The Gift of Life

Firstly, thank you for all the kind comments, for the prayers and the hope.

I wrote this about two weeks ago but could not manage the time and the opportunity to do so in the blog.

"At times like these we realize how fragile life is - how tomorrow can bring untold pain and sorrow and how each day has to be treated as sacred and precious.

At times like these we need to ponder on the complex and intricate design that God made of us and for us - a creation that can never ever be replicated by man.  This is God's gift that we often abuse and take for granted.  We look at the blue sky, the white clouds, the green grass and trees, the colours of the flowers and birds and we take a deep breath and give a silent prayer for what we see.

But often we neglect to give thanks for the body that we live in - how each breath we take, every drop of water we drink, every morsel of food we consume begins  an amazing cycle of life that runs through our lungs, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the brain and all our innards - feeding and giving sustenance to our being on this earth.


Even the skilful hands of the surgeon that operated on Lely's brain and brought her back from the brink of death was God's own work.

Lely's stroke was not caused by high blood pressure but by a very rare congenital affliction called AVM  ( Arteriovenous Malformation), a tangled web of arteries and veins in the brain where a lot of blood is pushed through a concentrated area building up a pressure  and causing a stroke, aneurism and haemorrhage. 

Each year, 1 in 100,000 is diagnosed with AVM .  This year Lely became that 1 in 100,000.  She is one of those people I know who does not get  much of a fair deal in life.  But she's strong and she's a fighter.  In fact all her life she had been fighting against the odds."

We are now putting up in Lely's flat, helping to look after her beloved cat Moccha.

One evening I said to Moccha,  "Will you pray for your good friend Lely?"

I was told how Moccha sat sedately on the bed intently watching me at prayer and she moved her head up and down to synchronise with my movements.  After my 'Salam'  she moved and got down from the bed.

Allahu Akbar.  Allah  is everywhere.