Preparing For Death - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

When we start making a list, there seems to be very few left agreeable items. Most of the things that people are mentioned, they will always have two opinions, multiple opinions about anything and everything. It's about the taste, it's about what you think about it, etc.

But one of those things where you won't find absolutely any differing opinions is in the reality that this life will come to an end at its appointed time, and that we have to leave this world, this short-lived life will come to an end, and a never-ending life of the hereafter will begin. Not everyone agrees about the hereafter. They don't know what happens after death.

So again, you have varied opinions about the hereafter. But when it comes to dying and death, most definitely there's consensus amongst all people that that is a reality. Allah says:

Every soul shall taste death.

And then Allah says, you will only be given your reward in full on the day of judgment. The fact that إِنَّمَا has been used here, وَإِنَّمَا, only, you will only receive your full reward in the hereafter, lets us know that this world is too small of a place to be rewarded fully for our good actions. No matter how much a person may be appreciated or paid for, but if they're sincerely working for the sake of Allah, the entire world cannot repay that individual for their services.

There's a place called hereafter where Allah will be the one who's giving, and it is not possible for a human being to pay someone. You notice in some cultures, when you go to a bookstore to go purchase a مُصْحَفٌ, a copy of the Qur'an, they won't say what is the cost of that, right? You've seen that. They won't say what's the price of it.

Out of respect for the copy of the Qur'an, they will say, what is the هَدِيَّة for this? What is the gift for this? Because they have this embedded in their mind that even though this is a copy of the Qur'an and I'm paying not for the Qur'an, but for the paper and the ink and the binding, but how can I use the word price? That doesn't seem appropriate. So they will use the word هَدِيَّة or gift, that I can never even give you anything and thank you enough for this. You're giving me a gift, so I'm giving you a gift.

And what happens with gifts? Do gifts have to match? Actually, they shouldn't. That's supposed to be giving gifts based on matching, right? You're supposed to just give what comes to your heart. So you decided 20 is a proper gift, fine.

Although I know this doesn't, by any means, you cannot put a price tag on a مُصْحَفٌ. You cannot put a price tag on the Qur'an, but this is 20 dollars from my end. So there, of course, that's the أَدَب of it.

So if a person says, what's a هَدِيَّة? And he's like, you know, a thousand dollars, I don't think a person will then get it, right? He'll say, that's a bit too much gift that you're asking from me. But there's truth to that. The world here is not a place where a person cannot, this world is not large enough, vast enough, expansive enough for us to be fully paid for our good actions.

That place is آخِرَة.

Allah says, then whoever is saved from the hellfire and is granted entry into paradise, indeed, he has gained success.

And indeed, the worldly life is nothing but a means of deception.

Allah is saying that the worldly life around us, our daily schedule makes us forget things. It makes us forget آخِرَة, it makes us forget our death. Allah says:

That mutual competition in earning, gaining, usurping, or gathering material things of this world, أَلْهَاكُمُ has put you into غَفْلَة, into deception, into heedlessness.

This is the very dangerous situation. When the heart becomes heedless of Allah and the purpose in life, then anything can happen. غَفْلَة is what happens when you see pictures of an 18-wheeler crushing over a small four-door sedan and resulting in multiple fatalities.

A very bad scene. And you wonder what happens, and you hear that the truck driver on a long-haul drive, his eyes closed for a few seconds. In a matter of few seconds, four lives, five lives are gone.

And so much harm has been endured. How long did it take? It take a matter of two seconds, three seconds. All of us who've driven long road trips, you know how many times you've been hit.

Probably if you weren't fresh and you weren't ready and alert, you had a near, you know, hit. Barely missed, you know, barely hits, you know, you were about to hit something, and سُبْحَانَ اللهِ, you were allowed to miss it when your eyes woke up. It doesn't take too long.

That's with text messaging and other things as well. They say it's just a matter of a second where a person's eyes moves away from the road that can result in fatalities, casualties, and all sorts of things. So similarly, the heart is moving towards آخِرَة, and it's driving towards the آخِرَة.

Even for a moment, if there is heedlessness within the heart, and the heart gets attracted to something else, shaytan can make a pounce, shaytan can make an attack. Someone who's driving and is attracted to a billboard, attracted to a beautiful scenery, attracted to... They're driving on the beach on the sides of a beautiful scenic route, and they look down at the ocean below. That one, two seconds where they were attracted by the genuine beauty that lies there can become a means of ending their life.

