Our inner soul is not bound by time. Just as we consciously experience the present moment, we can also feel and live in the past or in the future. Since we don’t want to be hemmed in by the narrow measures of the present, and since we know that many inner and outer dynamics may ensure a future as we imagine it to be, we activate our timeless feelings in the depths of our spirits and seek ways to access the past and imagine tomorrows as joyful as they can be. As we do so, our imaginations are guided by faith, hope, and determination; and we rely on our heritage based on knowledge, culture, and sound spiritual essence.

Just as we believe in the radiant days of the past, those days that were rewarding with abundance and material-spiritual richness, so do we believe in the vastness and richness of our enlightened future. We believe so much so that we feel as though we can see the shiny and cheery climate of such a future, its brightest blue atmosphere and enchanting beauties popping up all around. It is as if we recognize the voices and words of the coming generations of “spirit and meaning” who will represent such a beautiful world. We imagine the past and coexist with those that came before us as simultaneously as we sense the presence of a future with its physical and metaphysical components and greet its diverse people.

My heart is deep in these thoughts and feelings, and I am closing my physical eyes. With the eyes of my soul, I visualize with my faith, hopes, and dreams, a golden slice of time in a future where human values are deeply established, human feelings focus on eternal life, and the human body cherishes the virtues of the spirit; an exquisite future made up of the best pieces of the “lost paradise” we have been searching for deep down; a future whose blessings come flowing into my dreams. I dream of a future with its fortunate people of profound faith, trust, and submission to God, who lead a life of enchanting spiritual pleasures as if they are the sole owners of them. Their hearts beat with goodness and beauty, eyes open and close with good thinking and forbearance, and they experience the world as paradise. I can imagine from this moment how they enjoy the most colorful of poems sung in their souls, in the souls of others, and rest of creation. When my hopes are at high tide, I take a share from their immense joy and smile at their fortune.

I am hoping the radiant tomorrows will be as spiritual, sweet, colorful, and rich as the days and nights of the past. Whenever such a future emerges before my eyes with its fine and blue air, my world of my imagination associates it with the blissful era of the Prophet. Then, I am filled with the lights of that era, the softness of its mercy, and the warmth of its tolerance and dialogue. As these young looking, tall, and azure days of this new spring that rise in my world of hope and faith take me to the unimaginable horizons of the heavens, I feel I am holding hands with all existence, greeting all creatures with compassion, embracing all human beings with love, and saying, “This must be why God created the universes.”

This world of my imagination is woven on the canvas of the golden eras of the past, and in that world there is no brute behavior, cruelty, overambition, obsessive love for the world, altercation, fight, treachery, dishonesty, unfairness, oppression, corruption, or embezzlement. In this world there is chivalry, refinement, determination to revive, love for life, moderation and dialogue, respect for truth, trust, loyalty, honesty, justice, and steadfastness. The people of this world have removed hatred and conflict from their vocabulary, and their lives rise on the foundations of love, tenderness, and establishing connections with others. They accept people as they are. For them, different understandings, different interpretations, and different behaviors exist not for conflict, but to give an opportunity to put on display the breadth of their own thoughts and show the ways human beings can live humanely.

In this world, sermons breathe the Muhammadi spirit, conferences and panels interpret the existence from a Qur’anic perspective, and forums and debates give out a Messianic life force. Anyone who happens to attend such a sermon suddenly becomes in their spirit like a Companion of the Prophet. Anyone fortunate enough to attend such a conference and panel understands that everyone and everything must be embraced with love. Anyone who is able to attend such a forum feels all the unifying components of their conscience come to life and expand so much so that they can embrace all of existence with compassion.

When I close my eyes, I feel and think life has risen again like the sun: dawn is breaking with beauty everywhere; flowers in red, pink, and yellow are swaying with smiles; daisies are dancing, and the Judas trees are taking a flame from the tulips. I feel that the general mood of the society has matured with goodness of all sorts and it fills our hearts with grace and the promise of happiness. Our souls overflow with an eternal serenity as we sense a “resurrection” brimming with lambs bleating, birds chirping, trees swishing, water running, and leaves rustling. It is a resurrection as sweet as a mother’s excitement, as joyful as a child, as magical and effective as in the faces of loved ones, as satisfying, convincing, kind, and fine as in loving souls. In the midst of all this revival, I roam from one pleasure to another, and I free myself from the constrictions of the present time I live in and feel like throwing myself into this harmony of beauties. Even if I don’t, the signs of the colorful, warm, pleasant, and azure days of this happy future have already emerged and they pour into my soul through the inlets of my dreams – they become my own with promises more euphoric than I can imagine.

I and those who think alike have always taken special delight in exploring our expansive, colorful future just as we did with our glorious past. In that future of my dreams, everything talks with the language of their heart, every picture inspires ingenious feelings, every face, every word, and every spectacle awaken in us the most humane aspirations as generative as our faithful reveries. Then, we journey through such marvelous moments that our hidden ideas and private sensations for eternity are awakened reminiscent of our past. Whenever we set sail to this vast future brimming with “spirit and meaning,” all our dormant feelings in the depths of our souls are stimulated with excitement. This is such an unlimited joy in our limited lives.

We consider our current situation as in an intermediary abode on the way to this world of eternal beauties. We spend our time in this temporary abode as if we are passing over an abyss, jumping from one beauty to another and weaving a life between realities and dreams. No noise and dreadful silence are ever heard in our ideal world; in this world people are almost always lively within silence and silent in action. Here, thanks to new considerations that emerge each and every moment, the connections of our spirits are always strong, objectives always fresh, and everything we see and hear are as uplifting as a festival. Reflecting on death or the afterlife is like a warm kiss upon the heart, a mysterious message that stirs our longing for eternity latent somewhere deep in our soul, or a cupbearer serving us from the rivers of Paradise.

In the most nightmarish moments of others when they feel everything is fading away in tears as if in autumn, it is the best time for us, we live the most colorful, cherished, impressive, and pleasurable moments of our lives.

In this world of our dreams, every sound speaks a new beginning and our hearts become enthused with hope. Life in this world echoes with eternity and meaning so much so that we listen to every moment of the present time like a poem or song. Then, we feel our spirits expand even more, taking us across the sweetest dreams and instilling in us deep down a need for love and reunion. Our glorious past is the soundest material for this magical dream, and there are thousands of living testimonies of a dawn breaking everywhere.