Islamic Reminders - 2

Reminder#243

◇بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم◇

Narrated by Anas bin Malik (May Allah be pleased with him),
The Messenger of Allah (صلی الله علیہ وسلم )
said, " Let not one of you wish for death because of a misfortune which befalls him. If he cannot help doing so, he should say: 'O Allah, keep me alive as long as You know that life is better for me, and make me die when death is better for me ".
[ Al-Bukhari & Muslim ]

At times, we experience great hardships, but no matter whatever we go through ,
It can't be worse than the hardships our Prophet(saw) and his companions went through & yet they were forbidden to wish for death.

Physical, emotional or financial problems, singly or combined can put us into that kind of short-sighted mode. We tend to forget that we have been told not to wish for death. We forget that with death, our troubles may not necessarily come to an end as we do not know what awaits us after it.

The throes of death are very hard, and the terror of seeing one's end draw nigh is immense. Man is faced with nothing else like it.

Imam Ghazali(r.a) explains the severity of the agony in these words:

"If there were was a thorn in one's side, the feeling of pain would be confined to a particular place because it hurts the living tissues at that point only. If, however, a part of one's body is branded with red hot iron or a piece of live charcoal is placed somewhere on it, causing a wound, the impact of the burn is felt all over the body. If a burn can cause such wide-spread sensation, what will the painful process of attrition of one's soul and extermination of life which ravages the body and mind, do, can be hardly imagined, much less described. There is not a single part or limb of the body which is not affected by the struggle between life and death during one's final moments. It is from each and every point that life is oozing out - including every little vein and sinew, every tiny hair and tissue, every pore and part of skin, causing the most excruciating pain. One had better not ask about the severity of the pain since it is indeed most agonizing. It is the reason that it is said that as compared to being hacked by the sword and split apart by a saw or cut to pieces by a pair of scissors, the parting of the soul from the body is far more dreadful and torturous."

Moreover, no one knows what awaits him after death. Wishing for death is seeking something which is unknown.
Perhaps if someone wishes for death because of some hardship that he has fallen into, he may end up like one who jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire, and after death he may find himself in an even worse situation. In that case, wishing for death is akin to seeking to hasten calamity before it happens.

~ May Allah(swt) make it easy for us to endure the throes of death and matters after the death and may He(swt) grant us all a good ending. ( Ameen )