Life & Death
Salaam,
This last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster and somewhat already explained by a previous post i wrote with the same title
Last Sunday I received a call from a friend informing me that another friends father had passed away and the janazah was to be held the following day. No matter how often these things happen, you can never explain or feel prepared for the swirling emotions which occur and seem to consume you when major news like this is received. All the trivial matters in life are swept away and the untainted reality of life comes to the fore ; what are we doing with our lives? Where are we going? What have we done so far? If we died tomorrow, how would we answer for ourselves...?
I had actually met my friends father at his srs wedding last year at which he seemed to be in very good health. My friend himself was on a university related trip in the US whe his father passed away so it was all was sudden and unexpected - from a heart attack, even though he had no previous problems whatsoever. But just to think - that phone call my friend must have received telling him of the news.....sometimes you think how on earth would you deal with these things...could you deal these things if they were to happen to you.
Anyway I took last Monday afternoon off to go to the funeral which was a sombre event. I really don't like thinking about all things related to death (although islamically we're encouraged to do so...) and so always find attending funerals quite difficult. Also this time round I think it was the first time ever where I actually ended up going to the grave yard itself to witness the body being put into the grave. As difficult as I found it for myself, I suppose these things need to be done as it does bring the unquestionble reality of death to you and inshaallah this should spur one to make the most of the things Allah has blessed you with......inna lillahi wa inna ilahi rajioon.....subhanAllah talk about timing...I wrote the above and then left my laptop for a bit when I received a text from a friend saying a guy from my college at university, two years younger who did economics had committed suicide on Saturday.......
A feeling of shock which is numbing. I think I wrote about the time when I was in Jordan and I recieved an email to say that another guy I studied with had committed suicide, and now this.....i remember speaking to this guy a few times, much like the first guy, but I didn't know either of them very well.....but they both seemed "normal"....Wow, subhanAllah that we have our religion to fall back on in times of need. And I was discussin with friends how it's sad in a way that only when sad events like this happen does the reality of our own mortality sink in and for a short period we try to be "extra" religious because we have this in front of us, but then after a while it wanes off. True we cannot go around daily thinking of death, death, death, as the world would be a pretty grim place to live in if this was the case. However I think we need to have a balance in terms of always falling back on this thought whenever we are getting carried away with someone of our worldly success - "wa ma ramaytha ith ramaytha lakinna allaha rama" sums it up nicely I think.
Anyway the life part of this title - Saturday was my birthday...! I'm not really a birthday person though (some go as far as to say birthdays are quite depressing ! ) , but of late I've been around people who do "celebrate" it so it's starting to rub off on to me....anyway given that I've been aiming to try out different things, a few of my friends and I ended up going to play some golf ! It was a beginners course over 9 holes and only par 3 holes at that so was quite suited to us beginners, and alhamdulilla the weather held out for the most part so we ended up having a great time. Although we were all pretty aweful I think we'll be going back in the near future. The day was capped off with some food and then a viewing of "Transformers" which was out that day (good graphics, Extremely cheesy storyline) so alhamdulilla in all it was a pretty good day. Bring on year number 24 !
Salaams
This last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster and somewhat already explained by a previous post i wrote with the same title
Last Sunday I received a call from a friend informing me that another friends father had passed away and the janazah was to be held the following day. No matter how often these things happen, you can never explain or feel prepared for the swirling emotions which occur and seem to consume you when major news like this is received. All the trivial matters in life are swept away and the untainted reality of life comes to the fore ; what are we doing with our lives? Where are we going? What have we done so far? If we died tomorrow, how would we answer for ourselves...?
I had actually met my friends father at his srs wedding last year at which he seemed to be in very good health. My friend himself was on a university related trip in the US whe his father passed away so it was all was sudden and unexpected - from a heart attack, even though he had no previous problems whatsoever. But just to think - that phone call my friend must have received telling him of the news.....sometimes you think how on earth would you deal with these things...could you deal these things if they were to happen to you.
Anyway I took last Monday afternoon off to go to the funeral which was a sombre event. I really don't like thinking about all things related to death (although islamically we're encouraged to do so...) and so always find attending funerals quite difficult. Also this time round I think it was the first time ever where I actually ended up going to the grave yard itself to witness the body being put into the grave. As difficult as I found it for myself, I suppose these things need to be done as it does bring the unquestionble reality of death to you and inshaallah this should spur one to make the most of the things Allah has blessed you with......inna lillahi wa inna ilahi rajioon.....subhanAllah talk about timing...I wrote the above and then left my laptop for a bit when I received a text from a friend saying a guy from my college at university, two years younger who did economics had committed suicide on Saturday.......
A feeling of shock which is numbing. I think I wrote about the time when I was in Jordan and I recieved an email to say that another guy I studied with had committed suicide, and now this.....i remember speaking to this guy a few times, much like the first guy, but I didn't know either of them very well.....but they both seemed "normal"....Wow, subhanAllah that we have our religion to fall back on in times of need. And I was discussin with friends how it's sad in a way that only when sad events like this happen does the reality of our own mortality sink in and for a short period we try to be "extra" religious because we have this in front of us, but then after a while it wanes off. True we cannot go around daily thinking of death, death, death, as the world would be a pretty grim place to live in if this was the case. However I think we need to have a balance in terms of always falling back on this thought whenever we are getting carried away with someone of our worldly success - "wa ma ramaytha ith ramaytha lakinna allaha rama" sums it up nicely I think.
Anyway the life part of this title - Saturday was my birthday...! I'm not really a birthday person though (some go as far as to say birthdays are quite depressing ! ) , but of late I've been around people who do "celebrate" it so it's starting to rub off on to me....anyway given that I've been aiming to try out different things, a few of my friends and I ended up going to play some golf ! It was a beginners course over 9 holes and only par 3 holes at that so was quite suited to us beginners, and alhamdulilla the weather held out for the most part so we ended up having a great time. Although we were all pretty aweful I think we'll be going back in the near future. The day was capped off with some food and then a viewing of "Transformers" which was out that day (good graphics, Extremely cheesy storyline) so alhamdulilla in all it was a pretty good day. Bring on year number 24 !
Salaams
posted by Me at
12:27 AM
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