08 Nov 2021 By Know Muslim
The Reality of Birthdays
Birthday is celebrated when one year of anyone's age is completed. The people consider it a matter of joy that one year of the age has been completed. They celebrate this occasion like a joyous festival by lighting candles and cutting cakes, etc. The renowned Urdu poet Hazrat Akbar of Allahabad (India) has expressed the reality of this celebration vely wisely in a couplet:
Salgirah "عقیدہ" means a year's knot; (گرہ) is an Arabic word meaning knot. The word (Girah) has also another meaning pocket. Thus, the couplet means: Allah has granted man some years, like putting some money in one's pocket. Now the completion of one year of life means that out of one's age ordained by Allah one year has passed or the age has been reduced by one year. Is it an occasion for enjoyment or for mourning that the boy or the person has lost one precious year of his life?
A Dirge on the past years of life
My respected father I-G dl iprJ on reaching the age of thirty years had made it a routine to compose a dirge after the passage of a certain number of years from his life. A dirge is composed to mourn the death of someone, but my father used to compose his own dirge under the title of "A Dirge on the past years of life."
Only with the help of Alalh can we understand the truth that past time does not, and cannot, come back. It is, therefore, no occasion of joy; it is rather an occasion to reflect seriously how to turn to good account the remaining years of our lives.It is a matter of regret that time has become the cheapest thing today in our society. It is being wasted mercilessly in useless pursuits, gossips and other activities which are beneficial neither in our worldly affairs nor in the affairs of the Hereafter.
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