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It's all so temporary here

"And Allah has caused you to grow as a growth from the earth,
And afterward He makes you return thereto, and He will bring you forth again, a (new) forthbringing." (71:17-18) ‘Nooh’

The above verses of the Glorious Qur’an, beautiful as usual, were in particular a favorite of my late beloved father. He used to tell me that “we see so much reality in every word of the Divine Power that it fills me with solace and comfort.” Indeed it fills me too with hope and peace of heart, a remedy impossible to obtain from any other means. My father mentioned that he read the following poem of Henry W. Longfellow at school when he was 12 years old.

Life is real! life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

He would read this poem again and again after the tragic death of his beautiful beloved mother when he was only 11, and she just 34. He was extremely close to his her. And she was an excellent Mom who doted on him and spoilt him. Her passing away was a shattering blow on him at that tender age of 11. The poem displayed an element of ‘ultimate truth’ which his mind at that time, while still a child, was unable to grasp fully. But it gave him a feeling of nearness to his mother’s soul .. a feeling that she might not be as far away as he was made to think. A little later in life, when he began reading the Qur’aan by analyzing its words, and then contemplating and reflecting, it filled him with a kind of joy he had never experienced before. It confirmed to him that the grave was definitely not the end of one’s journey but the beginning of the actual Life and a chance to be together again, if Allah Wills. My father then realized why that poem by Henry Longfellow had rung a bell within him. That feeling of ‘ultimate truth’ he experienced as a child was confirmed by the Qur’aan itself – what a perfect source for confirming such a wonderful feeling! I pray and pray to the Almighty Allah that they are together now .. and I can hardly wait to join.

By the way, Henry Longfellow is not the only one who so often hints upon the immortality of the soul and its ultimate goal being the next world. There are many others, recognized for their intellectual repute, that reflect similar thoughts.

Check out the following.

This world is not conclusion;
A sequel stands beyond,
Invisible as music,
But positive, as sound.
Emily Dickinson

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and all science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
"Life is but an empty dream!"
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Henry W. Longfellow

The leaves of memory seemed to make
A mournful rustling in the dark.
Henry W. Longfellow

Don't take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive anyway.
Mark Twain

To see a World in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
William Blake

I expect to pass this way but once; any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature. Let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Etienne Griellet

To the living we owe respect
but to the dead we owe only the truth.
Voltaire

MUSLIM VILLA - QURAN ONLY

Category 8 => MV inputs - => Topic started by: Zainab_M on October 04, 2006, 04:02:54 am