Life does not happen to you only my friends! Nay, it happens to everything God has created; animate and inanimate of them.
Besides, the misfortune of life as observed by an Arabian Poet, ‘never ceases’ but despite this as human beings who are made of blood, flesh and brain, you are not to give much space to anguish whenever it rears its ugly head.
Or what do you want to benefit from being sorrowful for all your days of life? Can sorrow bring back to you your lost smile? Will it return to you your property stole? Does sorrow has the capability of enliven the dead?
Will it defend you against the evil wishes of the envier and the malevolent? Can being melancholic bring back to you your lost health and wellness?
When the realization that being anguish on matters of life cannot save the situations or make you happy, has occurred to you, then why the sorrow? What can you get from burning your precious brain and heart in being sorrowful for?
Friends! Do not be anguished or sorrowful for the judgement on your matters is already complete and what is destined for you will surely happen while the divine Pen used for writing it, is previously dried and the tablet which contained the writing is long rolled! All matter had been settled before your coming to this life . Then being sorrowful cannot alter anything on what will happen ever, as it cannot decrease nor increase it never!
Do not be melancholic! For in your melancholy, you seem to want to turn back the hand of time. It is as if with it, you desire to hold in abeyance the shining of the Sun , the failing of the rain and move backwards to yesterday! Never ever, a broken glass cannot be salvaged or rescued ! Yesterday had gone forever!
If you do not know brethren, sadness , sorrow and anguish are like the wind of a battle, which blows nobody good! It instead changes everything negatively; it despoils the atmosphere; disturbs the seas, changes the sky and smashes riped rose in a peaceful garden!
As the Yorubas will say ‘Ibanuje ounsore ara’,I.e sadness is not a friend of the body ! Yes it is not. The constituents of man; blood, brain and flesh, so hate sadness to the extent that its presence in them ceases their functioning, derails their wheels while it terminates their lives in their entirety.
Man should not allowed sorrow to rewind the peace of his heart. As the essences of his life are his wellbeing and peace of his mind. If the duo are lost, everything is lost but if both stay with man for all the period of his life, life will seem like a paradise to him!
In an Hadith of prophet Muhammad ( salla-llahu alehi wasalam), the degrees of mightiness of Allah’s creatures are listed! In the beginning, it is said that for all the power imbued in the Mountain, Iron is more powerful than it for it is with the iron that it is reduced or removed!
The Hadith continues as follows:
” For all the strength reposed in the Iron, fire is its antidote! For it is with the fire it is counteracted ! And water is the neutralizer of the fire,despite its gory effects! . Water on the other hands, for its vastness and mightiness, wind is its foiler; it directs it as it wants! And for the wind’s force, man is more mightier than it! He can manage, control and steer its course as he wants it!
” And for all the power inbuilt in man’s ability and capability, sleep is his Archille’s heels! It overpowers man and incapacitates him! And finally, for all the influence of sleep on man, sorrow is its reaper! For when sorrow enters a man’s soul, it makes it impotence and renders it useless until it gives it hypertension,then stroke and finally, it kills it!”
As shown in the Hadith stated above that sorrow is the most mightiest of Allah’s creatures, then do not spend all your days in it! Do not waste your nights in anguish nor dispense the hours of your life on it. Wasting one’s life on sorrow is being extravagant and ”Allah loves not the extravagant ” _ Qu’ran 7:31
Be happy, oh you brethren! And find meaning in your life. Know that the one who Has endowed you with life Has a purpose for it and for you. Live your life and not your sorrow! Sorrow is a tenant in your soul, do not make its landlord-iness your handiwork through your constant pondering on it.
Know that, if you allow it to be a permanent dweller of your life, it will sag your energy to a level that you will not be able to discharge your responbilites as a man to your Creator and to other creatures again! Indeed, no specialty of a medicine man, no potency of the chemical of the chemist and the finest of a judge can return the felicity of your mind!
Although,their expertises may assuage and alleviate the sorrow in your breast but they cannot totally remit its peace and rectitude back to normal! See friends, when anguish rears its ugly head, do not allow it to cloud your sense of appreciating God! For He Has created for you what is on the earth all!
Not only that, He Has grown for you beautiful gardens and parks full of beautiful fruits of every kind as well as the tall palm-trees having spadices closely set one above another. In addition to that, He made for you glowing stars to see in conjunction with fur ( for cold) and schedules! For all these mercies and blessings, you are still sorrowful!
You will not be melancholic, when you remember those that have the opportunities to live and excel and despite the duo mercies, they eventually met what made them unfortunate with the aids of the mercies, oh you friends!
You will not be anguished friends, when you realized the graces in the fresh water you are still able to drink; in the fresh air you breath; in the wellness in your legs that still carry you around without being clogged or ill and in the peaceful sleep you are still capable of sleeping without the use of orthodox and unconventional drugs!
You will abandon being sorrowful when you know that sorrow and sadness are the causes of illnesses; both psychological and physiological, doubts and confusion!
With you are the glorious Qur’an, the remembrance of Allah, prayer, Al-Salaat, alms-giving, good deeds and righteousness! Why do you still revert into sorrow!
Do not give way to sorrow in the names of being alone and in leisure! Pray instead in congregation with others; praise the names of your Lord with them; read the glorious Qur’an and other beneficial books and do not forget to write too. For in them, you forget your sorrow or your sorrow will forget you!
Engage yourself in community jobs or in jobs which uplift the hygienic conditions of your community! Sweep the Mosques, pick the daggers from people’s ways, fill the dungeons that can entrap others and dig the wells which sands have barred their fountains. By that you will exercise your mind and free your souls from melancholy!
Stop being sorrowful! And know that, in truth , sorrow will lessen your energy in the worship of your Lord. It will give you unsolicited holiday in your struggle in the way of Allah; inherit for you defeat where you seek to win ; call you to suspicion and lands you in fear!
Brethren! It is no good if you don’t leave your sorrow and seek happiness until it shows you the grim picture of helplessness and emptiness that it shows its permanent allies! When you reach this stage, you better run from being sorrowful for if you are not, it may play the last resort game it does play with its permanent friends with you. This is suicide. Pure one and nothing else!
Rescue your soul from the contemplation of commiting suicide. It is a poor and resultless escapist tendency! Remember, the reality in committing suicide as affirmed by prophet Muhammad ( salla-llahu alehi wasalam) : ” he who kills himself with an object, will be punished with the same object perpetually in the hereafter!”
In the conclusion, I implore you to drop the sorrow which is plaguing your precious soul but embrace happiness and the many joys life will bring your way after it predisposed you to sorrow. Know that while sorrow makes you forget the merits in your days, it still goes ahead to make you hate your tomorrow and fear your future while happiness let you see light at the end of the tunnel despite its hopelessness!