Returners

“...wa-innā ilayhi rāji‘ūn.”

Rāji‘ūn is not properly a verb (although it does function as a verb), but an active participle, which is also a noun. It is not a future tense of a verb, for something we will do only after our passing from this life, but a substantive, which also qualifies our present nature. We are not simply returning to God after death; we are returners by nature. Every moment of our existence, we are returning; because we are created to be so, and all our faculties, all our strengths and virtues, are attuned for this returning which is our life, apart from which there is neither light nor goodness in us; for we are His, and to Him we are returners.

Your Absence

I returned to that garden
   where once we sat together,
in the sunset of another life.
   the place was so full of you,
the biting pain so tender,
   that for a timeless moment
   I almost found you there.

The Apple Tree

Grass grows to its fullness
     in a matter of days,
     but the apple tree
will not yield one sweet apple
     before many years.
If grass-eaters scoff
     at your bitter apples,
     for Heaven’s sake
do not cut down your apple tree.