‹Whoever Desires the Immediate› and ‹Whoever Desires the Hereafter›: What the Qur'an Makes of a Person

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 19 August 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Dr. Ahmed began his khatira with a supplication in which he asked Allah to protect us from all evil, immediate and delayed; to keep our hearts and consciences sound; to preserve for us the health of our eyes and our insight; to make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the hereafter and on the day the witnesses arise; not to leave us to ourselves or to any of His creation for the blink of an eye or less; to make what has been written for us of the Qur'an in this world the immediate glad tidings for us; and to accept our striving and make us among the accepted before Him.

Then he said that, within the frame of the Qur'anic formation of the human being, he was pausing at the words of Allah, glory be to Him, the Exalted:

﴿مَنْ كَانَ يُرِيدُ الْعَاجِلَةَ عَجَّلْنَا لَهُ فِيهَا مَا نَشَاءُ لِمَنْ نُرِيدُ ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَا لَهُ جَهَنَّمَ يَصْلَاهَا مَذْمُومًا مَدْحُورًا﴾ (Whoever desires the immediate, We hasten for him in it whatever We will for whom We intend; then We have made for him Hell, which he will enter, condemned and rejected)^[1]

and after it:

﴿وَمَنْ أَرَادَ الْآخِرَةَ وَسَعَىٰ لَهَا سَعْيَهَا وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَأُولَٰئِكَ كَانَ سَعْيُهُمْ مَشْكُورًا﴾ (And whoever desires the hereafter and strives for it as it deserves, while he is a believer, it is those whose striving is appreciated)^[2]

He commented on the first by saying: «من كان يريد العاجلة» ("whoever desires the immediate"), that is, haste: take, move on, go. Whoever desires the immediate takes it and goes. As for those who desired the hereafter and strove for it as it deserves while believers, their striving is appreciated.

Then he mentioned the words of Allah, glory be to Him: ﴿كُلًّا نُمِدُّ هَٰؤُلَاءِ وَهَٰؤُلَاءِ مِنْ عَطَاءِ رَبِّكَ﴾ (To each We extend, to these and to those, from the bounty of your Lord),^[3] and then referred to a ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ whose text was not clear in the transcript.

He concluded by saying: O Allah, amen, O Lord of the worlds, may Allah bless…

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: al-Isrāʾ: 18. The speaker completed the verse in this khatira; the word "مدحورًا" ("rejected") did not appear in full in the transcript ("مدحو"), and was supplied because the context is clear. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Isrāʾ: 19. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: al-Isrāʾ: 20.