She shared that her mother’s last words to her before passing away were:
“Don’t worry daughter, we are going back to Allah, and He will soon wake us up again…”

Some mourn the loss of loved ones, as a personal loss.
Let us mourn the loss of righteous ones, as a loss to our Ummah – which now has one less living ‘abida, beloved to Allah…

Ameen & Tahoor, inshaAllah

This was a beautiful entry Sis. When I saw the title, I was “aww, depressing title, not in the mood, etc’ but as I started, I realized that I could relate, as I’m sure many others on the board can also relate in some way or another, this feeling of things just coming and going; not trully understanding when we lose people, whether from this World or just in a physical sense, as you mention in regards to your friends.
I had only a short time to “assimilate” myself to my father’s illness when it was diagnosed and thus really had no time to reflect, but just be there as much as I could, do what little I could to help and just support him in what ever way a 19-year-old son could do in that situation.
Now though, the more I think or reflect on the fact of my father’s absence, its this emptiness that will last much longer than his illness did, which is the more challenging and puzzling thing and has truly been the biggest Exam of my life, which itself, as we all know, is a test in its own right, from Allah (swt).
So as far as the first situation goes, I can totally sympathize with you. Didn’t my father have so much to live for? He was still working full time, still had to see his son through college and professional school and enjoy seeing him settled and one day, by Allah’s Grace, playing with his grandkids, or as they had also thought of doing, going off with my mother somewhere in retirement to help treat people in other nations or some related project.
As I’m sure is true with Auntie Yasmine, she was probably “taken early” as we always like to say, that it was not yet her time to go, to return to her Lord. Yet, I think at some point, we must come to the realization, that it was, in fact, her time, or my father’s time to go back, whether we like it or not. Indeed, we may not understand it, the “why” of it, yet deep down somewhere I think we have to just look deep into ourselves and somehow come to peace with such an event, whether its death or friends moving away. I’m not saying I’ve figured it out yet; in fact, far from it. To this day, when I reflect, (when I’m not busy stressing about exams), I look at a picture of my father that I have here with me, from my high school graduation; who could have known that roughly a year later, he would be living his last months on this Earth? It still blows my mind as I write this – it’s truly puzzling, even now, 8 years later.
Despite these feelings, I do feel that I’ve become stronger from the experience and unfortunately, from losing other family members in an untimely fashion as well, that was even more painful than losing my own father. So as much as it pains us to lose someone, I think that we can improve our chances of “passing” this ultimate exam by taking away something positive from it and instead of it making us wilt or fade away in a sense, we can use it to grow, even just a little as we move along on our own journey back to our Lord.
Then insha’allah, soon we will be reunited with those dear ones that were taken away from us in this short and often times, mysterious life.

Again, May Allah’s Peace and Blessings always be upon Sr. Yasmine and her family.

-Br. Anees