O elderly men and women! Know that the weakness and powerless of old age are means for attracting divine grace and mercy. The manifestation of mercy on the face of the earth demonstrates this truth in the clearest fashion, just as I have observed it in myself on numerous occasions. For the weakest and most powerless of animals are the  young.  But  then  it  is   they  who  receive  the  sweetest  and  most  beautiful manifestation of mercy. The powerlessness of a young bird in the nest at the top of a tree attracts the manifestation of mercy to employ its mother like an obedient soldier. Its mother flies all around and brings it its food. When with its wings growing strong the nestling forgets its impotence, its mother tells it to go and find its own food, and no longer listens to it.

Just as this mystery of mercy is in force for the young, so is it in force for the elderly,  who  resemble  young  in  regard  to  weakness  and  impotence.  I  have  had experiences which  have led me to form the unshakeable conviction that just as the sustenance of infants is sent to them in wondrous fashion by divine mercy on account of their impotence, being made to  flow forth from the springs of breasts; so too the sustenance of believing elderly, who acquire innocence, is sent in the form of plenty. This truth is also proved by the Hadith which says:  “If it were not for your elderly

folk with their bent backs, calamities would have descended on you in floods.”7   It

states both that a household’s source of plenty is its elderly inhabitants, and that it is the elderly that preserve the household from the visitation of calamities.

Since the weakness and impotence of old age are thus the means of attracting divine mercy to this extent; and since with its verses:

Whether one or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour. * And out of  kindness, lower the wing of humility, and say: “My Sustainer! Bestow on them Your mercy even as they cherished me in childhood,”(17:23-4)

the All-Wise Qur’an summons children most miraculously in five ways to be kind and respectful  towards their elderly parents; and since the religion of Islam commands respect and  compassion towards the elderly; and since human nature also requires respect  and   compassion  towards  the  aged;  we  elderly  people  certainly  receive significant, constant mercy and respect from divine grace and human feeling in place of the  fleeting physical  pleasures  and  appetites of youth,  as well as  the  spiritual pleasures arising from respect and compassion. Since this is the case, we would not exchange this old age of ours for a hundred youths. Yes, I can tell you certainly that even if they were to give me ten years of the Old Said’s youth, I would not give one year of the New Said’s old age. I am content with my old age, and you too should be content with yours!

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7   al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, ii, 163; al-Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, v, 344, No: 7523; al-Bayhaqi,

al-Sunan al-Kubra, iii, 345.