By Shaykh Ibrahim Fayaz
While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a lady on a bench near a playground. “That’s my son over there,” she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide.
“He’s a fine looking boy,” the lady said. “That’s my son, the one on the swing in the blue sweater.” Then, looking at her watch, she called to her son, “What do you say we go, Sameer?”
Sameer pleaded, “Just five more minutes mummy, please, just five more minutes.” The lady nodded and Sameer continued to swing to his content. Minutes passed and the lady stood and called again to her son, “Time to go now?” Again Sameer pleaded, “Five more minutes mum, just five more minutes.” The lady smiled and said “OK.” “My, you certainly are a patient mother,” the woman said.
The lady smiled with tears in her eyes and then said, “My older son Talha was killed in a road accident last year while he was riding his bike near here. I have never spent as much time with Talha as I could have and now I would give anything for just five more minutes with him. I’ve vowed not to make the same mistake with Sameer. He thinks he has five more minutes to swing. The truth is, I have five more minutes to watch him play.”
We take for granted the people around us; whether they may be our parents, relatives, or friends. Let us be grateful for the connections and relationships Allāh Almighty has favoured us with. Thus, Allah Almighty has praised the people of understanding for preserving their relationships in Surah Ar-Ra’d, verse number 21,
“And those who maintain the relationships Allāh has commanded to be maintained, fear their Lord, and are frightful of evil reckoning.”
Thereafter Allāh has promised them in verse 22,
“Those are the ones for whom there is ultimate abode.”
Similarly, we should grip on to these everlasting bonds. We do not know when could be the last time we greet, laugh, or hold the hands of our beloved ones. As an English Proverb goes,
“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
