Page 53 - The Truth of the Life of This World

renew themselves after a particular age. Elderly people suffer from spatial
disorientation due to weakening eyes in response to the intensity of light.
This is quite important since it means a limitation of eyesight: the vividness
of colours, the positions of objects, and their dimensions become blurred.
These are, no doubt, difficult situations for the elderly to adapt to.
Man might never have experienced the physical destruction of ageing:
he might simply have grown stronger and healthier as he grew older.
Though we are not familiar with such a model, living longer might have
offered unprecedented opportunities for personally and socially fulfilling
lives. Time might have improved the quality of life, making it much more
enjoyable than ever. Yet, the system ordained as good for mankind is one
based on a declining quality of life as one grows older.
This is one more evidence of the temporary nature of this world. Allah
repeatedly reminds us of this fact in the Qur'an and commands believers
to think about it:

The likeness of the life of the present is as the rain which We
send down from the skies: by its mingling arises the pro-
duce of the earth – which provides food for men and
animals: (It grows) till the earth is clad with its golden
ornaments and is decked out (in beauty): the people to
whom it belongs think they have all powers of dis-
posal over it: There reaches it Our command by
night or by day, and We make it like a harvest
clean-mown, as if it had not flourished only the
day before! Thus do We explain the Signs in
detail for those who reflect. (Surah Yunus: 24)
After a certain period of life during
which man assumes himself to be phys-
ically and mentally strong and perceives
the whole world from his own view-
point, he suddenly goes through a period
during which he loses many things he had
previously enjoyed. This process is
inevitable and irreversible. That is only
The picture this old lady holds in
her hand is one of her youth. because Allah created this world as a tem-

The Truth of the Life of This World 51