How often does death serves as a lesson for the living?
Written by ABU Jabir Abdullah Penabdul
I begin with the Name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
“Everyone shall taste death. And only on the Day of Resurrection shall you be paid your wages in full. And whoever is removed away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. The life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception (a deceiving thing).” Quran 3:185
At the time of death, everything vanishes and man’s onward journey to a permanent life becomes an irreversible stark reality that stares before him. It is at that moment that he comes to term with the quick-passing nature and the delusional appeal of the life of this world. The smallest window ever for man to see the fruit of his deeds (good or bad) just moments before his final departure from this life that has made him either mindful of his duties to Allah or has made him feel immortal and devilish.
Indeed, Allah, the Almighty, has humbled the children of Adam with death. Power, wealth and affluence are crippled in the presence of the Angel of death. However, for the believers, the knowledge of who Allah is (Tauheed-Oneness of Allah) comes to rescue. Seasons come and go and so does life and death. The gift box of life contains a well curated list of ups and downs, trials and tribulations, rises and falls, successes and failures and ultimately DEATH. Hence, no matter what, none will escape and cheat death. It hovers above every man and lurks around the corner to snatch the soul of man thereby separating him from his family and wealth.
In an awakening tone, the second Caliph (successor of Prophet of Islam ?), Umar bin Al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him) was quoted to have soberly said that everyday the news of the death of people comes to him and that surely a day will come when his own death will be announced. What a great way to remind oneself of the inevitable journey of the soul. It was narrated in the sunan of ibn Majah declared as Hasan (good) by Al-Albani (in Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud) that Hani’ the freed slave of ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan (May Allah be pleased with him) said: “When ‘Uthman bin ‘Affan stood beside a grave, he would weep until his beard became wet. It was said to him: ‘You remember Paradise and Hell, and you do not weep, but you weep for this?’ He said: ‘The Messenger of Allah (?) said: “The grave is the first stage of the Hereafter. Whoever is delivered from it, what comes after it is easier. If he is not delivered from it, then what comes after it is harder.’” He said that the Messenger of Allah (?) said: “I have never seen any horrible scene but the grave is more horrible.”
The living is expected to learn from the dead but alas, many are carried away by the deception of this fleeting life until they themselves become the dead. The biggest lesson to pay attention to is how death exposes the weakness and feebleness of man. Despite this, man can do anything to get the world even if it jeopardizes his hereafter. He becomes blind to death and enslaved by his lustful desires for power, money and influence.
Notably, history is full of examples of those that worked tirelessly for this world while neglecting their hereafter (by not sowing the seeds of righteousness) and died miserably having nothing to accompany them to their graves except their evil deeds. Conversely, history is equally adorned with the stories of great men who understood the true nature of this world and sought not to exalt themselves in it. Thus, they saw it as a passage and a field for sowing the seeds of righteousness with their gaze steadily fixed on the Hereafter. They were able to set their goals right hence, their competition was on righteousness and not in wealth, power and affluence.
Unfortunately, Man witnesses how the knowledgeable, the powerful and the wealthy are rendered incapable and motionless by death but he does not learn from that. Rather, he schemes and schemes on how to become more and more powerful, wealthier and influential thereby learning nothing from the death of others. Man ought to sit himself down in order to rearrange his thought pattern and to reflect on the things on his table and see whether they will be a burden on him on Judgement Day or they will ease his accountability in the Presence of Allah. Let him add and subtract and think of his last moments in this world. Whatever deed that one thinks will give him hope if it were to flash through his mind at the time of death, then let him start doing it now because it is worth doing and that which will not even make it to his mind because of its evil nature and irrelevance to the journey ahead, then let him drop it now while he is still alive.
May Allah grant us good ending and admit us to Jannatul Firdaus.
Abu Jabir Abdullah Penabdul
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