大象传媒

Good Morning

When I was a child, my grandmother would tell me, 鈥淪arah 鈥� time goes so fast.鈥� Being eight years old, I didn鈥檛 understand, as the much-anticipated birthday, or Christmas always seemed to take ages to come around.

Now that I am substantially older than eight (!) I understand more.

I have certain markers of time 鈥� the weekly call to put the rubbish bins out, for example.

鈥淚t鈥檚 bin night鈥�, one of us will shout.

鈥淲hat!!鈥� replies the entire household. 鈥淲e just put them out!鈥� Nope 鈥� that was a week ago!

But the marker in time which makes me realise the speed of things is my children鈥檚 birthday.

Today, my eldest turns 29.

It literally feels like yesterday that the double blue line appeared on the pregnancy test informing me of his impending blessing. Yet here we are 鈥� 29 years later 鈥� my son towering above me, a fully grown man, whom I adore.

Scientists have lots of explanations for how our brains perceive time. Apparently, the older we get, the more time we have experienced, so a year becomes a smaller and smaller fraction of our total lives. This tricks our brain into thinking time is going faster.

My Muslim faith has an altogether starker approach. 鈥淭he life of this world is a pastime and a game. The life of the Hereafter, that is life if you but knew鈥�, reminds the Qur鈥檃n, and the Prophet described our time in this world as like being a traveller stopping for shade under a tree.

Science or faith are both in agreement with my grandmother, it would seem. Life goes by in a flash.

I pray we can appreciate its blessings whilst we can. Ameen

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