Sunday, October 16

Beyond imagination


I'm wearing a white long fluffy dress. My hair is wavy and brown; it's not long and not too short either, and I'm crowned by a crown made of white roses. I'm in my best shapes and I'm 30 years old. I'm lying on a hammock, that long piece of strong cloth tied between two trees so that it swings, and I can feel the air breeze passing me by smoothly and it smells beautiful, like all the fruits' scents are cocktailed up in the air and made the best scent you can ever smell.

But that's just inside my house, which actually is not too big, just one room but a room that looks like a garden. My house has no walls, it's in the open air, still I have the best security system there ever is. No one can ever sneak in or steal a look inside, like anyone here would actually do this! And I'm living alone in my own house, or let's call it garden. I can sleep whenever I would like to, or maybe I have lots of interesting things to do that keeps me away of sleeping. Anything I'd like to eat or drink I can find it easily in front of me and already done for me. I can read all the beautiful stories I fancy about. I can play music and dance, I can write a happy novel. Or I can just walk around my garden admiring the colorful roses and the big trees from which marvelous fruits can fall on me.

But then someone knocks on my door, she's my dearest friend ever; we've never been apart ever since I've known her. She's my neighbor now, she has a garden just like mine, even prettier, and she comes daily to spend hours with me. But now she has come to tell me that there's a gathering, that our Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has invited all of us in for tea at the afternoon and that we have to go. But how can I miss such a gathering? Who am I to refuse? It was one of the reasons why I worked hard to come over here, to meet him and listen to him while he speaks. I run to put on my white long veil, because it makes me look so pretty, and my nicely designed shoes which I haven't wore before. And I take my friend from her hands and step outside.

We pass by all the beautiful neighboring gardens; we knock on each door, telling them the news, the invitation. The first are my mother, my father and brother, then her mother and sister, and then all of our friends we love dearly, one by one, we never get tired or bored. We don't even think of what transportation we'll take, we just fly to there. The sun is shinning brightly but it gives a warm color that you actually love to look at it without getting your eyes hurt. We pass through the rivers of honey, I love their color and how they flow, and the rivers of pure white and sugary milk; we stop to drink a cup or two. We get to meet all the people we've known all our lives, all the good people we hold them as role models, who have inspired us and helped us work hard to earn this place. We greet them warmly and ask them if they are coming to the gathering. They all give the same reply "Sure, how we can miss that!"

And we keep on flying, now we're not alone we have a company of some of our dear friends and family, we move together and laugh and keep a smile. Till we reach there, the highest place of all, it looks so beautiful that it can't be described, it's beyond imagination, it's colorful in colors I've never seen and it's so wide that there at my seat, which is reserved only for me, I can see and hear everything clearly like I'm sitting in the very front seat, but every seat there is the very front seat. Everyone is present, millions, no billions. And I know them all, one by one, I've been introduced to them and to their stories the first day I've entered this place. They all look so beautiful wearing the best smile you can ever see and they talk and they laugh, but it's not noisy, it doesn't even look a bit crowded. And everyone is perfectly seated, it doesn't matter next to who you are seated because you love them all and you can talk with them all at the same time. It doesn't even matter where you will be seated because every seat there is a special VIP seat.

And then he comes (Peace be upon him), a moment of silence takes place because he has caught each one's attention, and he starts greeting everyone of us by his/her name. Yes we're billions and we have time for this, in fact we are enjoying every fraction of a second there is in time in his presence. And when he is done, he sits down, and then we find tea and cake and fruits everywhere to eat and enjoy and he starts talking and telling stories we have never heard about and everyone then by turn tells us a story or sings a song and we laugh like never before. It's never noisy, it's never unorganized and everything is just perfect, more than perfect. And time. Oh time doesn't fly here; it expands or shrinks however we'd like it to. It's the happily-ever-after ending everyone seeks.


That was the story, now let me tell the introduction.

On a night where I was so down and so frustrated with this life (dunya), I found a sweet beautiful girl opening up a chat with me and after some talk, she gave me a task, she asked me to write about how I imagine Paradise. That thought fell on me like an "aha!" moment, like I was blind and all of a sudden I can see again. I got happily excited, but that was a challenging task. First because I wasn't in the mood of writing, second because it's a description and I think I'm a bad describer. Third because I thought that was forbidden because I'm describing something that no one can ever give it its worth description, because it's something beyond imagination. And I admit, that description is just the worse description of how it really is, inshaa'Allah. I've skipped lots of details, because that would take pages and pages and never be enough and also because I don't wish to limit my imagination or yours with that narrow and little fickle images.


And then when I was writing this, I thought to myself that that should be something private, that's un-share-able. But I'm not sharing my imagination; I'm sharing the thought, the idea of imagining Paradise just when you are in the middle of your darkest times in life. I believe, or I do now, that it's a strong weapon to kill the devil inside you. By imagining your prize you'll find a very strong will to win this game, battle, life, or whatever you call it. Keep your heart and mind there and don't ever lose the hope of that happiest ending because it only comes to those who believe and those who truly believe truly work hard for what they believe in. It's never easy, but can you see how worthy it is?!