Blue, Green, Red and Purple: Imam Maningel (The Leader Dies)
hDeat is a natural function, says Betty Collins’s poem – “ The soft and welcome closing in of dark…’’
They say he died a natural death:
And they are right; for
Death is a natural function:
Death is the natural end of life, as
Birth is its natural beginning.:
We who are born into God’s good time
Have our natural season for coming:
And, in His time, our season for going,:.
And whether by fire, pestilence or flood
By bullet or by torture or mere stopping of the breath
It may be said that we died peacefully;
That our death was a natural one: -
For what other way is there to die?
Except by the breathing of the last breath, the ceasing of the last sigh?
The soft and welcome closing in of dark
Inshallah.
Death is a natural function.
Alghamdulillah
*
Footnote: Imam Haroun, a Muslim priest, was a political activist in Cape Town who died in police custody after ‘falling down a flight of stairs’ in l969.
Inshallah - As God wills
Alghamdulillah - Praise be to God.
