Class 1-Death

Class 1

‘Death’

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ

Life slips away second by second. Are you aware that every day brings you closer to death or that death is as close to you as it is to other people? As we are told in the verse

• ·        “Whatsoever is on it (the earth) will perish. And the Face of your Lord full of Majesty and Honour will remain forever” [al-Rahmaan 55:26-27]
• “Every soul shall taste death in the end; to Us shall you be brought back.” (Surat al-‘Ankabut: 57)

Brothers and sisters (may Allaah preserve us upon the Sunnah and grant us a good end…Aameen). Indeed death is a harsh and fearful reality faced by everyone who lives. No one has the power to avoid it, nor does anyone around the dying person have the ability to prevent it. It is something which happens every moment and is encountered by the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak. They are all the same in that they have no plan or means of escaping it, no power, no means of intercession, no way to prevent it, nor to delay it, which shows that indeed it comes from One having tremendous power-so that the human is helpless in this regard and can only submit to it. People die every day, but when someone close to us dies the shortness of this worldly life becomes a more manifest reality and less attention is given to the worldly aspirations. This is the way it should be whether someone dies or not, in order that we may make more effort in preparing for the meeting with our Lord. Let our gatherings be that of remembrance of Allaah and the aakhirah, ilm and advice towards that which increases the slaves in taqwah. The Messenger ﷺ said: ‘’Make much remembrance of the destroyer of pleasures, it is death. And let us not be deceived by this worldly life and its glitter”.

Brothers and sisters! There is no cure for death. A cure for cancer exists, a cure for AIDS exists and a cure for every other disease exists, except death. The Messenger of Allaah ﷺ said: ‘Allaah has not created a disease except that He has created a cure for it, except for a single disease… old age’

Narrated by Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) saying that the Prophet ﷺ said: “The life span of my followers are between sixty and seventy. Very few of them do exceeds this age. ” Reported by: Tirmizi

Are we prepared?

Yes to face our Lord after Death, we need to do good deeds and have good hope with Him while dying on Imaan. But that’s not it, Islam is complete and it has guidelines from Cradle to the Grave.

We are advised to keep our will ready while alive, we are advised on what to do while on our death bed and similarly there are recommendations for the family members who are taking care of the person on how to benefit the person on the death bed.

The mercy of Allah S.W.T. is seen when He revealed through the Prophet ﷺ that there are ways that a person can still benefit even after he is dead, that is by the good (knowledge, righteous offspring or material that people benefit from) he has left behind. Every one of us has someone from our families who has died, grandparents, relatives or their own parents. Islam teaches us to be strong and focus our energy towards benefitting them rather then breaking down and spoiling our own lives.

There are rulings in Islam as to how the body is to be washed, offered prayer upon and buried. There are clear guidelines on how to distribute the wealth the dead leaves behind.

And above all there are also deeds mentioned in the Sunnah that makes a person’s death good and easy. May Allah make it easy for us and give us a Good End while being on Imaan, one that He is pleased with!

So let us remember death often as the Prophet ﷺ advised to do and prepare for it by learning and educating our children on how to go about these matters in the way of the Sunnah. As we have seen in the present times Bidahs have prevailed in large numbers at each and every stage whether being on the death bed or after dying or in funeral processions or by innovating ways to benefit the deceased. It is mostly because of the lack of knowledge in these issues that people end up doing whatever they listen or feel like.

The Ummah is open to learning about Topics like Salah, Ramadan, Hajj and the likes but this is something people do not want to learn too much about. Psychologically they avoid it as they study the aforementioned topics when the season is arriving and they are to implement it. But some how we tend to avoid thinking of death thinking that we don’t need it whereas the Sunnah recommends that we think of Death frequently`. To conclude we do not want to have our last acts that we do or see others doing to be Bidah. Lets learn the Sunnah and enter or make others enter the next life while on Sunnah!

As Death is not the end, it is the beginning of the Eternal Life!

Link to Urdu Lecture by Shaikh Yasir Al-Jabri https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSE1jfFx9Jc&feature=youtu.be
Note: The Lecture can have more or less details from the that what is written here in English. The Tests will ONLY be from what is written here in English. The Lectures are provided to have give better understanding of the matter.