A Letter to a Dear One — Page 102
102 Letter to a Dear One itself a pleasant affair. Similarly, when a man has to separate from his family for a long period of time in order to earn a living, all concerned are sad. When a girl gets married, the occasion is of happiness and the new relationship that is to be formed is expected to bring many blessings and developments, however, given to the occasion, the parents and the girl feel a most natural grief at the parting. Same is the case in the instance of a dear one’s death. The ‘separation’ brought about by death is painful because on an apparent level it permanently separates a dear one from the relatives. Death, however, in reality is a mercy of Allah for the bereaved and for the departed soul as well. Although at the time of death, the intense grief overwhelms all the other factors and this point is not perceptible to us at all. Just think about all our elders, who have passed away and whom we still miss, and indeed their elders whom they missed after death and so on and so forth. In short it becomes an infinite succession of dear ones who have passed away. Had they all lived, there would have been no space left on this earth, and the running of all affairs would have been in the hands of our ancestors from a hundred generations ago. This world would have been one chaotic place. Just think about the present time. Although you are very dear to me and I also love you, but it is most important for your development that when my time is over, I should leave this world and you may take over. That time will indeed be of grief but we should try to bear that grief in the way Allah wants us to. The departing soul should be content and thus prepare to face the Master. The bereaved should also try and be happy at the Will of their Master. Although death overcomes man and he is separated from his dear ones, Allah is Living, Self-Subsisting and All-Sustaining, death does not overtake Him, and He is everyone’s Master, and we are all His servants, and we all have to gather in His Presence. When the time to leave this world comes for a true believer, ever hopeful of Allah’s mercy, he prepares to present himself in the attendance of his Master. The Holy Prophet ( ” allall ā hu ‘alaihi wa sallam) is known to have said shortly before he passed away that Allah the Almighty had given one of His servants the choice to stay in this world or to depart and that the person had made the latter choice. Upon hearing this, © a ñ rat Ab ū Bakr (ra ñ iyall ā hu ‘anhu) wept. The other Companions later felt that © a ñ rat Ab ū Bakr (ra ñ iyall ā hu ‘anhu) had then realized that the ‘person’ the Holy Prophet ( ” allall ā hu ‘alaihi wa sallam) had mentioned was indeed himself.