ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Available for over a year

I was telling a friend about a family holiday we had in Wales where we enjoyed the beautiful mountains and valleys of Snowdonia and the seaside - in between the rain of course. She said her family often holiday in the Lake District. I told her we’d been there one summer a few years ago. She highly recommended that we should go there during autumn. She excitedly described the vivid and breathtaking colours of the trees and their reflections on the calm waters of the many lakes - a mosaic of colours she said. The other day, I took my little granddaughter to our local park. And as I pushed her on the swings and helped her up the slides, I looked at the magnificent trees all around. I find it fascinating that in autumn the colourful leaves bring us such joy and delight even as they are dying, and then they fall off covering the ground. It felt like my granddaughter and I were walking on a carpet of leaves, crisp, but devoid of life. If these dead leaves did not fall off, the trees would be ugly to look at. And it is only after the trees shed their leaves that they can have a fresh, new and beautiful look again with the arrival of spring. Trees that don’t shed their leaves don’t get a makeover. It’s got me thinking about us human beings and how we compare. For example, how much joy and delight do we take from our frail and old grandparents and loved ones. I believe it is only the fortunate ones who are able to appreciate their beauty - I mean their real inner beauty. And as for the shedding of the leaves I wonder how much fresher, healthier and happier I would be if I could learn to shed off some of the rot that has set in my mind, body and soul. If I could give up wrong deeds, bad habits and negative thoughts to make room for good deeds, good habits and positive thoughts just like these trees make room for fresh leaves, I’m sure my life would be better, more colourful and more meaningful. God says in the Qur’an, “Allah does not change the situation of a people until they change what is within themselves. Like the trees in spring, I too can adorn myself with the fresh leaves of good manners, kindness, generosity and many other virtues. But first, I must undergo an autumn.