DEATH—PREPARATION FOR DEATH (I)

The following information has been borrowed from the booklet, Safar-i-âkhirat, by Sayyid Abdulhakîm bin Mustafa Arwâsî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih.’ The booklet has not been printed.

Discreet men and women who have îmân and who have reached the age of puberty are termed mukallaf. It is sunna for those who are mukallaf to remember death very often. For, remembering death very frequently causes one to hold fast to the commandments and to avoid the prohibitions. It discourages against commiting harâms. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “Remember death very often; it ruins tastes and terminates amusements!” Some men of tasawwuf made it a habit to remember death once daily. Muhammad Bahâuddîn-i Bukhârî ‘quddisa sirruh’ would imagine himself dead and interred twenty times daily.

To die does not mean to cease to exist. It is an event that does not annihilate existence. Death is the termination of the soul’s attachment to the body. It is an act of the soul leaving the body. Death is a matter of man’s changing from one state into another. It is to migrate from one home to another. ’Umar bin ’Abd-ul’Azîz ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ said: “You have been created only for eternity, for endlesness. Only, you will migrate from one home to another!” Death is a blessing, a gift for the Believer. It is a disaster for the sinful. It is relief for the poor, and a catastrophe for the rich. Wisdom is a gift endowed by Allâhu ta’âlâ. Ignorance is the cause of straying from the right way. Cruelty is man’s ugly aspect. Worship brings good humour, joy, and a sacred light to the eyes. Weeping with fear of Allah polishes the heart. Laughter dopes the heart with venom. Man does not wish death. Yet, in fact, death is more useful than fitna. Man likes to live. Yet, in fact, death is better for him. With death the true Believer gets disentangled from the torment and exertion of this world. With the death of the cruel, countries and peoples attain relief. It will be pertinent to quote an old couplet of poetry, which was inspired by the death of a cruel enemy of the religion:

Neither he had comfort, nor did people see peace with him.

He’s at last tumbled down; patience, o thou, who’re there with him!