So when a person's heart becomes distracted from the goal and purpose, and they start thinking about something else, it can very well happen that shaytan will make a pounce at that time, and there goes their spirituality. They'll end up slipping and falling and committing a major sin. So what is the thing that will help? Allah says:

How sad that the time of recompense has come very near for the people. The time of standing up in front of Allah for all of us has come very near. وَهُمْ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مُّعْرِضُونَ Yet they are in heedlessness, turning their faces away from the ultimate hereafter. No matter how many times today in this world we're seeing that the Muslim ummah is going through a crisis of every sort, of all sorts, a spiritual crisis, an emotional crisis, a physical crisis.

All levels we are being disturbed, humiliated, harassed, abused. And yet life moves on as usual for the ummah, for the vast majority of people. They haven't started crying and haven't shown remorse to Allah.

You read and you move forward. You hear about it and you move forward. And we get back to our news, we get back to our next appointment.

That's called غَفْلَة. That's called such a level of heedlessness almost like an intoxication. Where a person is being told that this is what's happening, you're being told there's a warning, there is a scorpion up ahead, there's a snake up ahead, there's a ditch up ahead.

And the person is, huh? And this moves on. That's what a drunkard does. That's what a drunkard does.

And this is exactly what we're seeing with the ummah. Allah is saying, the time for حِسَاب has come very near. How sad is it that the humans are still indulged and involved in غَفْلَة.

Question arises that, I wanna snap out of this غَفْلَة. I wanna snap out of this heedlessness. I don't wanna be sleeping on the wheel. I don't wanna be completely lost and lose touch of reality. I wanna be in, in the moment, living in the moment, realizing where I'm headed. What should I do? Well, we've learned from the hadith of the Prophet, in the statements of the righteous companions, that one of the best ways to keep, to awaken ourselves, the best caffeine shot you can take, right? The best method of waking yourself up is by remembering death.

By remembering death, by witnessing death, by seeing people who are passing away, attending janazahs, attending funerals, going to the graveyards. This is what shakes us up out of our غَفْلَة, our heedlessness. The Prophet has mentioned many beautiful virtues or benefits of this.

The Prophet, once someone asked him, he says:

The Sahabi Anas ibn Malik, he says, I came to the Prophet, or rather it was another companion, not Anas. He said, I came to the Prophet, and a person from the Ansar stood up and he said:

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3555)

Who is the one who has got the most fortitude? Who is the one who has got everything planned out the best? Who is the one that has got all his cards playing right for him? In our terminology. So the Prophet said:

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3555)

The one who remembers death the most excessively, and the one who prepares for death most excessively. Those are the true intelligent individuals.

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3555)

They have left this world or they're taking away from this world the best of both. They are taking the honor of this world and the honor of the hereafter. Lot of times we talk about playing a win-win game. We want to have success in this world and the next.

Who doesn't? It's as though I don't want that or you don't want that. People talk about, Brother, I want success in this world and the next. Find me one individual who doesn't.

Who wants to be a loser here? No one wants to be a loser. But we misunderstand that someone who is performing extra prayers or giving a lot of sacrifices, that he probably wants to have a difficult life over here. That's why he's doing that.

No, my friend. He actually wants to have a very happy life at home. He wants to actually have beautiful children, beautiful spouses, and have a very good environment at home, relationship with spouse, etc.

And that's why he realizes that happiness comes from obedience to Allah. Happiness doesn't come by some scumming to one's passions and lustful desires. So he constantly or she constantly puts their foot down on their نَفْس and says, I am going to do what is pleasing to Allah.

So the Prophet say, The most intelligent ones are those who remember death the most and prepare for death the most and then because of this Allah will honor them in this world and in the next. Allah will honor them in this world and the next. The Prophet in another hadith he said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4260)

Whoever remembers death excessively, Allah will honor him with three things. This is a very important, beautiful hadith here. Whoever remembers death, Allah will honor him with three things. Number one, and the flip side of it:

(Statement of scholars)

Whoever forgets the remembrance of death will be punished with three things as well. What is that? So this is actually the statement of some of the scholars, not a hadith of the Prophet. Number one, it says is that:

Allah will gift that person with the ability to repent early on. Instead of waiting for the day when we're gonna repent, and then unfortunately not getting that chance. That's horrible.

