O man! What has deluded you in respect of your Noble Lord? (Qur’an, 82:6).
The lifestyles and life goals of the millions of people who live in non-religious communities are very similar to one another. The years pass quickly and then all of a sudden, they face the greatest and most inescapable truth of life: The time of death comes. However, until that moment, they have thought of death very little or not at all. They have been unable to understand the true purpose of life by reflecting upon such realities. While in this condition, they meet with death when they least expect it, unprepared for the Hereafter.
There are various mechanisms people use to ignore the truths of life and to console themselves by doing so. One of these, perhaps the most effective, is self-deception. A person who deceives himself believes he can evade all realities including death and all responsibilities. In fact self-deception is not a solution. What a person really needs to accomplish is to avoid deceiving himself by ignoring the truth, and to take the maximum possible advantage of the period that Allah has allotted to him in the world.
Do not forget that waking up and seeing the truth at the moment of death does nobody any good.