ONE learns every day. Anyway, a man is supposed to learn from cradle to grave, as said by the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (SAW). And so, I have learnt a great deal about people throughout my life.
I have come to understand that life is fleeting, and our perceived years on earth are but a fleeting moment, passing at the speed of light. It is also true that behind every smile, we may see multiple pains that surface the moment the smile is wiped away, just as screensavers disappear at the touch of a finger. Therefore, always do your bit for anyone you come across.
You see, I recently lost a nephew to kidney complications: my late father’s namesake, 45-year-old Dr Sulaiman Mamman Mohammed. The day I saw him on 3rd May this year at the Yobe State University Teaching Hospital in Damaturu, I was unable to control my emotions. I shed tears. Profusely. I am naturally emotional; I can shed tears while reading a novel or watching a film. But his situation was devastating.
This was a boy you held in your hands in his infancy, and watched him grow into an educated, responsible family man. Now to see him lying helpless, with a smile on his lips, hope in his eyes, an imprisoned soul restless, a weak body yearning for health, a weary mind asking questions… at the same time, knowing that this may be his last moments on earth. Hmmm, tell me, how can you not cry?
I have seen close relatives and associates in such a pitiful situation where you find yourself unable to do anything, except to do your bit, whatever you can.
My late wife, Lami Fatima Babare, was one of them. Her face was always in a smiling mode, now and then interjecting, “Allah abun godiya.” At the same time, she lay bedridden as cancer mercilessly consumed her innards.
Then there was Neptune Prime’s Chief Operating Officer, the late Amina Alhassan Ahman. She kept her ailment hidden behind a faint smile that told you everything was alright with her. But it was not so, because cancer was debilitating her insides as well.
As for my wife, I was there throughout her travails until she gave up. In one of our last discussions, she told me, “I have finished paying my debts.” I think she was trying to tell me not to worry about looking for those she owed, but she never once spoke of her money in other people’s hands. In the case of Amina, there was nothing I could do as I did not even know the pains hidden behind her smiling exterior.
But about my nephew, there is something about the “do your bit” that I learnt from the governor of Yobe State, Honourable Mai Mala Buni. As is his tradition of personally offering assistance to all manner of people with health challenges, particularly Yobe indigenes, or through his government, he did help the late Dr Sulaiman Mamman.
Along the line, some people, for no cause whatsoever, wrote a scathing piece that went round social media against the governor, making it look as if it came from the family of the sick man. It was deliberately meant to enrage the governor and stop him from helping out.
Mai Mala, being the man that he is, just brushed off the taunt for its nuisance value and quipped, “It is about health,” and went on to give him the necessary support. Or, he just did his bit. My nephew’s friends, Doctors Sulaiman Dauda and Mohammed Goje, who are ever ready to support the governor in his duties, also contributed immensely towards assisting the boy.
You see, in this life, one must always do their bit so that whatever happens, they can have a conscience like that of a baby. The governor will move about light-hearted, but might have been bogged down by a sense of guilt and remorse if he had failed to do what he could have done when he had the chance. All those who could have assisted, not only the late Sulaiman, but all human beings they came across, but failed to do so, would go to their graves with a feeling of guilt. And failure. But this is for those with a conscience.
Do your bit or not, life will move on, and one day you will be gone. Time, that is fleeting, running at the speed of light, will not stop in its tracks or pause to look back when you drop and get taken to your real home six feet below.
Many people do not understand time. Please remember anything from your past, and you will see that it has passed at the speed of light. The speed of time never changes, but God in His wisdom compresses it for your mind to subdivide it into seconds, hours, days and years for better comprehension.
To you, 90 years is a lifetime, from the day you were born, to coming of age, becoming a parent, a grandparent, growing old, and finally bowing out with creaking bones. A housefly goes through the same motion in 28 days, a male mosquito in 10 days, and a female in 56 days. Ever wonder why most husbands leave their wives behind? A dog can last 13 years, an elephant 70, and a tortoise 150, while flowers last from a few days to a few years. The lifespan of trees ranges from a few decades to thousands of years.
To all these wonderful creations of God, time and its speed are relative, customised for their nature. To some creations, their lifespan is not even up to that of a housefly. Yet your whole life is not up to a dot or a speck in the sands of time. Less than infinitesimal.
Mercifully, our brains are geared to compartmentalise time and our imagination to slow and normalise it for our nature. Ditto for all God’s creations based on their anatomy, physical structure and composition. That aligns us with the universe and the Essence of the Creator, which makes us one, or universal, with all that we know.
Therefore, always read and see behind the smile of all creation. Be good to all. Meaning unto all, do your bit, because whatever you do, good or bad, you are doing it to a part of you, and it must affect you physically, mentally or spiritually, positively or negatively, according to your intentions.
A word, they say, is enough for the wise.
- Dr Gimba, anipr, is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime. His syndicated column, The Arbiter, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.