Most things in life are overrated

 Life has the ability to disappoint you. Sometimes you look forward to things, believing that it will be wonderful, just to be reminded that it wasn't such a big deal in the first place. This can apply to big things and small.

For a while I wanted to buy the new Magnum Black Espresso ice-cream. The adverts of it made it seem divine. The mouth-watering, rich ice-cream, with perfect coffee flavoured swirls covered in intense dark chocolate almost made me drool. Who wouldn't be attracted to such a pleasure?  So yesterday my sister decided to buy it for me (May Allah reward her), and I finally got to taste it. I’d be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it, but after a short while I came to this realization- MOST THINGS IN LIFE ARE HIGHLY OVERRATED!

The ice-cream was obviously not as enjoyable as it was made to look, and of course that should be expected since advertising is a huge industry and those people really do their jobs well. But this is a reminder to us all, the things of this world are all like that. It provides the promise of something wonderful, just for you to come to learn that in fact, it’s not that great after all.

Let’s look at bigger things, because deriving life lessons from a simple ice-cream may seem silly to some people.

What about something like marriage? We look forward to getting married with a firm belief that it will be perfect. We dream of having the best spouse and a life that will make others long to be us. Only to find that it’s more work than fun and the dream does not match the reality at all. Same thing with having children. It’s a pleasure and a blessing, but it’s no walk in the park and parents will tell you that their concerns, worries and work never end.

The same can apply to almost anything in life, anything material that is. The promises of joy when it comes to things in this world will always be overrated, but I think it has to be that way. How can we enjoy everlasting Paradise if we get satisfaction in this temporary world? How can we understand truth without first having lived through the illusion? This world is merely a preparation, and this means that everything in it is flawed, and so of course when we expect perfection from things in this imperfect world then we will end up feeling disappointed and perhaps even cheated.

But while most things in life are overrated, we can expect there to be the opposite of this and so Inshaa-Allah we will find that things of the hereafter will not be overrated at all. Yes, I know that I have not actually experienced the hereafter, but I have the promise of my Creator and that means that the descriptions of Paradise is not some truth laced with a whole load of illusion (as is the case in this world). When Allah Almighty tells us something, then we can be assured that it is pure and absolute truth, and so things will be exactly how they have been described to be. No misleading advertising, no glamorous ploys, no emotional manipulation, just the plain down truth, and we are told something to the effect that our expectations of Jannah (Paradise) will never be accurate, it will always be surpassed because we do not have the ability to comprehend things of the Hereafter. So Inshaa-Allah what we expect from Jannah will be much, much better than our expectations, and obviously then “overrated” will not even feature.

The lesson in short:

Things of this world will always continue to disappoint us but things of the Hereafter will be the opposite.

MAY ALMIGHTY ALLAH GUIDE US, HELP US AND ALLOW US TO EXPERIENCE THE TRUE PLEASURES OF JANNAH, INSHAA-ALLAH!

Image from here