Old Age and the Mercy of Allah

Old Age and the Mercy of Allah

One autumn day, at the time of the afternoon prayer, after I had entered old age, I was looking out over the world from a high mountain. Suddenly, a tender and sorrowful, yet at the same time dark and heavy, state came over me.

I saw that I had grown old, that the day had grown old, that the year had grown old, and that the world too had grown old. Amid all these manifestations of old age, I realized that the time of departure from the world and separation from those I loved was drawing near, and this shook me deeply.

But all at once, Divine Mercy manifested itself in such a way that this tender sorrow and painful sense of separation were transformed into a powerful hope and a radiant light of consolation.

Indeed, O elderly people like myself! The mercy of our Compassionate Creator—Who introduces Himself to us throughout the Wise Qur'an as the most Merciful and the most Compassionate; Who continually sends His mercy to the aid of the living beings on the face of the earth who seek assistance; Who every year fills the spring with innumerable bounties and gifts from the Unseen, thereby reaching out to us who are in need; and Who manifests His mercy all the more abundantly in proportion to our weakness and helplessness—is, in our old age, our greatest hope and our most powerful light.

We can attain that mercy by attaching ourselves to the Most Merciful through īmān and by obeying Him through the fulfillment of His obligations, foremost among them the five daily prayers.

From The Twenty-Sixth Flash – Second Hope