Age is just a number!

Is age just a number?

Is age really just a number?

Age is not just a number!

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. 

If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

 - Mark Twain

What really matters? 

Does age really matter?

Age is just a number connected to many things, among which include:

1. health
2. appearance
3. energy
4. attitude
5. habits
6. mind
7. zest for life

To gauge a person's presence on Earth, we ask for their age, which happens to be a positive numeral. Age just points to how long a person has existed on this Earth. The properties or attributes of that age # are the 7 which I have listed above.

We often forget about what age really implies. Age is a discreet number on a continuum of the age spectrum. 

As a numeral, age has either a positive, negative or a zero value. So there is negative age 100 (-100), negative age 50 (-50), negative age 20 (-20), negative age 10 (-10), age 0, age 10, age 20, age 50, age 100. Now the number pattern is clear.

What if I tell you that my age is negative 50 (-50) years? What comes to mind?

Age -50 years is a valid number, but seems unreal. Our human minds fail to imagine what age -50 years is really.

How can we explain age -50 years. Give it a try.

What about age -5 months? Where do you think we can find humans aged -5 months? Any hints?

What if I tell you that humans aged -5 months cannot exist by itself, but must exist within a female aged past 12?

By now you should realise that age is actually a relative number on a numerical scale.

0 to negative 9 months are when humans are being carried within other humans as they cannot survive on their own.

After 9 months come positive numbers - 1 day old, 1 week old, 1 month old, 1 year old, 10 years old, 100 years old.

Zero (0) means non existent (tak wujud/beum wujud/belum diwujudkan).

Zero (0) is hard to define and cannot be simply defined when it comes to humans aged zero (0).

What comes before zero (0)?

Negative numbers.

How can 2 numeral systems contain 2 sets of negative numbers, separated by only one zero (0)?

If we list this out, we get these number series:

1. -100000 years, -10000 years, -1000 years, -100 years, 10 years, - 1 year, 0.
2. -0, 1 second, -10 seconds, -60 seconds, -1 hour, -24 hours/-1 day, -10 days, -100 days, -3 months, -6 months, -9 months,
3.  1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years, 100 years.

If I asked you "What does 100 years old mean to you? How will you answer?

We have simplied the life number series into phases of human development, Thus, we get these:

1. Alam roh - zillions of years
2. Alam rahim - 9 months
3. Alam nyata - birth to demise

As humans, we cannot imagine or visualise what zillions of years actually means. We don't know the beginning of our mere existence. Our human minds cannot pinpoint where we were zillions of years ago. But the Quran tells us where we were then - at Loh Mahfuz ... a place where human spirits were/are gathered.

Then we grew in our mothers' wombs, sometimes as singletons, twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, etc. We have monitors to follow our lives in utero (in the womb).

Then we were born alive or dead (stillborn). We survive on Earth up to a certain age, and then we die. Death is real and everyone will experience death. Death has a sad, ugly and frightening connotation, while birth is always a happy occasion. We cry when we hear about a person's demise. We smile when we hear of someone's baby being born.

What happens after death?

How do we expand our number series to include time after death?

1. Alam Roh (Spirit World) - zillions of years
2. Alam Rahim (Womb World) - 9 months
3. Alam Nyata (Real World) - birth to demise
4. Alam Barzakh (Deceased World) - time after death till we are awaken again
5. Alam Akhirat (Eternal World) - eternal life; eternity

So there are 5 lifetime zones that each human lives through in his life as a mortal being. 

Alam barzakh is what happens to us when we are placed underground (dead and buried). The duration of this phase is long.

Alam Akhirat is after death, but comes after every life and living form are dead. This eternal life in the eternal world has no end. 

Now, as we wrap up the age quiz, "What is age?" How shall our answer be to the same question I asked before - What is age? How will you answer this question now that you know age is not an isolated number? Age is a number on a number continuum from nothing to something to nothing. Age is like a barcode and every human has his/her own barcode.

Let this idea sink in and come back to read this post several times over. 

The age game is not over yet until we know how to properly define age and its properties.