The talking of my soul is limited to me, and then from time to time my soul wants to have a catharsis, an outpouring. My mouth lives in this world so it talks all the mundane ritualistic things, but my soul hidden away behind the shell of the body, quietly sifts through all the debris and makes sense out of all the words and sentences that come its way. My soul discerns that life is life because of contrasts and comparisons. Your mind tells the difference between things by contrasting it with something else or comparing it, and so it makes a judgment. I learn to feel happy because I see sadness, I feel the coolness of the shade because I feel the heat of the sun, I learn to thank Allah for all his blessings by seeing all those less fortunate than me, I learn fortitude because I see suffering, I learn to give because I see Allah bestow his bounty so magnanimously, I learn to see good in others because I meet the bad. So I learn about life from these comparisons and contrasts, from dark and light, true and false, good and bad, from pleasure and pain. And through all of this, my soul watches quietly and teaches me about life. It teaches me that the outer facade of my body which I look after with so much dedication is mortal, and time and age will wreak havoc with it no matter what. It teaches me to look after the true me, my soul, which yearns to be nurtured. It tries to teach me to truly know myself and to study my motives behind each action. What is it that propels me towards right or wrong? By its constant questioning I realise the smallness of my being, which leads me to the bigger realisation, my existence. The reason I was born was to bow before the one who created me and gave me this beautiful life, to see how I thank him, who is constantly glorified by all his creation. Thus the soul lives in the shell of our bodies and is the touch of the divine, the true and actual essence of a human being, the body being its protector, its guardian. But suddenly, the role in our minds has changed, and we protect and nurture the body and forget about the jewel that exists inside, the touch of the divine, our soul. For it to live in the body was a test, coming from the celestial heavens. But it obeyed the command decreed to it to stay until the time that Allah (SWT) set it free. It stayed with a hope of returning one day but somehow with the passage of time lost its identity and became known by the face, the body and the facade. We use these words very seldom and for a selected few that they are a good soul. Because seldom do you see a nurtured soul, more often, a well fed body. The writer can be reached at @saira.70@hotmail.com Published in Daily Times, January 12th 2017.