Know Your Tomorrow

In 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 enjoys a certain sphere of authority. Someone’s sphere is large, while someone else’s is small. But no matter what the size of one’s sphere, every person becomes in his respective sphere the very same ‘Major-General Manzoor’. Everyone is busy trying to push others down. Everyone wants to affirm himself by negating everybody else. Everyone mistakenly thinks that if he can remove someone else from his position, this empty position will be his to occupy. He forgets that what awaits him is not that someone’s position, but, rather, his own grave.

Everyone who today imagines himself to be successful will, tomorrow, when death takes him away, be compelled to recognize himself as a failure. This actually happens every single day. Yet, no one is concerned about the tomorrow that will surely follow today. Everyone knows everything about his today, but does not want to even think about his tomorrow, when he shall have to leave this world.