Man’s Tragic Failure

I am struggling to find the most appropriate title and a good opening paragraph to the story I wish to share with you today. There lived around my home a bitch who delivered four puppies one fine evening. It is a wonderful sight to see a birth and the humility that encompasses the act. The face of the animal as if lights up for having brought forward new life- a tough task and a job well done. – she as if lets go off a huge burden. Birth is a miracle that takes place again and again in front of all of us. The cute little pups, one of them died as soon as it was born. Yet another died a few days later. The yellow one and the black one survived. These two, two bitches to be, were very playful and their mom ferocious, ferociously protecting the two vulnerable pups. We also began to care for the puppies, patting them at times and giving them food other times. In the process the stray bitch, their mom, began to act half tamed and as the puppies grew up, they started behaving as if pet bitches.

The yellow one was more playful and stronger than the black one and would often have the first meal while the black one would have to manage with the leftovers – the “cruel” survival of the fittest at display. I would empathise with the black one for she was always at loss for the lack of her strength. I would make sure she would eat too. I would often encourage her to play with me while shooing off the yellow one. I was to challenge the “cruel” survival of fittest thingy!

One tragic day the yellow one would not run towards me as I was crossing the street. Though I had always wanted this, but somehow I ended feeling bad. The black one did run towards me and I patted her and gave her some food. I gave the yellow one some food too, she would not have it. The next day I saw the yellow one at the same place, alive but not moving. A few days passed, not a single movement, breathing but lying at the same place. I could make out that she was ill. I contacted a doctor via video call and showed him the condition of the bitch. He asked me to infuse some injections, which I did, however, the bitch could not survive. From four we were down to one now.

Time passed, the black one would get all the attention and food now. She was to shine now, or at least, that is what we thought was about to happen. We had overcome the “cruel” thingy. The mom bitch vanished and the black pup, now a grown up itself, was to fend for herself (she had us too). She grew up only to fall for a crippling illness – she could not walk. We realised that her time was near as well. With God planning His, and we too trying what we could and her own grit and will, she began from crawling, moving on to move on her legs taking the support of walls. She would often fall while walking towards us, or whenever she would move off the support. With time she learnt how to walk. She was fighting for her survival all alone with our occassional pat.

She began her own romancing and one day delivered a litter of her own, I don’t remember how many, all of them died. She delivered one more litter, all of them died again. This month she delivered four, one died as soon as it was born. Of the remaining three one was killed by a pack of dogs from another locality, two survived. One I found in a sewer, must have been there overnight, I took it out, it survived. Another prowling pack attacked and killed one more, only one remained. Today the last one was attacked by another pack. Their mother could do nothing – with this death has she lost three generations of pups.

Where was her pack? I am not sure, but when I shoo dogs that come to attack her or her pups she comes running and attacks the strangers standing with me. She does not do it otherwise, for the crippling illness has left her without strength. Did our act of kindness that made her survive (the cruel survival of fittest) lead to the gory death of three generations of pups? Is the act of saving her in the first place a good act even when some time later it is resulting in death after death? Is the act of petting her and turning her docile a good act for she has no pack to support her now? Should I have left her on her own and let her die, in which case we would have had no more deaths, would I have known that when I was patting her and helping her survive? These are the questions that are bothering me today!

These questions bring me back to the futility of human action and the futility to find a reason to act morally, for every act that is done can end up in good or bad. In such a chaos all I understand is that mankind was in loss if God would not have had mercy on us. Had he not sent to us the beautiful example of the Prophet (saw) we would be in loss trying to figure out how to and how not to act. That we have a sublime life in front of us, a guide in the form of his acts and words in front of us, we can be sure that we may have justice in the end and the acts we do would not go futile and would have a bearing. To have faith in justice and to be hopefull is only possible if there is a hereafter! Thank God that there is one!

I feel sad for the pup that was killed today, but God has his ways, we can only act as we see and every act of kindness and a non-act like that of remorse will be rewarded Insha Allah. It is only in the rememberance of Allah that hearts finally find peace. It is only in utter submission in front of his will that hopelessness goes.

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