It's My Birthday!

It's My Birthday!

For many years I've treated my birthday as "just another day", but more recently, I've come to realise that celebrating my birthday is not about me, and never was. It's about family and friends, and their desire to show me that they care about me.

For Muslims, every day is a birthday. That is, in Islamic theology, the soul is taken to God when we fall asleep and if we wake, it is returned to us. You could call it consciousness if it makes you feel better, but are we not conscious of our dreams, if not "awake"?

We don't take any day for granted. We know each day could be our last, and we give thanks for it. We recognise that our lives are a loan, and that loan will one day, God willing far in the future, become payable.

Every day ends with a recognition of this fact and every awakening is one marked with gratitude.

Anyway, it's 16 years past my 40th birthday, which was the birthday my GP told me when I was in my teens that if I was not careful, I'd never see. I'm already living on borrowed time, and for me, every morning is a birthday, and during these last two years, I've become ever more conscious of the precariousness and beauty of life.

If you find me sentimental from time to time, now you know why. It might be the last time we come into contact with one another.

I pray, God willing, that it is not, and if we are around next week, I'll tell you about the deep end and how I overcame my lifelong fear recently.