The Twenty-Sixth Flash

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِIn the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

كۤهٰيٰعۤصۤ ۞ ذِكْرُ رَحْمَتِ رَبِّكَ عَبْدَهُ زَكَرِيَّا ۞ اِذْ نَادٰى رَبَّهُ نِدَاۤءً خَفِيًّا ۞ قَالَ رَبِّ اِنِّى وَهَنَ الْعَظْمُ مِنِّى وَاشْتَعَلَ الَّرأْسُ شَيْبًا وَلَمْ اَكُنْ بِدُعَاۤئِكَ رَبِّ شَقِيًّاKāf, Hā, Yā, Ayn, Sād. This is a mention of the mercy of your Lord toward His servant Zakariyyā, when he called upon his Lord in a quiet voice. He said: ‘My Lord, indeed, my bones have grown weak, and my head has become white with grey hair. Yet never have I been disappointed in my supplication to You, my Lord.’ — The Qur’an 19:1–4

The First Hope

O venerable brothers and sisters who have reached old age! I too have grown old, like you. I wish to share with you some of the experiences of my old age, so that you may partake of the hope I found from time to time and the light of consolation contained within it.

The rays of light I perceived and the doors of hope that opened before me were revealed to me only according to my limited and confused capacity. InshaAllah, your pure and sincere dispositions will cause the light I saw to shine even more brightly and the hope I found to grow even stronger. Truly, the source and foundation of all the hopes and rays of light to be described is īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar)..

The Second Hope

One autumn day, at the time of the afternoon prayer, when I had entered old age, I looked out upon the world from a high mountain. Suddenly, I was overcome by a state of mind that was tender and sorrowful, yet at the same time dark and oppressive.

I saw that I had grown old, that the day had grown old, that the year had grown old, and that the world itself had grown old. Amid all these manifestations of old age, I realised that the time was drawing near when I would have to part from the world and from my loved ones, and I was deeply shaken.

But suddenly, 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 living beings upon the earth who seek assistance; Who fills each spring with innumerable bounties and gifts from the Unseen, thereby coming to the aid of us who are in need; and Whose mercy manifests itself all the more abundantly in proportion to our weakness and helplessness—is our greatest hope and our most powerful light in old age.

We may attain this mercy by establishing a bond with the Most Merciful through īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar). and by obeying Him through the fulfilment of His obligations, foremost among them the five daily prayers.