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What to Do Tomorrow Morning

Seven lines to be carried out in a single day. They need no special conditions and no going off alone:

The actionThe timeThe sign that tells you you did it
Look at your house the way a traveller looks at a stationOn wakingNothing lacking in it annoyed you today
Name three blessings and trace them to the One who gave themAfter the dawn prayerYou felt ashamed of a complaint you were about to make
Pick one comfort and hold back from it by choiceBefore noonYou felt that you own the tool and it does not own you
Spend something from your tool that nobody seesDuring the dayYou mentioned it to no one by evening
Do well one thing you are used to rushingAt its timeYou did it again because you saw a fault in it
When things crowd, put first what helps you after the paper is takenAt the clashYou lost something small and did not regret it
Take account of yourself in two lines: a blessing and a hardshipBefore sleepYou knew which paper you were on

If you do this for seven days running, you will find the hall exactly as it was: the desk polished, the window open, the clock above the board. The furniture has not changed at all. What has changed is that you have started to write.

Map of this part
The questionWhere do belongings, health and standing sit in the examination: are they prizes that count, or permitted tools you are asked about how you held?
The path1The furnishing of the hall: the furniture is material for a question, not a certificate of distinction2two papers one after the other: ease is answered with gratitude and hardship with endurance3five instructions that bring the understanding down from the head to the hand4seven actions for a single day, each with its time and its sign
The two hallsA polished desk, a hard seat, a calculator turned over in the hands, and an announcement of ten minutesroom you are asked what you did with, hardship you are asked how you answered in, states changed about, then the paper taken with no warning
EvidenceAl-Imran 14 · Al-Hadid 20 · Al-Kahf 45–46 · Ibrahim 7 · Al-Baqara 155–157 · Al-Anbiya 35 · Ash-Shura 20 · Al-Mulk 2 · Sahih al-Bukhari 1 · Sahih al-Bukhari 6416 · Sahih al-Bukhari 6514 · Sahih Muslim 1631 · Sahih Muslim 2564 · Sahih Muslim 2956 · Sahih Muslim 2999 · Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2377 · Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2459 · a report from Umar ibn al-Khattab — a Companion's words, not the Prophet's
Where it landsAll the tools are permitted, and not one of them is called to account; the holding is what is called to account, the tools are collected at the door, and nothing goes up but what was written with them.
What to do with it
  1. 1Look at what is in your hand once a day the way a traveller looks at his luggage, and call it a temporary tool and not a certificate of distinction.
  2. 2Examine your ease as you examine your hardship: name one blessing exactly, trace it to the One who gave it, and spend something of it that nobody sees.
  3. 3Say the word of submission in the first moment of the affliction, before the news goes cold and before breaking down gets there first.
  4. 4Each month cut back one door of comfort by choice and not because you have to, so you learn which of the two of you owns the other.
  5. 5Put your presence right in one deed you repeat with no heart in it, for a whole week, before you add a new deed.
  6. 6When the two times crowd each other, put first what stays after the paper is taken; then take account of yourself in two lines before sleep: a blessing and a hardship.
In short

The hall of this world is fitted out by deliberate calculation: a polished desk, a window, one cushioned seat and another that is hard; and none of it is a prize that counts, but material for a question to be answered. Revelation calls these belongings a furnishing, and rain that pleases and then becomes broken straw; so the tool is not called to account — the holding of it is. Then two papers are given out one after the other: ease, whose answer is gratitude in the heart, on the tongue, and in spending the blessing where it belongs; and hardship, whose answer is contentment and steadiness without anger; and the more hidden danger is the first, because the man holding it counts it as a rest. And this understanding comes down from the head to the hand by five instructions: sitting as someone passing through, taking what is allowed as provisions for the road, taking account of yourself before the paper is taken, doing one thing well instead of piling up numbers, and choosing what stays when times crowd one another; then seven actions for a single day, each with a sign that confirms it. All the tools are permitted, but they are collected at the door, and the paper alone goes up.