Where Are All the Generations Gone?

It is something you begin to notice as a child growing up. There may be the odd passing of a classmate or playmate from the neighbourhood. It is usually sudden and unexpected, perhaps as a result of a freak accident or sickness. But these happenings are exceptions and relatively rare.

The Disappearance of the Older Generation

More noticeable is the disappearance of the older folks. By and by, you begin to see fewer of the seniors you knew around the neighbourhood or in the extended family and even fewer grandparents.

Later, your parents’ peers become fewer in number. They may be his peers at the workplace, in the extended family, or around the neighbourhood, but you see less and less of such as time goes by.

Every now and then, you are also made aware of tragic or unexplained deaths of celebrities and nonentities alike. Suicides, homicides, drug overdoses, and road accidents may be the causes of some of these tragic fatalities.

Your Generation’s Turn to Disappear

One day, you wake up with a start to find that most of the older generations are gone. But even more disturbing, your peers—having now taken over the mantle of seniors themselves—are also vanishing one by one under your very nose.

The Disappearance of the Younger Generations

And if you happen to extend your days a bit further than the average mortal, you are left in a state of stupefaction to realise that most, if not all, your peers are gone, and it is rather folks younger than you—generations behind yours—that are now disappearing into the same abyss as those gone before.

What does this all mean? What are the hard lessons to be learned from these unrelenting dislocations in the life of man?

The Fleeting Nature of Life

At a basic level, what this shows is the transitory nature of life. It is a theme that finds resonance in scripture. For instance, the Hebrew Bible warns:

For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. (Ecclesiastes 9:12)

(Note: The King James Version is the source of biblical references in this article.)

And the Bahá’í Writings echo the same theme:

O CHILDREN OF NEGLIGENCE!

Set not your affections on mortal sovereignty and rejoice not therein. Ye are even as the unwary bird that with full confidence warbleth upon the bough; till of a sudden the fowler Death throws it upon the dust, and the melody, the form and the color are gone, leaving not a trace. Wherefore take heed, O bondslaves of desire! (Bahá’u’lláh, The Persian Hidden Words, #75)

The Future Is an Unknown

We often make bold projections about our plans for the future. But the Christian Bible has a lesson for us on this matter:

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain …

And yet, we are warned that what tomorrow brings is unknown to us:

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. (James 4:13-15)

Because of the unpredictability of life, Muslims customarily add “Inshallah” (God willing) when promising to do something in the future. It is part of Quranic teaching.

Say not thou of a thing, “I will surely do it tomorrow;” without, “If God will.” (Qur’an 18:23)

Parable of the Rich Fool

You can decide to do something tomorrow morning yet end up dead this very night—as we find dramatised in one of Jesus’ many parables. In the parable, “a certain rich man” was blessed with a plentiful harvest. It was so abundant that year that he asked himself: "What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?"

He then decided on a plan:

This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

And what would he do on completion of this fulfilling project?

I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

Alas, his plans were not to be—because “God said unto him”:

Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:16-21)

Man has two distinct aspects. He has a physical aspect (the body) and a spiritual aspect (the soul).

(Note: Man is used in this article in a generic sense and refers to both male and female.)

The Body of Man

The body is the aspect most familiar to us during our earthly sojourn. It has attributes similar to an animal’s and comprises myriads of elements and cells held together by a mysterious law of attraction.

However, a point comes when the attractive forces of the elements and cells cease to operate. Then, the body can no longer function as a living entity. It dies.

The Soul of Man

The soul is that part of a man that distinguishes him from an animal. It is a mysterious entity that, after the death of the body, carries all of man’s earthly experiences with him to an afterlife realm—a spiritual world—to live there eternally.

The body of man is his physical self. It allows him to inhabit this mortal plane of existence in order to learn important lessons for his transition to a spiritual life in the Hereafter.

Man on the earthly plane is endowed with free will to live as he pleases (within certain bounds). When he lives a rewarding life in this plane of existence, he inherits a marvellous new reality in the next.

However, his varied and contrasting experiences on the earth plane teach him to accept his afterlife gifts in a profound spirit of humility and without any sense of entitlement.

Because the soul (the eternal part of man) is spiritual, a truly rewarding life can only be lived when man aligns his aspirations with the teachings of God and makes God (Who is the innermost Spirit of Spirits) the centre of his very existence.

The death we see all around us should serve as a constant reminder about the impermanence of earthly existence, about the need to align ourselves while yet on earth with the only Force that is permanent and unchanging in all creation (God).

It must stimulate us to reflect more on life and its many mysteries and ginger us to aspire to higher and nobler aims.

It ought to awaken us to the necessity of seeking an enduring Home in the spiritual realm of Heaven in proximity to the Originator of all creation.