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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| To the community of sorrow... |
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| chiq |
| 05/05/04 at 16:56:18 |
| [slm] There seem to have been a lot of deaths lately. I thought that the task of comforting each affected individual would get easier, but somehow it doesn't. Perhaps words always sound trite, perhaps the only comfort is that which the community of those who have known sorrow can give - the kind where it is acknowledged that yes, it is a hard, black void that has sprung up on the path, but good things may lie ahead, and that although there is nothing to be done in the meantime, yet they will try to help anyway because they care... I am reminded of a day not long ago, shortly after two friends committed suicide, that found me staring over the shimmering waves of Southend-on-sea, marvelling at the persistent play of light across a benighted landscape, wondering what, as the sun set on my own life, I hoped to have accomplished... Sighing for the impregnable darkness that had gripped the earth these days, as it seemed to me, I abstractedly reached for a pebble or clod of wet sand and hurled it into the water. A SPLASH! and it was gone, yet I observed, hundreds of ripples still flowed, on and on, spreading from the centre out to the sea... no telling, I realised, where the end was going to be. And I remembered the poem on a certain Madinite's site (http://members.cox.net/arshad/)... SPLASH! and a person departed, his life-force gone, yet the waves of tears, memories, and the sorrowful whispers of his going circling, spreading from the centre – do they ever stop? Who is to say how many duas for his forgiveness those ripples will bear? So many, perhaps, that when the departed rises on the Day he will find his station raised, his sins diminished, and he will look in astonished gratitude at Ar Rahman’s gift to him – how the love of others carried him Home. ‘Tis a great gift to love and be much loved; I cannot but think that it brings a person closer to Allah, even after death. To all those who have lost loved ones then - remember that they are just that - much loved, as a person should be. So much so that, whatever their lives were, Allah’s mercy may well find its expression in the lips of His slaves as they cry for their forgiveness. Better yet, He has promised remuneration for every slave who makes such a dua... A few more days, and then - may Allah will it! - we will be reunited in the Best of Final Abodes; an eternity of happiness in exchange for this moment of sorrow. Br bhaloo, you especially are in my duas. Wasalaamu alaikum |
| Re: To the community of sorrow... |
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| Kathy |
| 05/06/04 at 09:36:11 |
| [slm] We just lost a 17 year old Bosnian Boy in a horrific van accident. I remember a couple of years ago the kids found out they were Muslim as a result of our puppet show. One little girl (his sister) told me her name, and I asked her if she was a Muslim. She didn't think so, but some of the Ramdan show touched her. A couple days later she came looking for me and told me that she was a Muslim! I wondered about the family and what state of Islam this young boy died in. As a side note: It happened again. Our mosque was totally unprepared for the funeral of a Muslim in America. I even called and warned them that their would be millions of kids, teachers and community people (WOMEN) at the funeral. They either ignored me or did not address the issue. As I sat on the woman's side I watched as they were all confused and upset about the procedings. It was just for times like these that i developed that handout. The e-mail the school sent out was so full of errors and undertones of the typical women in Islam being subjected.... And again...we made Islam look bad.. sigh... |
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