Life and Death

I was sitting at a funeral house, 2 days after the funeral, when a realisation suddenly came over me: 'Life goes on!'

The grandfather of the house (an old family friend) had suffered from a stroke and passed away. The Funeral was on Thursday. This day, the day I came to this obvious but striking realisation, was Saturday. My family had been invited to read Quraan and eat supper, along with enough guests to fill the very big house.

Now I've never really suffered a big loss. My parents both came from broken homes and my grandparents were never really a big part of my life (well, the deceased ones anyway). I guess because of this, I dont really understand the conflicting feelings that the bereaved have to deal with. What I expected was to find the family somber and tearful, instead I was greeted with a very different sight. Seriously, it just did not look like a funeral house. Now im sure that the family were all just putting on brave faces for all their guests; and I do not doubt that they really truly were grieving, but listening to all the chattering conversations, and staring at all the smiling faces, well I guess it just brought me to that all important realisation- that life truly does go on!

I realized the reality of the fact that each man is born alone, and will die truly alone. And once you down there- six feet under- nobody knows what you're going through. So why is it that we tend to spend so much time living for this life, and so little time preparing for our final abode? How come all we care about is our relationship with others, and we forget to care about our relationship with Allah. After all, isn't Allah (SWT) the only Being who is always with us???

Back to this event though. The eldest granddaughter just received a proposal, and all the talks with the 2 families are currently going on. So there I was sitting and listening to them discuss this soon to be son-in-law and I couldn't help thinking further about how life so easily carries on without you. Soon this family will be holding a different type of event, a wedding (insha Allah), and their lives will begin to head in a very different direction (one filled with new spouses and new births). And though the grandfather will live on in their hearts and minds, their lives will most assuredly continue.

Ok, so I know you're thinking 'yeah- this is obvious', well you're right it is all obvious. After all nobody expects life to stand still after the death of a loved one right? Its just that sometimes we get so stuck working and toiling for this life, that it comes as a shocker when you actually witness how quickly life can just continue. Im starting to ramble, so I better wrap this up!

I guess my point is that we all need to spend a little more time improving our relationship with Allah. And while we must, no doubt, have good relationships with others, we must still realize that, without us around, life inevitably goes on... that should bring us down a notch or two dont you think...?

image from: http://stavangerphotobytanty.blogspot.com/2007/05/muslim-graveyard.html