Tabligh

A Simple Thought: Thursday, 17th November ’16

A simple thought from The Community on Friday: It is said that death is powerfully enlightening, but you don’t have to wait for someone to die to change the way you live (Sheila McCain in how Death teaches us to live fully). Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we mostly do. The lessons imparted to us during these sorrowful nights, reminds us as well of the impermanence of everything living, except that which is blessed by Allah (SWT). Yet, the lessons we learn are forgotten and the same vacuum emerges all over again at the next jolt when another of our own, passes away. She goes on to say ‘Nothing helps you understand the fleeting beauty of life more than death. Nothing helps you understand what is important in life more than death.’ The fact that life is short, must inspire us to do something meaningful, something that one may call the fulfilment of the purpose of creation.

Modern living and old habits pull us behind miles, however, as we indulge deeper and deeper in the pursuit of this world, once again buried deep down inside of us, only to be felt again when there comes the next anguish. Islam is such a beautiful religion that it mandates people to ensure a dead person is respectfully delivered to their new abode but in so doing, it reminds us to utter only good about the person who is now no more. And so while we are still alive, our true pursuit should be to fit into that quality, to indeed be a person about whom only good is known. For as long as we fail to acknowledge that with every breath we puff in, we are inching ever so closer to our final macabre. In fact, it may come to us at any time starting now. And when it does, we may not afford a moment’s reprieve. And once we are gone, the people we battled, those whose rights we misappropriated, those whom we labelled demeaning titles, those to whom we couldn’t show mercy or consideration, those who we laughed at wickedly, those on whom we exercised excessive force, those in whose presence we were miserly even to smile and be gentle, and those who could not move forward because we participated in their subjugation, all of such people and others too, will be there for us hopefully in abiding by the decree to profess only that which they knew of us that is good.Yes, those who did receive our unjust treatment will feel a sense of numbness, a grief garbed with anger and despair.

Our end is near, our deeds are incomplete. We have been guiled to think we can avail free time to chat vainly and to eavesdrop on others and to peep on them, in truth there is no time left except for that one last smile that can make someone’s day and life brighter “We meet but briefly in life, if we touch each other with stardust, that is everything.” ~Unknown

This initiative is made possible by the kind courtesy of Abu Baseer Eye Clinic, Bande Khuda Sponsors, G1 Security, Highways Car Hire Ltd, Max Fries, Meadows Academy, SD Dental Clinic & Ceramic Lab, SokoniAdvertiser and Xpress Rent a Car, and for the ISAALE THAWAAB of Marhumeen of Bhimji and Nayani Family and Marhuma Sarubai Abdullah

About the author

Mohamedarif is a marketing professional and educationalist with a penchant for writing as a hobby since childhood. As he experimented writing about sporting events at first and then current affairs, he quickly developed a skill for observation of his environment and began to write on reform topics, especially in connection with the community. To further feed his pursuit of writing, he founded several newsletters and bulletins at his school and at the Husayni Madrasah in the 1980's, all the time learning from others already in the field not just about writing, but also about pre-press and production processes. He was also the editor-in-chief of the Knowledge Magazine in 1995–1996. A decade later, importing a flurry of ideas into his new home, Nairobi, he first founded a two page community newspaper then became a regular writer of the Friday Faculty before establishing the Community on Friday, a fully fledged Madrasah magazine in 1996. And while his writing at the community continued, he simultaneously started writing for a business weekly, pairing in with his newfound role as a marketing professional. During his time in Nairobi, he wrote several speeches for sitting chairmen and presidents while also giving some himself, developing his concurrent role as a public speaker and trainer.

With changing times and a decrease in advertising sponsorship, as well as a fall in overall readership, Mohamedarif transformed this publication into an electronic blog. Thus was born the Community on Friday in its present format.

Leave a Reply