Man's transition.

When I was a kid, I loved visiting my village; not with the intent of meeting our relatives back home or bathing in its pure, unadulterated habitat but to get a chance to experience the nature in its truest diversity during the 36 hour rail journey .I loved seeing the mountains with sun peeping from its behind, the large rivers gushing underneath, the serenity of the hills, flocks of sheep being guided through and trees alongside our track that seemed running in the opposite direction.  I would plant my cheeks on the train’s window and look in the reverse marvelling at the speed of those trees –some were short, others dense, perennial, tall etc; it actually seemed to me then that they were all running along us albeit in another direction.  But it wasn’t the case, and having realized the fact that it was we who were speeding ahead while the trees stood still, a grown up me dubbed that innocence as sheer stupidity.

Perhaps, stupidity would be a wrong word for it. You see, there are some things that people around teach you while there are other facts that are unravelled by a deep contemplating heart that is wrapped with past experiences. When I look back at the alacrity by which my life rushed by, I can visualize past events that run before my eyes like those trees whereas the truth is something else. It is me who went running by, turning a year older every year, with a kitty full of occurrences- good, bad, sweet, disappointing, bitter-and these events lay still- engraved in the bosoms of memory.

I’m reminded of one of the most beautiful sayings of a man I knew long before I learnt to recognize my own self, ..I’m not talking about my father but I am referring to his master and my guide Hazrat Ali Ibn Abi Talib (A.S). He said, “Man does not know where he came from or where is he going; he was created from a drop of dirty liquid and yet he walks around like he knows everything?”

The saying in itself may exhibit beauty and eloquence unheard of but it’s seriously ironical for materialistic people like us. We have no idea about our origin-what we were, how we came into existence, what was it like in our mother’s womb-and yet we struggle for fame, power, recognition like everything mighty under the sun belongs to us alone. What is it that makes us forget our nothingness (before we were born) so much so that we do not recognize those in their graves knowing that that is an inevitable reality, no matter how much you deny. And we continue to suppress others while paving our ways out for success and elevation?

Allah, the Glorified, in His book of Hadith-e-Qudsi says, “I did not create the children of Adam to be destroyed but to make them live forever.” And the best way to prolong your life- of the soul and not the body- is to correct your actions in accordance with things pleasurable to Allah (swt)- You see the equation works like this –

Good intentions  +  Good deed =  Rewards

Rewards  ↔  Heaven ↔  Eternity !!