Seeing

You know, humans can hear things in the world before they are born.

They can hear their mother's heartbeat, her breathing, and her voice.

But when they first come into the world they start to see everything for the first time.

Think how amazing that is,

all those colours and shapes, all moving around.

And they have to make sense of it all.

No wonder they spend so much time sleeping, trying to work it all out.

But their eyes get to work out that those fuzzy things have edges.

and some of them make sounds,

and some of them feel different.

And they get to know the difference between near and far away,

and know that they can see things further away than they can touch.

And they get to know the faces of people they love

and the different shapes and colours of the faces they think of as beautiful.

And they remember the look of times and places they were happy,

or times they were sad or frightened,

and these memories shape the way they feel about the things they see

and they end up liking one colour more than another.

and they find some things don't look right because they seem out of balance.

They get to know what they like or don't like through the lives they have lived,

and the way they like to see things is their taste,

which shows on the outside who they are on the inside.

So they draw and paint things to express themselves,

to show how they are different and how they are the same.

And they design things to be made to look the way they want,

and when they see things in a way that pleases them they call it beauty.

Seeing blends in with all their other senses to give them the world that they live in,

and hearing, touch, taste and smell have their own special magics.

For instance they can only hear things that are fairly close to them,

but they can see as far as the stars and beyond.

And if they are in the middle of a lot of noise they can't hear things that are quiet,

but in the middle of a firework display they can choose to read a book if they want to.

Beauty can be seen anywhere from the huge to the tiny,

and making life beautiful is part of the muslim way of life.