, but when something bad happens to them because of what they themselves have done, they immediately lose all hope. (Surat ar-Rum, 36)
When We bless man, he turns away and draws aside. When evil touches him, he despairs. (Surat al-‘Isra’, 83)
Man never tires of praying for the good and if evil touches him, he despairs (Surat al-Fussilat, 49)
Being a servant who pleases God, coming to that blessed day in which he will be returned to our Lord and receive His blessed word "Peace'" and be welcomed at the gates of Paradise they hope for; that day is without doubt the greatest hope a believer carries in his heart. These are the great hopes with which a believer lives by. They love our Lord with a passion that grows by the day and strive every day to be even closer to Him. They know that God will never forsake them, that He will never forget them, and that He will never leave them alone. The believer never loses hope in our Lord, and never turns his back on Him.
Deniers, however, abandon hope in our Lord in the Hereafter in the same way they do in this world. They forget that true life begins after death and that the life of the Hereafter will continue forever. It is certainly very hard to live without hope in this world. But the really hard thing is to live in Hell without hope for all eternity. The heart that abandons hope in our Lord in this world will beg to be allowed out of Hell every day, and will hope to be allowed to leave, but that will never happen, unless our Lord so wishes.
You who believe! Do not make friends of people with whom God is angry, who have despaired of the Hereafter as the unbelievers have despaired of the inhabitants of the graves. (Surat al-Mumtahanah, 13)
It will not be eased for them. They will be crushed there by despair. (Surat az-Zukhruf, 75)
