The Betterment

What is more to this life than being concerned for the one after it? I read someone's status that said, "The only one who can satisfy this heart is the One who made it". I learnt once you grow up, you lose that feeling of comfort you always get on your mother's pillow. Owe it to your responsibilities or your new worries about practical life, but that phase is long gone. I would be lying if I said I don't miss that part of life. Who doesn't? I can achieve that state of pure innocent bliss if I try real, real hard. I can close my eyes hard on my mother's pillow or I can hug her so tight, may be I can get there somehow but it doesn't come easy.

Or I can do it the easy way. I can fall into sajda (prostration) and open myself up to Him. The feeling is so beautiful I think the only thing I can remotely compare it to was being scared as a kid and being hugged in my mother’s warm, protective embrace. It felt as if she was holding out the entire world from me, like returning back to womb. My dear Phupo passed away and we had no way but to beg the Almighty for her forgiveness and then something else crossed my mind: will there also be someone crying and praying for me when I die? Will someone ask for my forgiveness?

When a couple is having a hard time having a baby, they go into sajda and pray as hard as they can. When a loved one dies, we again go into sajda and pray as hard as we can for the dear departed. When we come into this world, someone gives the azaan in our ears… the first words of Allah comes to our angel like souls as a deeply known recognition of the most personal, intimate sort, may be. And when we die, a handful people pray for us the final, official time. So that’s just about it: our life summed up as the azaan and then the final prayer. We rely on Him for this life in every way and we keep forgetting that.

All our lives, we seek for betterment in every way. Yet if you listen to the call of prayer closely, you heart will shake up with emotion and fear, because it says, hayya alal falah. We look for something better everywhere. Yet Allah calls us to the ultimate betterment five times a day. We only have to listen.

No doubt, there are signs for those who but wonder.