If You Reach To Old Age

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Allah gives abstract wisdom through concrete examples in the Qur'an. One of the reminders of death in the Qur'an is an example of the physical state of an old person.

وَمَن نُّعَمِّرْ‌هُ نُنَكِّسْهُ فِى ٱلْخَلْقِ ۖ أَفَلَا يَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٦٨

And he to whom We grant long life We reverse in creation; so will they not understand? (68)

[Qur'an, Yaasin 36:68]

After having been nourished and grown for nine months inside the womb of the mother, a perfect human being came into this world. Of course, perfect it was, but the body it had was weak. Nature took care of that by placing in the breast of the mother food that would suit an infant's physical requirement. This gave it the gradual supply of needed energy. From that time to the time of youth, passed many stages and then came a strong body at its total bloom. Then came claims of the power thus acquired and rose the desire to defeat every conceivable adversary.

But, that was not the end. When the Creator and Master of this new aspirant into the world decided otherwise, all these strengths started waning. Even the decline was not sudden. It took time. There were countless stages. Finally, came the fag end of the years of life. Once there, just imagine, has this person not reached back into the stage of one's childhood. Habits started changing. Reflexes became different. Things that used to be the dearest started appearing hateful. What was comfort once turned into suffering. This is what the Qur'an calls "tankis تنكس" that is, to reverse, invert or turn upside down.

We trust what we see with our own eyes and what we hear with our own ears in the life of this world. This too does not remain trustworthy during the later years of old age. Clearly understanding what is being said becomes difficult because we will have a hard time hearing. The same thing happens to the sense of sight that becomes weak. We cannot see well enough.

Not only that this major change in a human's frame of existence is a standing manifestation of the unique power of Allah, it is also a great favor to him. Is it not that all strengths the supreme Creator has placed in the living presence of a human being are, in reality, the God-given functional devices issued to him with the clarification that they were neither his property nor were they everlasting and that, finally, they will be taken back from him.

This obviously required that, once came the time of such take over, all such strengths should have been taken back simultaneously. But, the Most Merciful and Sublime Lord has not elected to do that. Instead, He has allowed that these strengths be taken back in installments that too are prominently long and spaced apart. Thus, these are taken back gradually, bit by bit, so that one gets alerted and starts getting ready to embark on the ultimate journey of the Hereafter.

Some people when they get to old age, their backs start to give in and they can't sit or stand up straight anymore. Their bodies are bent forward. We started off from dirt and our bodies started to bend forward (slightly or a lot) at our old age, physically looking down at our next home -- the dirt. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un (Verily, we belong to Allah and to Him is the return.)

‏اللهم إني أسألك الهدى، والتقى، والعفاف، والغنى

Allahumma inni as'alukal-huda, wat-tuqa, wal-'afafa, wal-ghina

O Allah! I beseech You for guidance, piety, chastity and contentment.

May Allah bless us with good health so we may worship Him well, and grant us good in this life and the next and save us from the Hellfire.

Ameen.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wassallam.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazak Allahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam