From the moment a culprit hears his death sentence, he is as good as dead. It makes no difference whether his execution is to take place the very next day or weeks later. Life simply loses all meaning. He falls silent and his smiles fade. Those hands, which were so freely raised to strike the weak and vulnerable, fall limp and lifeless by his sides.
Everyone alive today is to be ‘hanged’ tomorrow. But everyone is lost in his today and blissfully unaware of his tomorrow. In this world, everyone is in some sense a culprit, but few pay heed to the fact that death can catch us unaware—it can even strike tomorrow.
Man lives in this world as an unthinking, pleasure-loving, materially ambitious creature, who enjoys having friends and riches. He revels in all this. Then a strange event takes place. Death comes unannounced, without his leave. He stops in his tracks. His eyes become sightless. In an instant, he is bereft of all his worldly possessions—all that he holds dear—and he is carried away to the solitude of the grave.
He would feel ashamed of having indulged in the idea of his own greatness because greatness that does not endure is of no value.
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