How
the Past and the Future Shape the Way We Live Today
Life is sometimes a ride toward heaven, opening into a long and inviting road. We glance into the rearview mirror to see where we have been, but it is the wide windshield ahead that truly needs our focus. Even a simple lesson from a German teacher—comparing life to a car’s rearview mirror and windshield—is enough to remind us that the past is small and limited, while the future appears vast and full of promise. Yet how easily we allow ourselves to be deceived into thinking we have all the time in the world, when in reality we should be making the best use of the moments we have right now.
A German teacher asked his students one day in his class what they knew about life. The students kept giving different answers, then their teacher took them out of the class to a parking lot. He opened the door of his car and sat the students in it one by one and asked, “When they look back, how big is the rearview mirror?” Then, “When they look forward, how big does the windshield seem to them?” Everyone said that there is a world of difference between the two. One is held a few inches and the other is four feet wide. Then he took everyone back in a rearview to the She said, “Hem,” and I said, “That this is the reality of life; what has the mirror held?” Then there’s the mirror, which is called the back mirror, and what remains is what we see as the windshield. Very big and very long, the cars seen in the rearview mirror are a rearview windscreen reality, but we do not know when or which car will come in front.
“When we stare too long at our past, we mistake motion for meaning; real direction only comes from looking ahead.” — Dr. Rania Feldman, Cognitive Psychologist (Life Orientation Researcher)
Traffic rules also include the fact that excessive use of the rearview mirror can be dangerous. Most of the time, we should keep our eyes on the windscreen. Just as keeping our eyes on the rearview windscreen prevents us from getting into accidents, we should also remember that a windscreen that looks too big can cause accidents. It is our future, but it is certainly not as small as the rearview mirror. A person lives for seventy years and spends sixty years, so they look very small like the rearview mirror, but the ten years that remain are considered too much, and he does not evaluate whether he has fulfilled the goals of his life or not. This is the illusion of life — that it does not know its end until the end. This incident was narrated by a friend of mine living in Germany, Abdul Sattar. He said that here in Pakistan, we believe that the whole world is bad, but we are right, although in the West too, there is a lot of emphasis on living life as a test and spending it day and night in good deeds and keeping our deeds good.
The example given by the German professor of the past and present of life is quite shocking. We all do not pay attention to how quickly the days, months and years of life are passing by.
The rearview mirror passes by without us correcting ourselves in the misunderstanding of the unseen future. This thought often grips us: we will do good deeds; we are still very old, although that age looks very big because of the windshield suddenly in front, while much is much smaller in the rearview mirror. When someone suddenly leaves this world, we do not think that his big windscreen has deceived us, but rather we say that he died of a heart attack. This heart attack or any disease is never visible in the rearview mirror or our windscreen; it just comes suddenly and makes us a part of that rearview mirror, which is very small. Yesterday I attended a funeral. The deceased was a very wealthy person, and he also had a lot of influence in the area. He often used to say, “Look, I have lived for seventy years. To date, no court has summoned me, nor has the police registered any case.” Nowadays, the era of lifelong immunity has come, so it seemed from his words that Maulana got an immunity due to his influence or some other reason. When the funeral prayer was ready, the heirs of the deceased asked who was leading the prayer to announce that if the deceased has something to give to someone, we are ready to give it; if the deceased has wronged anyone knowingly or unknowingly, then forgive them. Well, at that time, no one made any claim and no one came forward.
“The future often feels infinite simply because it hasn’t arrived yet. The wise live knowing that the windshield is wide, but the road is never guaranteed.” — Prof. Markus Steiner, Ethics & Philosophy Instructor
After the funeral prayer, a few of us friends sat down to drink tea at the hotel. Now the point under discussion was that after death, such an announcement by the heirs has some effect on the actions of the deceased. Azhar Saleem Majuka spoke about this in a nutshell.
He said that this game of life lasts only for life; after that, the matter goes somewhere else. It is better for a person to settle all the accounts in his life and leave, because deeds are accounted for in the hereafter. Even if the heirs pay off all the debts after death, this debt will still remain because why did the deceased not do this himself during his life? Muhammad Rafiq gave a bite on this. This means that taking a lifetime exemption is like a losing deal. When we consider the future windscreen to be very wide and fall into the negligence of earning this world now, we have a lot of time to earn the hereafter; then, in fact, we are making a losing deal. Life looks very big in the windscreen, but in reality, it is like a water bubble. It ends suddenly and does not even give you time to collect your things.
The reckoning is for this life and the hereafter, so it is better if it continues to be reckoned with here, because in the hereafter you will not get time to remove your shortcomings. Our ancestors did not just say that if they had wronged someone, then forgive them. They always presented themselves for accountability. Even great caliphs like Hazrat Umar (RA) were afraid of how they would answer Allah if they were negligent or wronged. If they wanted, they could have been granted lifelong immunity, but their eyes were not on this life but on the life after death, which is the reality, and no one can escape from it. It is better for a person to clear his account in this world. Let him go, so that his afterlife will be granted eternal immunity.
“Time behind us shrinks in memory, but time ahead shrinks in reality. That is why intentional living is the only safe driving lesson life offers.” — Sarah Connors, Author & Behavioural Science Commentator
Although the article has a wonderful demonstration of how life is short and that we need to prioritize, it might have made more practical reflection and action for the audience. The lessons of life are not mere philosophical lessons but require mindfulness every day. Spending a couple of minutes a day to review our decisions, repair relationships and make purposeful decisions will see to it that our windshield does not obscure our vision of what is really important to us. Ultimately, life is not only living with an appreciation of the past as well as having a vision of the future but also living in the present and living responsibly.
Life is a Short Journey — Like a Passing Shadow
All human theories and experiences are no universal but what the Sole Creator of the world. The Qur’an repeatedly reminds us that life feels long only in illusion, but in reality it is brief and fleeting:
“The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion.”
— Qur’an 3:185
“The life of this world is nothing but play and amusement, but the Hereafter is far better for those who are conscious of Allah.”
— Qur’an 6:32
Islam matches perfectly with the windshield-rearview metaphor: Life appears long (wide windshield), but once it is over, it feels like a few moments (tiny rearview mirror).
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