The Second Point

Once, a man was in prison. His beloved child was brought to him. That poor prisoner suffered not only from his own confinement but also from grief and anxiety for his child, since he could not provide him with a pleasant place to live.

Then the merciful ruler sent one of his officials to him with this message:

“Although this child is yours, he is also one of my subjects and belongs to my people. I shall take him and have him cared for in a beautiful palace.”

The man began to weep and pleaded:

“I will not give up my child. He is my only comfort.”

His fellow prisoners then said to him:

“Your grief is misplaced. If it is the child you pity, then know that instead of remaining in this foul, oppressive prison, he will go to a spacious and delightful palace where he will live in happiness.

But if your sorrow is really for yourself and your own loss, then consider this: if the child were to remain here, you would gain only a fleeting and uncertain benefit, while enduring continual pain because of the hardships he suffers.

If, however, he goes to the palace, the benefit to you will be immeasurably greater. He will attract the mercy of the ruler and become an intercessor on your behalf. The ruler will wish your child to see you again, but instead of sending him back to the prison, he will bring you out of the prison and admit you into his palace so that you may be reunited there—provided that you trust the ruler and obey him.”

My respected brother, believers who, like you, have lost a child should reflect in the following manner:

“My child is innocent, and his Creator is Most Merciful and Most Generous. In place of my deficient care and limited compassion, He has admitted him into His perfect mercy and grace. He has rescued him from this sorrowful, difficult, calamity-filled abode and brought him into one of the gardens of Paradise. How fortunate my child is! Who knows what trials might have awaited him had he remained in this world? Therefore, I do not pity him, for I know that he has attained true happiness.

As for myself, neither do I pity myself nor give way to despair. Had he remained in this world, he would perhaps have given me ten years of temporary child-love mingled with many sorrows and anxieties. If he had grown into a righteous and capable person, he might have assisted me only in worldly affairs. But now, through his passing, he has become an intercessor for me and a means of attaining everlasting child-love in Paradise and eternal happiness.”

Indeed, one who relinquishes a doubtful and temporary benefit in exchange for a thousand certain and everlasting benefits does not lament in hopeless sorrow or surrender to despair.