The Happy Future

My eyes closed, I imagine the happy future being formed in the "land of my hope." Beauties of every sort coming out from corners of existence run through our houses and streets, and through institutions of education and worship. Reflecting back in the rooms of our houses, they envelope us as a flood of light. Combined with colors, this light forms a rainbow, under which I run continuously to "set it up" in my eyes and soul as an everlasting arch of happiness.

While we pass in a second under a man-made arch, it seems impossible to pass under this heavenly arch (rising) over us. As we run under it, we feel our life united with all of existence in an endless stream. We watch in amusement the things flowing back after a short halt on either side to greet us, and then are replaced by new ones. We are enraptured with the immaterial pleasures coming from that continuous stream of things and intimacy between them and us.

Trees sway gently with the breeze, hills are green and radiant, sheep graze here and skip and bleat over there, and villages lay scattered on slopes and in plains and valleys. We observe with delight how all these contribute to a universal harmony, and comment that one lifespan is not enough to imbibe all these pleasures.

These colors and lights and sounds, this liveliness springing from the breast of existence, are reflected in the world of our emotions. We feel as if we are listening to lyrics composed of sweet daydreams and memories flowing in waves. We absorb the vast Book of Nature, which arouses within us spiritual pleasures with its Heaven and Earth and all their contents. This book fills us with indescribable delight and joy, and elevates us to the higher realms of existence.

With each new season, we find ourselves as if waking up from a different sleep of death and encountering various colors ranging from purple to green. We feel caressed by breezes conveying the perfume of flowers and fruits and ears of grain.

These tremendous spectacles, which implant in souls the sense of beauty, give some relief even to those pessimists who always see everything through the window of their dark souls and are overwhelmed with evil thoughts and suspicion. As for believers, time streams in them and echoes life's melody in each of their cells. Mornings come upon them with the songs of gentle breezes blowing through the tree leaves, murmuring streams, twittering birds, and children's cries. The sun sets in their horizon, arousing in them different feelings of love and excitement. Nights take them, in various pitches of music, through time's mysterious tunnels and nature's most romantic spectacles.

Every spectacle we observe within the horizon of belief and hope, and every voice we hear, removes all the veils from our souls and takes us through paradisiacal valleys—radiant and soft, pure and serene, and pleasant—in which time acquires infinity. This peace attracts us into fascinating worlds, half-seen, half-unseen, which we have long been watching with the eyes of our hearts, as if from behind a lace curtain.

At this point, when the spirit is enraptured with the pleasure of observing, the tongue is silent, eyes are closed, and ears no longer receive sounds. Everything is voiced with the tongue of the heart. Pure thoughts and feelings envelop people as vapors of joy and excitement, and in the face of such dazzling spectacles, the spirit feels as if it is walking in gardens of Paradise. Yitirilmis Cennet'e Dogru, Izmir 1997, pp. 48-50