Did You Hear What The Old Man Said? Poem by Mohammad Younus

Did you hear what the old man said
to his martyr child, as tears flowed
from the living eyes of his silent son?

"Why do you grieve, my son?
Thou art living—the martyr dies not.
For the soul, slain in Allah's path,
transcends the shadow of death.

The grave holds but fleeting form;
the soul, my child, is free."

The martyr child, silent, hears
his spine-broken father's words,
yet cannot speak of the jewels
his father cascades upon his spirit:

The light of martyrdom's grace,
the secrets no grave can bind.

Knowing not what lies beyond,
he speaks not of the world of souls,
where time itself is but a fleeting shadow.
Yet his father sees—in the child's still gaze—
a reply that echoes, wordless, profound.

Did you hear what the child said to his father?
The father did, gathering words
from the martyr son's living eyes.
He wondered aloud:

"Why, in grief, am I so deep?
My son is freed.
Who told thee he is not alive?
The soul slain for Allah lives on,
untouched by mortal death.

The grave may claim the fleeting form,
but the martyr's soul endures, reborn,
its endless path through realms divine,
returning free, to truth's design."

Freedom is what you all seek,
and freedom you shall have, in time.
Freedom—the sweet fruit of harvest days.

Countless centuries have passed;
many have sacrificed, never in vain.
For all acts are recorded
in the book of time—

Deeds, misdeeds, events—all bound
to reasons written in love and truth.

All add to the collective whole,
waiting patiently upon the branches
of the tree of life.

Until the day of harvest,
when the sweet fruit shall be gathered:
The labor of centuries, toil and faith,
ripened by sun and water.

No one knows the harvest's hour,
the day of judgment,
but that day will surely arrive.

Each soul will reap what it has sown:
The fruit of hope, of love, of grace.
The seed planted so long ago
shall bear the fruit of divine embrace.

A seed of love, a seed of hope—
a seed eternal, love's embrace—
its fruit divine, no time can erase.

MyKoul