Loss

I lost my eldest maternal uncle yesterday. He was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and went through two surgeries, multiple chemo sessions and had been in constant pain for the past one year; the pain was such that he was restless even after taking several heavy doses of pain killers. When I visited Karachi in July, whenever I asked him about his health, he would always say,’tabeat theek nahin hai.’ Being a Muslim and Pakistani, it is very rare that we’d ever affirm our pain in front of anyone, and his saying that he is not feeling well, was an indication enough that he definitely wasn’t well. Anyway, we lost him yesterday and with heavy heart I am penning this down here.

My mamoon (term used for maternal uncle in Urdu), was a gem of a person. He, not only loved or pampered his kids, but he pampered, loved, spoiled all of his nephews and nieces equally. Sometimes my sister used to say that I received more love from him than her in front of him to tease him and he would just laugh it off. From making us into airplanes (when we were toddlers)to taking us to amusement parks, picnics, fast food joints and making us all laugh with his jokes and entertaining us with stories with his personal twists, he did it all with us.

I got married and moved to Riyadh around 13 years ago, but whenever I visited Karachi, I would always go and stay at my nani’s and all of my mamoons and mumanis welcomed me and my kids with open arms. Even this year when I went, I remember their love, their warmth and their hospitality to be ever growing. SubhanAllah. I have always wondered at this trait of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala, of how He fills our hearts with love and how our heart feels like it is squeezed and feels physical pain when something happens to our loved ones. My mamoon left this world, and I can’t still believe that he is gone. But Allah has such a beautiful way of soothing our hearts, where we know that we can pray for him and when we pray for others, Angles say Ameen to those prayers; when we do a good deed and pass on the hasanat to the dead, they receive it, and SubhanAllah the most sincere kind of love where we know that the dead person cannot possibly do anything for us, but we, nonetheless, make dua for them and ask the Most Merciful to be merciful to our loved ones and Allah responds and most beautiful thing is the hope that we will see our loved ones in Jannah.

This is not the end, InshaAllah we will meet again in Jannah, where there will be no pain, despair or sorrow.