280 ~ Life through my lens ~

(Written over approximately two months – A composition of reflections from sunset walks and moonlight thoughts)

I look around at the world, I see breathtaking beauty and intense heartache

I hear the shuddery echoes of ambulance sirens rushing to and fro since daybreak

I watch the clouds floating away and see tracks of death as it hovers thickly in air

After a blissful oblivion I am here, the inescapable sent as a reminder to prepare

We witness irreplaceable loss, the devastation of loved ones left dazed and distraught

Their entire world shaken, their future uncertain, their hearts quivering and fraught

A silent longing for one more day, one more word, one more call and one more glance

How does one foreknow this is my last text, my last visit and my last chance

Until our worlds merge we gift Isaal-e-thawaab unto cherished ones gone ahead

How many who’s momentary stay ended with a sudden departure so we can derive lesson instead

Minutes turn into hours, days into weeks and months into years, time waits for none

All that will meet us when we reach the afterlife are the good actions we’ve done

So live these days in proportionate balance striving to the best you can

Neither you or I are foretold the remaining duration of our lifespan

Our breaths are limited and the sounding force of our heartbeats are short

Why waste it in squabbles over worldly matters that will finally be naught

Let us leave prejudice, pride, gossip, malice, discord, fame and rivalry behind

Because when the appointed time arrives, no option will be given to rewind

Hardly a day or night goes by wherein a voice within says: Life is not mine nor is it yours

Between the ongoing hustle and survival, my rhythm repeats: life belongs to one, it is Allah’s

Oh soul: why cling on the world as “home” while in actual fact it is only a sojourn

“And when I am called to my rabb I will certainly find a better place of return”

Illness or not, sometime later or sooner every soul shall leave

Six years down time Allah made me content with all I could achieve

When kindred spirits are forevermore interlinked

The legacies of dear ones do not become extinct

Sometime later you may find me

In striking styles of qiraa’ah and lyrics of nasheeds I loved to hear

All such melodies that pushed me to fight forward amid pain and fear