The Twenty-Eighth Flash

THE TENTH SUBTLETY

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِIn the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

As I gazed through the prison window at the Republic Day celebrations, outwardly splendid and joyous yet inwardly shrouded in darkness, and beheld, with an eye to the future and the ultimate end, the laughter of humanity that was, in truth, cause for weeping, the following scene unfolded before my mind’s eye.

Just as one watches in the cinema scenes from the lives of people who lived in former times and now lie in the graveyard, so it seemed to me that I was watching the moving corpses of those who would, before long, become inhabitants of the graveyard. I wept for those who were laughing.

Suddenly, a shudder ran through me, and I was overcome with compassion. Coming to my senses, I turned to the truth and asked, “What is this vision?”

The truth replied:

“Fifty years from now, one tenth of these poor people who are now laughing and enjoying themselves so exuberantly will be walking about as seventy-year-old elders, bent with age, while the other nine tenths will already be lying in the graveyard. Those beautiful faces and cheerful smiles will have given way to their opposites.

And since, according to the principle that ‘everything destined to come is near,’ what has yet to come may, in a certain sense, be regarded as though it had already arrived, what you have seen is certainly no mere imagining.”

Since such heedless worldly laughter is but a veil concealing these pitiable and sorrowful realities, and is itself fleeting and destined to pass away, the only joys that can truly gladden the heart of helpless man, which longs for eternity, and bring delight to his soul, which yearns for everlasting life, are those enjoyed within the bounds of what is lawful: joys that give rise to gratitude, do not cause one to forget Allah, and are free from heedlessness and sin. Such joys endure through the sawābThe rewards granted in the Hereafter for deeds that earn the pleasure of Allah. they bring.

For this reason, the narrations strongly encourage the remembrance of Allah and gratitude, so that on the days of EidAn Islamic religious festival; particularly Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adhā, celebrated during the Hajj season. people may not be swept away by heedlessness and fall into what is unlawful, but may instead give thanks for the gifts of joy and happiness bestowed upon them, thereby preserving and increasing those blessings.

For gratitude brings an increase in blessings, whereas heedlessness causes them to vanish.