Do not pine for the Past

Do you reminisce about your childhood? What makes us long for it so much? 

When you were a child, did you really have a sense of how beautiful your life was? Or is it just that the human heart is always drawn to the past, since it will never return? 

Remember Eid al-Fitr in childhood. The special new clothes, the sweets, the street that becomes festive once a year, with neighbours going from door to door, bringing each other food. 

When you are over forty years old, do you think about that past and long for its innocence? Do you feel the Summer winds blowing on your beautiful dreams. 

When you grow old, do you see yourself looking back at your past with a sigh, as if you are reviewing your final lesson in the art of failure, regretfully reproaching yourself for all the missed opportunities of a life now reaching its end? 

Say to yourself: It is never too late. 

Fareed Abdulkhaliq earned his doctorate – with distinction – from Cairo University when he was 94 years old. He was one of the oldest people in the world to do so. There was an American who earned his degree at the ripe old age of 99. When Reuters interviewed him, he joked: “It took me 80 years to achieve my dream!” 

You can relive the carefree innocence of childhood through your children and grandchildren, experiencing with them their love of fun and simple joys untroubled by sombre thoughts. 

You can share your experience with younger people who are looking for their way in life. You can inspire them with hope and optimism, and broaden their horizons. 

You can look at the positive things in your present stage of life. A youth is full of zeal and promise. A mature adult has the pursuit of his or her dreams. An elderly person has the ability to persist in making the world a better place with the knowledge born of long experience of what works and what doesn’t work. The elderly do so prepared to meet their Lord. 

Regardless of where you are in life, do not be the type of person who always looks backward. Live in the real world. Work for your happiness and pursue your dreams with the resources at hand. 

Whatever you have lost by passing from one stage of life to the next, you have gained something better if you have the will to make it that way. 

It is wonderful to kindle a fire in the winter and sit around it in a circle, sharing foods and drinks that are suited for the cold and make you warm inside. 

In the summer, different clothes, foods, drinks, and social arrangements provide equally delightful experiences. 

It is good that the day is different than the night. Allah says: “We have made the night a covering, and We have made the daytime for livelihood.” [Sūrah al-Naba’: 10-11] 

Even when we stay up at night, it still has its calm and restfulness, while the daytime has a busy, productive nature. The day and night have different meals, different social demands, and a different spirit. Both are good. Such is life.

Sheikh Salman al-Oadah

Source: en.islamtoday.net (Jan. 27th)