Not long ago, three friends came to the New York city. They decided to
stay in a hotel during the visit. It so happened that their room ended
up being on the 60th floor. The policy of the hotel was that every
night after12:00 a.m. the elevators are shut down for securityreasons.
So on the next day, the three friends rented a car and went outto
explore the city. They enjoyed movies, concerts, and other things
throughout the whole day. At one point, they remembered that they have
to get back to the hotel before 12 a.m. When they arrived, it was
beyond 12 a.m. at night. The elevators were shut down. There was no
otherway to get back to their room but to take the stairs all the way
to the 60th floor. All of a sudden,one friend got an idea. He said
"For the first 20 floors, I will tell jokes to keep us going. Then
another one of us could say wisdom stories for thenext 20 floors.
Then, we will cover the other 20 floors with sad stories." So, one of
the friends started with the jokes. With laughs and joy, they reached
the 20th floor. Now, another friend started saying stories thatare
full of wisdom. So, they learned a lot while reaching the 40th floor.
Now, it was time for the sad stories. So, the third friend started
thus, "My first sad story is that I left the key for the room in the
car."
Now, what is the point of this story? This story resembles our life
cycle. For the first 20 years of our life, we spend time in joking and
enjoying whatever is out there. Then, after we reach 20, we go into
the work force, get married, have kids and this is the time when we
use our wisdom.Then, if we reach 40, we finally see the white hairs
and begin to think that my life is coming to an end.
It's better that we start our life in the very beginning by
remembering death rather than preparing for it at the end our life
whenvery few of us have the energy to obey Allah completely.
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