Scream II: The Sajda

After that ferral scream comes the moment of silence. You have released it all out and now there is left a void in that space.

You look around you, feeling like it's finally over. But it's not. For suddenly, there is an overwhelming urge to cry, be protected, to be near your mama. You want someone to just 'understand' the rapid fire of emotions in your heart. You wish someone to hear you out patiently, just you talking and them listening and nodding in recognition.

That is when you fall into a 'sajda'. For who is closer to man than God? Who else is there that loves you more than 70 mothers' love pooled together?

Our Prophet [PBUH] emphasised multiple times the importance of sajda: the point at which you're closest to God.

Once in sajda, you lose yourself. God is your listener now and you can talk all you want. He has infinite patience.

So you let your sorrow flow and let the tears come, and share it all with God for there is no embarrassment, no secrets there. There is no care for the use of tenses, for flowery vocabulary. There is no care for sentence structure and grammar. There is no care for the word limit and the use of linkers. Linguistic boundaries fall apart and there is no need even to put it all into 'words'. For when you're with God, nothing else matters but the core of 'you': he understands it all. He is the final refuge when all else feels like a lost cause.

You go on talking, complaining, asking, praying, crying, wishing, all in the same moment, setting in motion the Big Bang of peace. This time, there is no looking back. What has been started, must end.

And the void that was begins to fill up with hope.

You gradually begin to come out of the sajda and sit up; take a deep, deep breath.

Glance at your hands and flex them to rid yourself of the remaining negativity.

Look up and feel empowered.

Pick up the phone and call mama.

You have just gone through a miniature version of the process of re-birth. These are designed by God to act as eye-openers and for us to not lose touch with reality, and to remind us that we are not alone: God's hand is always there to guide us when we fall. Setbacks come but they too are structured to make us 'learn' and 'grow' (not the Blue Band way!).

Rejuvenated, let life resume!

*Although prostration is the right word for 'sajda' in English, it somehow doesn’t contain the right connotations and spirit of the word. I prefer 'sajda' over it's translation.