2:186 "When My servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me: Let them also, with a will, Listen to My call, and believe in Me: That they may walk in the right way."

Wa alaikom Al-Salam!

Dear All ESPECIALLY YOU!!
Yes that's right don't look behind you, you've guessed it I'm talking to you!

There was a very popular show on TV a little while back and it contributed a portion of the show to a charity fund for Africans and especially African children. One of the advertisements that seemed surprising to me and might also sound surprising to you was short clips of famous and [lovable!] celebrities talking about how many funerals they have attended in their lifetime. Like David Bechahm saying he attended one or two, actors saying they attended one, the number of funerals they had attended would never go over three times. Then in the end of the clip they showed an African man who says I have attended 428 funerals (I cant remember the exact number but it was something around 400 i think)! This was to show that nobody dies in "developed" countries but in Africa people keep dying! So feel sorry for them and pay up!

Now can you even count how many funerals you have attended in your life time?! I know I went to two funerals and was going to go to two more during my three week visit to Iran! Not to mention that we go to 3-4 ceremonies per dead person!

Regardless of how you're going to argue about charities being good, and others arguing that the same companies and countries which broadcast these shows are the same people who've contributed in these poor people being subjected to death, I wanted to look at it from a different point of view. It seems that the celebrities that so many people in the world love to be, and look up to have no clue about death! They either don't see the people dying around them or do not see at all! All of us including the ones who refuse to read this will die someday! Some will die sooner than others and in my opinion our memories will not do much good for us. As I'm writing this I read that Ayatollah Fadhel passed away, (khoda rahmateshoon kone inshallah)...

I guess the memories that will cause people to pray for us will be of some benefit but in general why should we worry about how people would remember us as? I'm not saying we shouldn't care, but I don't think we should worry about it.

When we want to go to Mashhad and it says Esfahan 48 kilometers we can do one of these things:

1. We can ignore the fact that we're supposed to go to Mashhad and continue with going to Esfahan INSISTING that we're going the right path regardless of all the signs and all the other people telling us we're going the wrong way and the information desk giving us the map!! KNOWING we will be doomed!!

31:7 When Our Signs are rehearsed to such a one, he turns away in arrogance, as if he heard them not, as if there were deafness in both his ears: announce to him a grievous Penalty.

2. Turn back, go back to the junction you missed and make up for the loss and go back towards Mashhad.

3. Go to Esfahan and hope you can catch a plane on time and get to Mashhad faster!

I'm sure a lot of you are thinking of option number 3! much easier ha?! We'll just have our fun and in the end we'll catch the plane to the promised land! From what I have seen the best way is never the easiest one! And remember Mashhad has the best food in Iran!

TURN BACK NOW! ONCE YOU DO, EVEN IF YOU CRASH ALONG THE WAY THERE WILL BE A WHOLE FLEET OF PLANES, CHOPPERS AND ANGELS TO TAKE YOU TO WHERE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO...

39:53 Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Wassalam...