The Seventeenth Letter
[The Addendum to the Twenty-Fifth Flash]
A Letter of Condolence
On the Death of a Child
And in His Name, be He glorified!
And there is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.(17:44)
My Dear Brother of the hereafter, Hafız Halid Efendi!
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
And give good news to the patient, * Those who when afflicted with calamity say: To God do we belong and to Him is our return.(2:155-6)
My brother, your child’s death saddened me, but, “the command is God’s,”(40:12) being resigned to the divine decree and submitting to divine determining are marks of Islam. May Almighty God grant you all patience, and may He make the deceased a helper and intercessor for you in the hereafter. I shall explain five points which are truly good news and offer real consolation for you, and for pious believers like you:
F i r s t P o i n t : The meaning of the phrase, “immortal youths”(56:17; 76:19) in the All-Wise Qur’an is this: with this phrase, the verse indicates and gives the good news that the children of believers who die before reaching maturity will remain perpetually as eternal, lovable children in a form worthy of Paradise; that they will be an everlasting source of happiness in the embrace of their fathers and mothers who go to Paradise; and will ensure that their parents receive the sweetest of pleasures, the loving and carressing of children; and that all pleasurable things will be found in Paradise; that those who say that since Paradise is not the place for reproduction there will be no loving and carressing of children, are not correct;