On the Margins of Death

Yemenat

Ahmed Saif Hashed

On the margins of death, loss, and profound sorrow, I find myself today reflecting with a curious intellect: Why, O God, must there be death? We recognize Your wisdom, yet this question yearns for deeper understanding and clarity. Our passion for knowledge seems innate, compelling us to confront an existential challenge that demands we rise to meet it. Is it not more just and fitting to comprehend You and the truths we seek through knowledge, rather than to perceive and worship You in profound ignorance?

We strive to understand what eludes comprehension, to unveil the mysteries and secrets of existence, seeking knowledge of the unknown—even when it is inherently elusive or requires considerable time to explore. Yet the honor of this endeavor itself is a vital practice that justifies our existence. As long as we inhabit this world, we must engage with life in a manner worthy of the human quest for truth and understanding.

Knowledge does not emerge from acquiescence or from ignoring what should not be overlooked. 

It arises from the labor of the mind, from experience, and from the fervent questioning that propels us toward understanding. It thrives on the debate of hypotheses and theories, replacing or correcting them as necessary. 

Emptiness yields no knowledge, comprehension, or understanding; those unprepared to exert effort are even less likely to find it. Indeed, emptiness aligns with the adage: “One who lacks something cannot give it.”

Questions should propel us on our intellectual journey, accompanied by a heightened consciousness and an awareness of the importance of inquiry. They should unveil the unspoken, shatter the chains of the mind, dismantle barriers to thought, and delve into the depths to reach the essence of reality. We must gather all possible knowledge and achievements to seek further understanding, exerting every effort to uncover what is obscure and remove all ambiguity.

The sovereignty of knowledge is what we need to penetrate as deeply as possible, in a manner that is renewed, continuous, and profound. Great things, as they say, begin with a small question. It is often noted that “the cure for ignorance is inquiry,” and the saying goes, “He who fears to ask will never learn.” Another adage reminds us, “It is not shameful not to know, but it is shameful not to ask.” The German proverb completes this picture: “There is no such thing as a stupid question, only a stupid answer.” This calls for seekers to remain vigilant against foolish, idle responses and to guard against the temptation to accept them, resisting efforts to dull their intellect and hinder their reasoning with ready-made answers.

Questions serve as gateways to knowledge; they are the means to attain certainty or the pathways leading us toward it. We are here to ask, to dispel confusion, to reveal glimpses of understanding or fragments of knowledge, to seek the evidence we desire, or to find ways to serve humanity and its future.

What once seemed incomprehensible or impossible on the paths of yesterday is now achievable and known, manifest before our eyes. What is elusive today may become an obvious truth tomorrow. What we cannot grasp today, we may yet understand tomorrow, as tomorrow stretches endlessly within the eternal expanse of time.

The future we aspire to and strive for will unravel many of the universe’s secrets and mysteries. The cosmos is filled with vast, untold enigmas that surpass all imagination, and knowledge knows no bounds. As long as humanity exists, it will continue to wonder and inquire, igniting its curiosity until it reaches what is attainable, or it will continually revise

what it once believed to be certain until it arrives at some measure of truth. The accumulation of knowledge will persist, enabling us to embark anew at each juncture, striving to improve upon what came before, benefiting from the accumulation of data and uncovering further insights, ensuring that humanity continues to reap knowledge within an infinite expanse—one that will only cease with its extinction.

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Some may ponder: If both death and life are necessities, and You, O God, possess the power over all, what would transpire if these necessities were absent, if chance did not exist, if You had not created beings, and if the worlds knew neither life nor death? Perhaps, in such a scenario, the profound sorrow that pervades existence—vast as our imaginations can conceive—would cease to exist. Questions sometimes rebel against their confines, bursting forth in cries from their prisons; perhaps the cost of this inquiry or the answer itself is the very life of the one who dares to ask.

One might contend that non-existence would have been preferable. Yet now that I exist, I find myself detesting death, especially when it mercilessly snatches away those we cherish and love. The instinct for survival is a powerful force within us, innate since our arrival in this world, beyond our control. I loathe death when it takes a beloved or dear one, or someone for whom we hold profound affection.

To some, death appears unbearably horrific, a brutal severance of the bonds of feeling and sensitivity. We are left to endure the sorrow and anguish it bequeaths, the bitterness of separation. Death is a haunting silence, an enduring void, a parting that feels eternal, a departure without end, a heavy burden of grief for humankind. This sensation envelops us with the loss of every cherished soul, while death for the departed may be something entirely different from what we believe and imagine.

Though death may be a condition that is delayed, its arrival is certain. While many certainties may be questioned and doubted, death remains an undeniable truth. 

It is a law, as they say, that allows no doubt or negotiation. Yet, few—if any—can assert with certainty what transpires after death and the long absence. No one has returned from death to enlighten us about what lies beyond.

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Our present condition reveals that we still inhabit a state of permittivity, tethered to beginnings that stretch back to myth and legend, to an era of pharaohs. We are often compelled to remain in this stagnation, prisoners of its walls and confines. We grapple with our fates to reclaim even a fraction of our rights, which lie crushed under the heavy burdens of ignorance, misery, and oppression that seeks to extend its reach, imposing its brutality against our will for freedom. This oppression prevents us from breaking free from the shackles of a bygone era and striving toward the future we yearn for.

We continue to attempt to breach the barriers of challenging questions, only to encounter obstacles that refuse to budge, seeking to subjugate us to their will and keep us confined. At times, they attempt to force us back into the depths of stagnation and antiquity. Just as they strive to drag us down, we endeavor to create new conditions for our ascent toward the future. Though our progress may be slow, or even minimal at times, we do so with the unwavering confidence that we will ultimately prevail.

We persist in seeking our right to question before the rusty doors that remain shut in our faces, and against minds resistant to inquiry, locked in a cultural regression that wishes us to dwell in its darkness forever. Yet, we are filled with the conviction that no matter how much they resist and conspire against us, the future belongs to us, for we pursue it with sincerity and steadfast determination, capable of transforming the impossible into the possible.

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