In case you haven’t heard, the rapture has been postponed to October.

I poke fun at those who believed it, but it’s fair for anyone to say that my beliefs are equally absurd. I personally don’t think so. =P But of course it’s a valid point.

You see, I’ve always entertained the thought that time isn’t linear, and to some extent, that it doesn’t really exist at all. As a child I wondered that if the Day of Judgment–Muslims don’t believe that the Day of Judgment is predictable; there are Signs that are supposed to hint to it, but when it does arrive those who are still around will be in shock–if the Day of Judgment is the same day for all of us, and our punishments for sins and rewards for good deeds do not commence until after we’ve been Judged… what happens until Judgment Day arrives? Do we simply lay in our graves waiting for centuries for the world to end? Do we wander the earth as ghosts, visiting unsuspecting relatives every Wednesday? And furthermore, if we are not punished or rewarded until we are Judged, why have so many reported fearfully witnessing the punishment of what appear to be ones who have passed away just as they are lowered into their graves?

My mother warns me when I walk through graveyards, that some of the souls are being punished for their sins and if I happen to stumble through a barrier of space I may not be suited–as a living being–to deal with what I may witness.

I’m certain she’s stretching it, but strange things happen. Your grandmother passes away and one day you enter her room and are consumed with the scent of her perfume–freshly sprayed, from a bottle that no longer exists, in a room that’s been airing out for years.

There are logical explanations. You look for them first. But every suggestion of reason fails you. The scent must be in your head, you think, it’s only natural, because you’re among her things and you associate them with a scent. But it’s too intense to be imagined, and your friend walks in, who’s never met your grandmother, and she asks, did you just spray something?

I don’t believe in ghosts. But I do believe that some people, when they pass, leave such a strong imprint of their presence in the space they once occupied and in the shifting air itself that our mortal minds interpret their form and we sense it. And our eyes fill in the rest.

What have we to offer but the absurd?

A year or so ago I had the following conversation with a friend:

“People are selling ‘magical charms‘ on Ebay!” he laughed.

“Magic is real,” I said solemnly. (This is also a part of Islam, and I do believe it.)

“Yes, but real magic is not sold on Ebay.”

And I did agree with him, but isn’t it amusing where we draw our lines?

While there’s an implication that we don’t receive punishments/rewards until after we’ve been judged beside everyone else, there’s also one that we are judged right away after we’ve passed–and there’s a consensus that both are true.

“Mother, we’re all dead,” I told her with a sense of awe.

“What? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“It’s true! If we’re not punished or rewarded until we’ve been Judged and yet there are souls who are being punished and rewarded now it means that time isn’t linear and that it doesn’t exist at all, that in some form of space in some division somewhere we’ve already died and Judgement Day has passed.” I stopped to catch my breath. “We’re dead. We’ve died.”