Iman Ghazi
FROM THIS LIFE TO THE NEXT 27 | THE MUSLIM VOICE: EPHEMERAL | APRIL 2023
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hen we were children, the days felt endless. Time passed by slowly, pleasantly, and patiently. As we get older, time becomes faster, more difficult, and leaves us in the dust. Why is time so harsh? Why does it feel like our lives started out as endless, and that it eventually slips through our fingers faster than we realize? Maybe it’s because the longer we live, the less we live. I don’t just mean that we come closer to death. Rather, our time spent living holds less weight. In the first 24 hours of being alive, an hour was 1 out of 24 of our lifespan. When we reach 20 years, an hour becomes 1 out of 175,320 of our lifespan. As we get older, an hour becomes nothing. Days become nothing. Years become nothing. Yet, despite our lives slipping through our fingers like grains of sand, we are taught to exist bountifully. To balance our deen and the dunya. To use those experiences and fill our hearts and days with a life worth living. Part of that life is how we interact with others—the good we do for people that will one day speak on our behalf. Yes, our lives become shorter and shorter, but there is so much we can do to make our legacies last. Islam’s concept of Sadaqa Jaariyah reflects the characteristics every person should strive to have. It is the charity that follows us into the afterlife. Islamic Relief Canada describes it as