Self-deception and forgetfulness, according to Imam al-Ghazali (d. 1111), are the cause of destruction and misery in the hereafer. Self-deception is a ‘disease’ of the heart that inflicts almost everybody, even the scholars and religious people are not spared from it. We are reminded of its danger by the Qur’an: “O mankind! Keep your duty to your Lord, and fear a Day when the parent will not be able to avail the child in aught, nor the child to avail the parent. Lo! Allah’s promise is the very truth. Let not the life of the world beguile you, nor let the deceiver beguile you, in regard to Allah.”
This verse speaks of the event promised by God to take place in the hereafter. It will be a dreadful day, when parents and children will not be able to help each other out because everybody will be so preoccupied with his or her own fate.
To those who do not believe, this statement or any other statements about the hereafter are meaningless, and they will not change anything as far as their life is concerned. As for those who truly believe in them, they will be in constant guard of themselves, by doing what is enjoined by religion and leaving what is forbidden. In between are those who claim that they believe, yet they do not take it seriously, meaning, they do not act upon it. There is no difference between the first and the last—both, according to the Qur’an, will end up in the hereafter in ‘misery’. The first for the lack of belief, while the last for the lack of necessary act in accord with the belief, and both are caused by self-deception.
It is called self-deception because it involves a process of flawed reasoning where one is deceived into believing in a false premise, and based on that false premise, conclusions are being made. So, according to the verse quoted above, to live a care-free life is a self-deception, because it is based on the false premises: that God does not exist, and that there is no life after death. If one is not certain whether God and afterlife exist or not, one cannot carelessly say that they don’t exist. What one may say is that he is not certain, meaning he does not ‘know’ whether they really exist or not.
Uncertainty should be cured by a sincere and incessant quest for the answer, not by elevating doubt into knowledge. One who doubts does not know, hence he cannot say that God does not exist because he has doubts about His existence. If he insists, then he is actually making a claim that he knows that God does not exist whereas he does not know. That being the case, living a care-free life is not an intelligent decision to make. And here comes the deception: in the form of the worldly life, which is so ‘certain’ and ‘real’, whereas the afterlife is so ‘doubtful’ and ‘not real’. The argument goes like this: this world is so real and certain; the next world is doubtful and not real; hence, this life should be made preferable to the next life. This argument is acceptable only to a person who is willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that what is being denied is actually a possibility. It is called self-deception, and it is not a wise thing to do in view of its consequences to the person. A possibility is a possibility, and it should not be treated as an impossibility.
Self-deception is a really a foolish thing because only a fool will fail to know and believe what he ought to know and believe, or upon knowing and believing, fail to act accordingly. It is a foolish thing not to recognize the obvious fact that death is approaching because death is the most certain thing that will ever happen to all man. True, it is something unpleasant to think of, to imagine, or to talk about, because it means the loss of something most precious, namely life. Since life is so precious, surely whatever destroys or takes it away must be considered the greatest evil, something that is abhorred and shunned. Hence we can understand why, in any society, murder is considered the most serious crime, while a life-saving act is considered heroic and glorified.
Death, nevertheless, is unavoidable, regardless of its cause. Because of that it has become an unavoidable question, and a real one. What does it mean? Does it mean a total anihilation of the mental life as well? Or will the soul, and with it our consciousness, survive death? If so, what kind of life will it be? One can only avoid all those questions through a self-deception, meaning one has allow one self to be deceived into believing that the life in this world is what matters most because it is certain, whereas there is no certainty with regard to life after death. But that is not how we usually deal with our life. For example, we are certain with the amount of money that we already have, and not certain of the return of an investment. Yet we still invest with the hope of having profit in the future. And that is considered a wise decision financially. By the same token one would take a bitter medicine or agree to undergo a painful surgery even though he is not certain that his illness would be cured. He does that simply out of trust of in the opinion of the medical experts, in the hope that he would be cured by enduring a little pain and discomfort. Likewise is our trust in the Prophets and the sages, from whom we know about the hereafter.
This amount of argument is enough to cure some people from the disease of self-deception, and make them realize the need to know and do what is right for the sake of eternal happiness. This realization at least will lead them to searching for the truth among the competing claims regarding the question of human destiny. Nevertheless there is still a great number of others who are not bothered by it. They have made this world, instead, as their their final destiny, and have forgotten the hereafter altogether due to preoccupation with what is here and now. They are the secular people. Their life is a life of self-deception.