" Woe to us! Who has woken us from our sleep. This is just as the Most Merciful has promised, and the messengers have spoken the truth" ( 36:52 ), say the sleepers of this world when they are finally and forcibly removed from the poppy field of pleasure and forgetfulness. The newly awoken come to the realization that they were in fact accountable for every God-given breath, but they have squandered their entire lives foolishly or, worse still, spent them in malevolent deeds.

Breath is a Divine gift, and the tongue is the plane upon which the breezes of the breath blow. To speak , we need a tongue, lips, and breath. To remember God, we need a heart. We have been given all four and reminded by God in every Book of revelation that the reason we are created is to worship Him. In fact, everything in existence is initially created in a state of worship. However, because of their free will, humans can forget the reason for their existence. "And if you forget, remember," says the Qur'an.

- Hamza Yusuf