“The world is but three days: As for yesterday, it has vanished. As for tomorrow, you may never see it. As for today, it is yours, so work on it.”
– Imam Hasan Al Basri
Tomorrow is a traitor full of deceit,
who promises the hopeful an epitaph sweet,
it swears that our troubles can be made obsolete,
as if it’s guaranteed that we’ll ever meet.
Yesterday is the blemish we so desperately disguise;
it’s the sum of our grief, our faults and our lies.
It’s etched in the earth and written in the skies,
it’s sealed with the stamp of history’s demise.
Today?
We don’t deserve today.
But it’s here nevertheless and I pray
that it’s a blessing, a relief from dismay,
a chance to redeem the ills of yesterday
and that I don’t reduce it to tomorrow’s prey, I pray.
Photo via Aron Visuals
About the Author: Ibraheem Ali is a graduate of English from the UK. His interests include literature, film, and Islamic history.