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By Liy Yusof in Spirit Garden —

My lifetime will speak for itself: 5 questions

I have been in the mood for big frameworks, and nothing feels bigger right now than these five questions which I’ve adapted from a hadith and invite you to, if it feels right.

Two cards. Card 1: Death. A figure in black with a scythe. Card 2: Judgement. A figure emerges from a rectangle up to light.
At a sunny kitchen table in Berlin, I pulled two big things loaded for many people.

So many times the anxiety of judgement from others has stopped me from showing up. But what if showing myself was inevitable as both death and life, like a snake shedding its skin to cast off accumulated parasites? I have been in the mood for big frameworks, and nothing feels bigger right now than these five questions which I’ve adapted from a hadith and invite you to, if it feels right.

I think about them when I realise that when death ends, change ends too, and this body will have no capacity to show up with my gifts to the story anymore. My lifetime will have been spun into the story back to the Source, and it will have to speak for itself.

My Lifetime Will Speak For Itself: Reflections for your meditation, journal, or creative practice

(adapted from narrations of Muhammad ﷺ by Dārimī 554, 556, Tirmidhī 2417, Ṭabarānī 9772, 11177, 17309)

  1. If time and you were in a relationship, what kind of life have you had together so far? What dynamic with time would you want?
  2. What are the seasons of your youth? How will you wear it on your body?
  3. In what ways are you wealthy? Where did it come from and where in the universe does it flow to?
  4. If Future You time-travelled back to meet you where you are here tomorrow, what would be said? By whom?
  5. What do you know to be true And what will you do about it?

Liy Yusof, 32. This is an excerpt of a longer newsletter sent out in 2019.

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Liy is a Southeast Asian Muslim knowledge worker and poet, sharing what they learned from the periphery to prep for precarious futures. This is an ad-free space outside of the algo. If you're new here (hello!) or need a refresher, start here for house rules. Here is what I am up to now. I spend time thinking out of my zettelkasten notes system and sharing playlists of curated treasures from my time travels. Consider subscribing for free to read more and stay in touch— I only send out letters a few times a year. If you valued something here, tell me over DM (if we have access to each other) or tip this cryptid with a message— that sends a clear signal of appreciation ✨
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