You are laboring toward your Lord and will meet Him

The word ‎كَادِح‎ means to struggle upward, to toil with difficulty, like climbing uphill where each step becomes harder.

‎كَدۡحًا‎: this masdar form emphasizes continuous, unrelenting effort.

You are marching toward Allah every single moment, without respite, whether you acknowledge it or not.

Whether you are inside the masjid trying to remember Allah or outside engaged in sin, it makes no difference: you are all headed toward Allah, and not one of you is slowing down or speeding up.

Everyone is moving at the pace Allah has decreed.

We are all on a conveyor belt moving toward Him, whether we realize it or not, whether we accept it or not, whether we like it or not.

‎فَمُلَٰقِيهِ‎: the word ‎مُلَاقَاة‎ is different from ‎لِقَاء‎. While liqa’ means simply to meet, mulaqah means to meet face to face, to stand directly before someone.

But here’s the remarkable aspect: the grammatical structure treats this future meeting as though it has already occurred.

When you say “he will hit the ball,” that’s future tense. But when you use the construction found here, it’s as if the ball has already been hit; it’s as good as done.

This is why the ayah says ‎فَمُلَٰقِيهِ‎: you are as good as having already met Him.

Consider the meeting done.

Even though you are making progress slowly through the stages of life, imagine the journey is complete and you are already there standing before Allah.