There is pain behind that smile; Just do your part, by Hassan Gimba

One learns every day. However, a man should learn from cradle to grave, as said by the prophet of Islam, Muhammad (saw). And so, I learned a lot about people for life.

I understood that life is fleeting and our years perceived on Earth are only a fleeting moment, moving on to the speed of light. It is also true that behind all smiles, we could see multiple pains that emerge when the smile is swept away, just as the Screensors people disappear at the touch of a finger. Therefore, always do your part for whoever you meet.

You see, I recently lost a grandson for kidney complications: dr. Sulaiman Mamman Mohammed, homonymous of my deceased father. The day I saw it on May 3 this year at the Yobe State University Teaching Hospital in Damaturu, I was unable to control my emotions. I poured tears. Abundantly. I am naturally emotional; I can pour tears as I read a novel or watch a movie. But his situation was devastating.

This was a guy who held in your hands in childhood and looked at him to become an educated and responsible family man. Now to see him dispose of lying down, with a smile on his lips, hope in his eyes, a restless imprisoned soul, a weak body that craves health, a tired mind that asks questions … at the same time, knowing that these could be his last moments on earth. Hmmm, tell me, how can you not cry?

I saw tight relatives and members in such a pitiful situation in which you find yourself unable to do anything, if not to do your part, everything you can.

My deceased wife, Lami Fatima Babare, was one of these. His face was always in a smiling mode, so much so that he interrupted, “Allah Abun Godya”. At the same time, he lay in bed while cancer consumed his bowels without mercilessly.

Then there was the Chief Operating Officer of Nettuno Prime, the deceased Amina Alhassan Ahman. He kept his disorder hidden behind a weak smile that told you that everything was fine with her. But it was not so, because cancer was also weakening its internal parts.

As for my wife, I was there during his troubles until he gave up. In one of our latest discussions, he said to me: “I finished paying my debts”. I think he was trying not to worry about looking for those he was supposed to, but once he never talked about his money in the hands of other people. In the case of Amina, there was nothing I could do because I didn’t even know the pain hidden behind her smiling exterior.

But for my nephew, there is something in “doing your part” that I learned from the governor of the State of Yoube, honorable Mai Mala Buni. How is its tradition of personally offering assistance to all types of people with health challenges, in particular the indigenous Yobe, or through its government, has helped the deceased Dr. Sulaiman Mamman.

Along the line, some people, for no cause, wrote a frightening piece that made social media against the governor, making it seemed that he came from the patient’s family. He deliberately had the purpose of infuriating the governor and preventing him from helping.

Never, being the man he is, he just swept away the provocation for his annoying value and joked: “It is health”, and continued to give him the necessary support. Or, he has just done his part. My nephew’s friends, the doctors Sulaiman Dauda and Mohammed Goje, who are always ready to support the governor in his duties, have contributed immensely to help the boy.

You see, in this life, you must always do their part so that whatever happens, they can have a consciousness like that of a child. The governor will move with carefree, but he could have been bogged down by a sense of guilt and remorse if he had not been able to do what he could have done when he had had the opportunity. All those who could help, not only the deceased Sulaiman, but all the humans they met, but could not do it, they would go to their tombs with a feeling of guilt. And failure. But this is for those with a conscience.

Do your part or not, life will go on and one day you will go. The time, which is fleeting, running at the speed of light, will not stop in its trail or stop to look back when you let it fall and you are brought to your real house of six feet below.

Many people don’t understand time. Remember anything from your past and you will see that it has moved on to the speed of light. The speed of time never changes, but God in his wisdom compresses him for your mind to divide it into seconds, hours, days and years for a better understanding.

For you, 90 years old are a life, from the day you were born, to the farm, becoming a parent, a grandfather, aged and finally bows with creaking bones. A domestic fly crosses the same movement in 28 days, a male mosquito in 10 days and a female in 56 days. Have you ever wondered why most of the husbands leave their wives behind? A dog can last 13 years, an elephant 70 and a turtle 150, while the flowers last a few days to a few years. The duration of the life of the trees has been varied for a few decades to thousands of years.

To all these wonderful creations of God, time and speed are relative, personalized for their nature. For some creations, their duration is not even up to a home fly. Yet your whole life is not up to a point or grain in the sands of the time. Less than Infinitesimal.

Merchingly, our brains are oriented to compartmentalizing time and our imagination to slow it down and normalize it for our nature. Ditto for all the creations of God based on their anatomy, physical structure and composition. This aligns us with the universe and the essence of the Creator, which makes us one, or universal, with everything we know.

Therefore, always read and see behind the smile of all creation. Be good for everyone. Meaning to everyone, do your part, because whatever you do, good or bad, you are doing it in a part of you and must physically influence you, mentally or spiritually, positively or negatively, according to your intentions.

A word, they say, is enough for the essays.

■ Hassan Gimba, AniPr, is the CEO/publisher of Neptune Prime.

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