AUTUMN HAS ALWAYS been my favourite season.
It brings back my earliest memories of childhood. The chill in the morning air, the smell of the earth, the change in colour all around, the geese honking as they flew south.
As I have grown older, it has become more poignant. I still love all those things that I felt as a child, but now the chill aches in my joints. The shortening days remind me that my days are running out. The falling leaves remind me that nothing in this dunya remains.
Where I once saw beauty as a child, I now see a reminder in the cycle of the year.
Spring brings new life. Summer brings growth and fullness. Then comes autumn, when things begin to fade and fall away. Winter follows, and the earth appears lifeless. And then, after the cold and darkness, spring comes again.
Allah draws our attention to this very image when He says:
وَمِنْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦٓ أَنَّكَ تَرَى ٱلْأَرْضَ خَـٰشِعَةً فَإِذَآ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْهَا ٱلْمَآءَ ٱهْتَزَّتْ وَرَبَتْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَحْيَاهَا لَمُحْىِ ٱلْمَوْتَىٰٓ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
And among His signs is that you see the earth devoid of life, but as soon as We send down rain upon it, it begins to stir and swell. Indeed, the One Who revives it can easily revive the dead. He is certainly Most Capable of everything. (Fussilat 39)
The verse points us to the Resurrection, and anyone who has watched spring return after a hard winter has seen what it describes.
Allah has filled creation with āyāt, signs that are meant to be read. The changing seasons are among them.
It is there to see every year. Yet we might stop noticing and fail to take heed of what it means because we are busy and distracted with the demands of life.
If we consider it deeply, we see our own lives passing through that same rhythm. It is the same reminder written into our bodies and our lives.
We have a spring of youth, a summer of strength, an autumn when we start to fade, and the winter of death.
We see it in those around us. We watch our parents move from the prime of life that we remember from childhood into old age. We watch our children pass from infancy and youth into adulthood.
We don’t notice life changing while it is happening. The day-to-day changes of growth and decline are so subtle and easy to miss. But we notice it afterwards, when we suddenly realise how much a parent has aged or how much a child has grown.
Things appear, grow, flourish, decline and disappear. Then Allah brings forth something new. And the One who brings life back to the earth will bring us back to life too. That return will be followed by an accounting for the years we were given.
So autumn now holds greater meaning for me.
I still love the colours, the smell of the earth, the geese flying south. But I am increasingly aware of my own mortality, and perhaps that is what makes the season more beautiful.
The leaves fall. The days shorten. Another year passes.
And beneath it all is an inevitable reminder, woven into creation from the beginning: death is not the end.
