As salaamu'alaykum everyone,
Well...life continues with its ups and downs...
It hit me hard yesterday just how ungrateful we are in this life. How often do we believe that what is coming around the corner is going to be better than what we have now? How often does our look to the future veil us from the beauty of what we have in the present? That is not to say that we do not strive to be better people, to live better lives, to improve ourselves in every way as we move forward. We must do all of that, and at the same time keep ourselves planted in the present, for this day, this moment, this time, might be our last.
So I'm working on that. I figure I can find about 10 or 15 things to feel sorry for myself about, but I have to make a conscious choice not to, for it will lessen the benefit of what I have. How much of my life have I wasted on self pity? I am ashamed to even take a sideways glance at my past, and can only pray that I will do better in the future.
So that is life....
Lately I have been reading Al-Ghazali's "The Remebrance of Death and the Afterlife." Ok...truth be told...I have only just started, but I found something profound within the very first chapter, regarding how one can better remember death and its imminent arrival:
"...The most productive method of bringing this about is for him to make frequent remembrance of those of his peers and associates who have passed away before him: he should contemplate their death and dissolution beneath the earth and recall how they appeared in their former positions and circumstances, and meditate upon the way in which the earth has now obliterated the beauty of their forms, and how their parts have been scattered in their tombs, and how they made widows of their wives and orphans of their children; how they lost their property, and how their mosques and gatherings have become voided of them, and how their very traces have been wiped away. To the extent that a man recalls another, and pictures clearly in his mind his state and how he died, and imagines his form, and remembers his sprightliness and how he used to come and go, and the care which he devoted to living and to continuing, and his forgetfulness of death, and how he was deceived by the propitious means of his subsistence, and his trusting in his strength and his youth, and his inclination to laughter and fun, and his heedlessness of the imminent death and the speedy destruction which lay before him; how he used to go hither and thither, and that now his feet and joints have rotted away, how he used to speak, while now the worm has devoured his tongue, how he used to laugh, while now the dust has consumed his teeth; how he used to arrange for himself that which he would not need for ten years at a time when there lay between him and death only a month, while he was in ignorance of what was plannned for him, until death came at an hour he had not reckoned upon, and the Angel's form stood revealed before him, and the summons struck his ears - either to Heaven or to Hell! - at that time he will see that he is like them, and that his heedlessness is as theirs, and that as theirs shall be his end."
Al-Ghazali "The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife," Trans. T.J. Winter, pgs 13-14
And that is death....
Masalaam,
Munira
4 comments:
Whoa...
Ghazali seems to have the uncanny ability to give me pause.
JazakAllahuKhair.
I wonder if Ghazali gets hasanat everytime someone ponders over the wisdom in his books. SubhanAllah.
I feel that much of life is wasted on vain pursuits... but the problem is actually using everyday to bring ourselves closer to mercy and further from wrath. It really shouldn't be as difficult as it seems if we could just make a conscious decision everyday, instead of letting life make the decisions for us... because eventually we find ourselves without control, when in reality the ball was in our court all along. Note: Don't let people absorb your precious time if you would benefit your soul more by not dispelling the fallacy of their ideas. To an extent, it really isn't your problem. Trying to take it in stride.
Salaamalaikumwarahmatullahiwabarakatu. Very sweet entry.
Salaams,
Gotta love Ghazali...he surely does have a way of driving a point home...
Sometimes one has to point things out to people, but many times they are better off left to their own devices except for subtle commentary here and there. Most of us have had to learn our lessons only through experience, sometimes with the benefit of good advice, sometimes without.
Masalaam
Salaamalaikum,
I was wondering if you ran across anything explaining why much of the descriptions of paradise in the Quran and Hadith are from a masculine perspective... If you could share I would be muchos gracialis...
salaam.
Sweet entry, gets me every time.
Wa'alaykum as salaam!
I have not read an analysis of this particular aspect of our traditions, but I have thought about it a bit. It seems to me that this is not in fact true, but instead is a matter of perception. Gardens could be viewed as a more feminine description of Paradise, but in the end the truth is that every soul will have all that they need if indeed they make it there. There will be no injustice, and in this life Allah has given us descriptions of what might be our reward, both for men and women. Houris and such have been popularized in a sense, but that does not mean that we cannot find plenty of depictions of Paradise which are pleasing to women.
Masalaam,
Munira
Post a Comment