Reflections on Life and Death

is to want to obtain in this world itself that which can be had only in Heaven. And because of this, he remains deprived of this, both in this world and in the next.

Know Your Tomorrow I n May 1981, Ziaur Rahman (1936-1981), the then President of Bangladesh, visited the town of Chittagong. On the night of the 30th of May, when he was resting at the government guesthouse, he was killed. The man responsible for his assassination was a Bangladeshi Army officer, Major-General Manzoor. This man had thought that by removing Ziaur Rahman from his seat he could grab it and become the ruler of Bangladesh. But his plans proved wrong. Barring only a few men, the Bangladesh Army did not support him. And in just two days’ time, on 2nd June 1981, some soldiers opposed to him shot him dead. The fate that befell Major-General Manzoor is the same fate that will, one day or the other, befall us all. Some of us might die of bullets fired by soldiers; others by being taken away by angels. Yet, no one learns a lesson from this. No ‘Major-General Manzoor’ thinks that the day after killing his opponent, he, too, will be killed; that after hurling someone into the pit of death, he, too, has to face the same situation. This world is a testing-ground. Here, every person