The Islamic Message

Remembering Death

Talk on death. Most disturbing topic for me, something I never forget and certainly this remembrance of death keeps me away from wrong. Fear of Allah SWT and Remembrance of Death will always keep on the right path.

I felt that feeling of being close to death as I have seen someone dying in front of my eyes though I was small.

The mere thought of being in the same room with Malikul maut (angel of death) shakes me up. The angel came up to take the soul of that someone but it could be me anytime?

My teacher once made a dot on the board with a chalk and addressed the class, 'you see this dot? So small? This small is our life on this world! It will end in the blink of an eye. So beware of what you do here! As whatever you put here will be the result for you in the Akhirah.'

I can never forget her words and all that she taught us.

Here are the verses of the Qur'an and Ahadeths on remembering death.

Allah Almighty says, "Every self will taste death. You will be paid your wages in full on the Day of Rising. Anyone who is distanced from the Fire and admitted to the Garden, has triumphed. The life of this world is only the enjoyment of delusion," (3:185)

and the Almighty says, "No self knows what it will earn tomorrow and no self knows in what land it will die." (W31:33; H31:34)

The Almighty says, "When their specified time arrives, they cannot delay it for a single hour nor can they bring it forward," (16:61)

and the Almighty says, "O you who believe! Do not let your wealth or children divert you from the remembrance of Allah. Whoever does that is lost. Give from what We have provided for you before death comes to one of you and he says, 'O Lord, if only you would give me a little more time so that I can give sadaqa and be one of the righteous.' Allah will not give anyone more time, once their time has come. Allah is aware of everything you do." (63:9-11)

The Almighty says, "Until, when death comes to one of them, he says, 'My Lord, send me back again. so that perhaps I may act rightly regarding the things I failed to do!' No indeed! It is just words he utters. Before them there is an interspace until the day they are raised up. Then when the Trumpet is blown, that Day there will be no family ties between them, they will not be able to question one another. Those whose scales are heavy, they are the successful. Those whose scales are light, they are the losers of their selves, remaining in Hell timelessly, forever. The Fire will sear their faces making them grimace horribly in it, their lips drawn back from their teeth. 'Were My Signs not recited to you and did you not deny them?'" to His words, "'How many years did you tarry on the earth?' They will say, 'We tarried for a day or part of a day. Ask those able to count!' He will say, 'You only tarried for a little while if you did but know! Did you suppose that We created you for amusement and that you would not return to Us?'" (W23:100-116; H23:99-115)

The Almighty says, "Has the time not arrived for the hearts of those who believe to yield to the remembrance of Allah and to the Truth He has sent down, and not to be like those who were given the Book before for whom the time seemed over long so that their hearts became hard. Many of them are degenerate." (W57:15; H57:16)

Ibn 'Umar said, "The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, took me by the shoulder and said, 'Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveller on the road."

Ibn 'Umar used to say, "In the evening, do not anticipate the morning, and in the morning do not anticipate the evening. Take from your health for your illness and from your life for your death." [al-Bukhari]