Have I lost it?

I was looking throught the archives in my blog and came across this post

Sand in the oyster

And I started wondering why nowadays my postings about the interesting cases I meet almost daily did not make it into my blog.

What has changed about me that I fail to put in writing life's lessons?

I think being a coach has something to do with it.

Having people confide in me makes me reluctant to put it in writing because just maybe somebody might recognise the person I am writing about and that could be devastating for them to know I have written about them. no matter how well meaning my post is.

Having said that , perhaps there is a way to keep making notes of the interesting life events that pass by me and the lives I manage to touch or that manage to touch me as I pass through this life journey.

An interesting conversation I had with two old ladies is one that may be of interest.

The younger one had a backache and I cannot remember how the conversation drifted into the subject of death. She looked at me intensely and asked me , " So what is your perspective on death, Ustazah,"I find it quite common that some people knowing I am a doctor still manage to call me Ustazah rather than doctor but I will take that as a compliment !

I then gave her a mini lecture on my understanding of death . My perspective has been influenced greatly by some books I had been reading lately about the nature of man .

I expand that mini lecture to give my perspective as follows:

A Human being is made of at least two parts , one is matter which belongs to the Earth and the other is spirit which belongs to God . Of course since the Earth also belongs to God then a Human belongs to God in total anyway.

So when we die, the matter part of us goes back to the Earth , all the components return to the dust that it was and this dust is recycled , perhaps absorbed by plants and then eaten by animals or humans and maybe becoming flesh again in another living creature.

Then there is the part that is spirit and returns to its spiritual origin .

The Quran invites the soul at peace to enter into God's garden*. Then again, are all human beings, oomposed of body and soul at peace when they die?

What about those who have a lot of hate , anger, vindictiveness , revenge, cruelty , pride and all that which makes a person restless and not at peace? Do they keep these emotions after they have lost their earthly component ?

According to Al Ghazali , yes they do. If they have lived a life of pursuing the pleasures of the flesh and have no taste for spiritual enlightenment then when they die they will crave the same.

So what prevents the soul from entering the Garden ? A soul not at peace.

And how then would the soul not at peace resolve the issue of entering the garden anyway?

The soul would have to work on their issues and resolve them , only , it is much more difficult without the embodiment they had while on earth. If you think it is difficult to work on your issues now, wait until you have to work on them without this body.

That working on it is Hell. Die before you die is a quote from Imam Ali. It has many meanings and one of it is to die from the negativity that is possible in being human .

*AL-FAJR 89.
27. "O (you) the one in (complete) rest and satisfaction!
28. "Come back to your Lord, Well-pleased and well-pleasing unto Him! 29. "Enter you, then, among My honoured slaves, 30. "And enter you My Paradise!

Further reading on Al Ghazali, click this link