to believe in Allah, the Lord of all that exists

in His Angels

in His Books

in His Messengers

in Judgment Day

And in Divine Decree, good or bad

Death is a Divinely created process through which every slave of Allah will pass in order to reach the Akhira (Hereafter):

Allah says: We have decreed death to be your common lot. (Qur'an: 56: 60)

There's no escape from death. Each and everyone of us will meet death, rich or poor, strong or weak, believer or non believer, healthy or sick, none are exempted. And no matter how much you love your children or your wife or your parents or your friends, you will never be able to prevent it from happening to those you love, nor would you be able to share in the dying person's death throes. Death is a personal experience and each will feel it in a way that's known only to the Creator of death.

Qur'an is replete with verses warning mankind about the reality of death. Allah the Exalted says in the Qur'an: Every soul shall have a taste of death: in the end to Us shall you be brought back. (Qur'an: 29:57)

Again: Every soul shall have a taste of death and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial…To us must ye return. (Qur'an::21: 35)

No matter what precautions one takes one is never secure from death: Wherever you are death will find you even if you are in towers built strong and high. (Qur'an: 4:78)

Qur'an continually exhorts man to study nature and the cycle of life: Then contemplate (O man!) the memorials of Allah's mercy! How He gives life to earth after it's death. Verily the Same will give life to the men who are dead for He has power over all things. (Qur'an: 30 50)

Man has absolutely no control whatsoever over the hour of his death nor was he consulted about his own creation nor does he know of what will happen to him tomorrow or in what land he will die.

It is He who gives life and death and to Him (is due) the alternation of day and night. Will you not understand? (Qur'an:23: 80)

About those who forget about their own mortality and make evil and injustice their life's greatest achievements, the Lord has this to say: (In falsehood will they be) until when death comes to one of them and he says: O my Lord! take me back (to life). (Qur'an: 23: 99)

The pagan Arabs did not wish to believe in a life after death for they believed that once they expired they would just simply blow away, turn to dust and not be raised for questioning:  They say: 'What! when we are reduced to bones and dust should we be raised up (to be) a new creation?' (Qur'an:17:49)

To which Allah replies: "And he makes comparisons for Us and forgets his own creation: he says: 'who can give life to dry bones and decomposed ones at that?' (Qur'an: 36:78)

"Say, He will give them life who created them in the first time, for He is well versed in every kind of creation." (Qur'an:36:79)

Grim as it is death is a reality that needs our constant attention. Upon being asked as to who was the wisest and most prudent of men: The Prophet of Islam replied: He who keeps death frequently in his remembrance, and remains ever engaged in preparations for meeting his death; it is such people indeed who are granted honor in this life and who will be honored in Akhira."

The Prophet of Islam described death as the "cutter off of pleasure:"  "Remember often the cutter off of pleasure, which is death." 

His life on earth was merely that of a traveler:

"Be in the world like a traveler and count yourself among the dead." 

 
Like all the Messengers and Prophets that went before him, Prophet Muhammad's greatest concern in life was preparing for the hereafter:

"This life is but a tillage for the next, do good that you may reap there; for striving is the ordinance of God and whatever God hath ordained can only be attained by striving."

"The world is sweet in the heart", he warned the people, "'and green to the eye; and verily God hath brought you, after those that went before you: then look to your actions, and abstain from the world and its wickedness." 

The Prophet of Islam also said: "The things I fear most for my Ummah (nation) are too much of worldly desires and expectations regarding the distant future; for desires lead one away from Truth and expectations about distant future makes one forgetful of Akhira..."

The good news is that life and death are solely in the Hands of God so the believer is never overly distressed by the eventuality of death. He is quickly resigned to it and accepts his Lord's decree for when a tragedy strikes a believer never wonders: Why me?' nor does he say: "If I had done this or that this would not have happened, etc."

He merely accepts it with patience by reaffirming his faith and trust in the Supreme Lord of Heaven and Earth: "Verily from Allah we come and to Him we return."

According to the Prophet Muhammad: "The Faithful do not die; perhaps they become translated from this perishable world to the world of eternal existences."

Three days before his death,  the Prophet told his companions: "Not one of you must die but with resignation to the will of God, and with hope for his beneficence and pardon."

How should the living treat the dead? The following tradition sheds some light on how the Prophet treated the dead:
"And behold! a bier passed by Muhammad, and he stood up; and it was said to him, "This is the bier of a Jew." He said, "Was it not the holder of a soul, from which we should take example and fear?"
Do not speak ill of the dead. When the bier of anyone passeth by thee, whether Jew, Christian, or Muslim, rise to thy feet."
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Yea, when the (soul) reaches to the collar bone (in its exit)
And there will be a cry, "Who is a magician (to restore him)?"
And he will conclude then that it was (the time) of parting
And one leg will be joined with one another:
That day the Drive will be (all) to thy Lord.
(Qur'an: 75: 26-30)
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Please Note.:
The Quotations from the Qur'an are the uncreated Word of God and are different from the sayings related from the Prophet of Islam.
Qur'an: is the Word of God revealed to Muhammad via the Angel Gebriel.
The sayings or traditions of the Prophets:  are the sayings and life transactions of the Prophet of Islam  (not the Word of God).
This is for those who do not know the difference between the Qur'an and the Hadith.
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Copyright: Safi Abdi (2004)