"Fragile - Handle With Care"
Seeing this one sticker on any package, even the hastiest of
people take care. What if whatever is inside breaks. It must be valuable. It
must be really delicate. It may be something very beautiful. Whatever it is
sure needs utmost care.
However, we often don’t care for the most beautiful and fragile
thing given to us by Allah – our life.
Life is beautiful. Every moment filled with opportunities, immense
potential to succeed and yes infinite potential to fail but that is life. It is
a complete package – the good with the bad, the sweet with the bitter and at
the end of it all we realise whatever happened was for the better.
Being in the medical field one thing you realise is the fragility
of life. Looking around one realises that life takes the most unexpected turns
and can spring on you the worst shocks. Here today, gone tomorrow. The only
thing left behind may be regret.
Regret for not showing the departed all the love and respect they
deserved while they were there. It could be a friend, a relative, a child, a
parent or a grandparent. The beautiful moments that could have been are lost in
a heap of “I wish…”
I am no stranger to death. People around me have passed away
leaving behind gaping voids. My grandparents were the ones whose death I am
still not over. Their deaths were imminent. The doctors had warned us. Told us
to accept it as a reality and say our final goodbyes well in time. But I doubt
if anyone can ever bid their loved ones goodbye or accept their permanent
departure.
Then there have been the shocking sudden deaths of classmates and
some other people even younger to me among our friend circles. They hadn’t seen
anything in life. They were still beginners in this game called life. I wonder
time and again whether they would have lived differently if they knew they had
a limited time.
Reading ‘The Casual Vacancy’ last night, I was reminded once again
of the vulnerability of life. It is a beautiful book, a tragicomedy described
by some. What it really has is a thread running throughout reminding that life is
to be handled with care lest we do it some permanent damage.
People throw away their life so easily. They let people, who
barely matter, destroy their lives. Some tie their life to people, some to
love, some to hate, some to goals, some to ambitions, some to things inanimate
but in the end everything is illusory. We forget that life is not. Let’s tie
our life to something immortal today.
Tie our life to the unending love of Allah. His love is complete, pure
and boundless. This one bond has the power to take care of all other bonds. If
this one bond in our life is nurtured right from the cradle we will know the
true value of the gifts showered upon us. Forget the cradle since one can’t be
born again. Take a vow today. Promise yourself that if there is only one wish
you can fulfil, it will be the wishes of Allah, the Almighty. Do as you are
bidden to do by Him. All your troubles, your desperations will disappear into
smoke and a beautiful calm will set in. Close to Him, you realise that life is
transient and so are all its trials and tribulations. If He has given us a
challenge He has also given us the strength to overcome it.
We are given one life and if lived right, once is more than
enough.
