A Letter of Condolence for the Loss of a Child
A LETTER OF CONDOLENCE FOR THE LOSS OF A CHILD
The Seventeenth Letter
بِاسْمِهٖ وَ اِنْ مِنْ شَىْءٍ اِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهٖIn His Name! There is nothing except that it glorifies Him with praise.
بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِIn the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate
وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرٖينَ الَّذٖينَ اِذَٓا اَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصٖيبَةٌ قَالُٓوا اِنَّا لِلّٰهِ وَاِنَّٓا اِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَAnd give glad tidings to the patient—those who, when calamity strikes them, say, ‘Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed, to Him we shall return.’ — The Quran 2:155-156
My respected brother, Hāfiz Halid Efendi, the passing of your child has saddened me.
اَلْحُكْمُ لِلّٰهِِJudgment belongs to Allah.
To submit to the will of Allah and surrender oneself to His decree are among the marks of Islam. May Allah grant you the most beautiful patience and make the deceased a blessed intercessor for you in the Hereafter.
To offer you, and other sincere believers in the same situation, glad tidings, true consolation, and heartening news, we shall explain five points.
The First Point
The secret and meaning of the verse
وِلْدَانٌ مُخَلَّدُونَEverlasting youths. – The Quran 76:19
is as follows:
The children of believers who pass away before reaching puberty will remain forever in Paradise as beloved children, in a form befitting Paradise. They will be an eternal source of joy in the embrace of their fathers and mothers who enter Paradise, bringing them the sweetest delight through embracing and caressing them.
Since every form of pleasure exists in Paradise, the claim of those who say that there will be no love of children or caressing of them there because Paradise is not a place of reproduction is unfounded.
Moreover, the expression
وِلْدَانٌ مُخَلَّدُونَEverlasting youths. – The Quran 76:19
in this noble verse gives the glad tidings that, in place of a brief period of about ten years of child-love mixed with worldly sorrows, believers will enjoy millions of years of pure and sorrow-free delight in loving and caressing their children.