Editorial

A WORLD TOO SMALL AND A LIFE TOO SHORT FOR AMBITIONS

In the modern world we currently live in with wealth, products, technologies, and services our grandfathers couldn’t even imagine in their youth, it can be easy to lose focus and struggle to find one’s center in this life. Pleasures of this world mingled with the ever-present impulse to always obtain more can have an intoxicating and desensitizing effect on an otherwise healthy mind. Buried deep within this pandemonium of acquisition and consumption is humanity’s long-lost cry for help as it spirals further down into this voracious quagmire of frightening proportions we call “the world”.

It is in the realization of this that a Muslim turns to his best judgment and asks the most crucial question: “What is this life for?” Indeed, a hadith of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) sets us on the right track to finding the answer: “If Adam's son had a valley full of gold, he would like to have two valleys, for nothing fills his mouth except dust. And Allah forgives he who repents to Him.” So, if the ambitions and desires in this world are insatiable, then they simply cannot be the ultimate purpose, the be-all and end-all that every single person born to this world seeks. For all its vastness, this world is simply too small for man’s desires.

The answer to what we should seek instead, however, comes in the form of a quintessential pearl of wisdom quoting a great Sufi scholar named Muhammad Masum Al-Faruqi (quddisa sirruhu): “Do not plunge into the wealth of this lowly world only to forget the afterlife. Strive for the eternal wealth of the Hereafter.” It is within the wisdom summed up in this succinct but punctuating reminder that we find a true purpose—a heart filled with iman, a life lived in service to Allah (subhanahu wa taala) and the religion of Islam, and a neverending bliss that is only possible within the embrace of His mercy in the afterlife.

It is with this thought and this all-important purpose that we present our first-ever issue of Semerkand Magazine, a monthly periodical that is now globally available in English in digital format. In accordance with our purpose, we have striven for over 20 years to bring the message of Islam to all corners of the world with a sensitivity towards content that is expected of our long-established publisher.

May Allah (subhanahu wa taala) grant us ample benefits from these publications and bring us closer to His mercy both in this life and in the afterlife. We wish you a fulfilling reading experience and hope to see you in the next issue inshallah.

M.Galip Dönmez