So the one who remembers death every day excessively, he or she will be blessed with the ability to repent quickly. Number two:

Allah will make him or her content in their heart, and they'll be content in whatever Allah has given them. They will not be constantly counting other people's money. They will not constantly be counting other people's home square footage, and bathrooms, and landscaping. Whatever level they have, whether it's an apartment, a condo, a duplex, a luxury home, they will be saying, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, I hope, I'm very happy what Allah has given me here, and I'm expecting and hoping for a much beautiful place in آخِرَة. Instead of looking what the neighbor has, instead of looking what cousins and relatives have, he or she is gifted with قَنَاعَةُ الْقَلْبِ contentment of the heart.

And number three:

They will be granted and gifted the ability to be excited, and interested, and energetic when it comes to worshipping Allah. Performing prayers and worshipping Allah will not become a burden. Instead it will become something that they enjoy, that they will always have energy for.

We have to ask ourselves truthfully, if we were told to do something, to go for a night out of eating, or dinner, or playing basketball, or watching basketball, a person may be tired, but he will say, okay, no problem, I'll make some time, two hours, three hours, one and a half hour. But the same person, if we were to say, how about today after صَلَاةُ الْعِشَاءِ, why don't we just pray four رَكْعَة extra نَافِل صَلَاة, and make دُعَاء to Allah for the condition of the world, and your own self. Or we say, how about we make قَضَاء of four رَكْعَة ظُهْر, that you may have missed sometime in your past life.

Four رَكْعَة عِشَاء that you may have missed. How about before you go to bed, let's pray four رَكْعَة صَلَاة. We realize that sometimes it feels like a mountain, you're being told to lift a mountain, although it will only take us four minutes to do so.

And beyond that, if a person were to be asked to go out to eat, or to do something else, entertainment, we've got all the time. Our sleep can be sacrificed, our tiredness can be sacrificed, we will make it happen. So that's called, كَسَل فِي الْعِبَادَةِ That's called, إِذَا قَامُوا إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ يَقُومُونَ كُسَالَى Like the hypocrites, Allah says, when they stand up to prayer, they stand up very lazily, uninterested.

They're doing it because they have to do it, they don't want to do it. But if a person remembers death, abundantly Allah will reward him with نَشَاط فِي الْعِبَادَةِ That a person will be interested, and will feel excitement, and will feel energetic in عِبَادَة. The flip side of it, وَمَنْ نَسِيَ الْمَوْتَ عُقِبَ بِثَلَاثَةِ أَشْيَاءٍ The one who forgets the remembrance of death will be punished with three things.

Number one:

They will continue to delay their تَوْبَة. Continue to delay their تَوْبَة. Number two:

They will not be happy with just whatever Allah has given them. Always a desire for more, greed. And number three:

They will become lazy in their worship. So those are bad enough punishments that a person doesn't feel like repenting. A person doesn't want to pray. A person is always looking and counting what others have and never happy what they have. This is a direct punishment of not remembering death.

Safiyyah She says:

A lady came to Aisha, our mother, and complained to her of the hardness of her heart. So she told her, a person recites Quran doesn't cry. A person listens to a talk doesn't take effect. A person sits in a gathering of ذِكْر and عِلْم, and he feels like I need to run from here. Why is this happening? So she told her:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4261)

She told her, Remember death excessively and you will find that your heart will soften up. Remember death a lot and you will find that your heart will soften up.

So we hear from Aisha, from the Prophet and from other scholars as well, that one of the beautiful benefits of remembering death is that a person's heart will become soft and they will be encouraged and inclined to be remembering Allah and turning to Allah. Once the Prophet, he mentioned that at the time of death, he says:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2675)

At the time of death himself, he was going through the difficulty of death, and he was sweating, and he had a very bad headache. And so he said, Indeed death has its pangs, has its difficulties.

And the Prophet instructed us to seek refuge in Allah from the difficulty at the time of death.

We are taught to ask Allah to put blessing in my death, make my death blessed, and the stages of after death blessed. And O Allah make it easy for me when my رُوح and soul leaves this world.

This is something that Nabi had to go through my brothers and sisters. When we see about Sa'ad ibn Ma'adh, we hear about him in a hadith. A great great صَحَابِي, the leader of the Ansar.

And when Nabi, he says that when he was in attending his جَنَازَة, he was walking on his tippy toes. And someone, he himself said, the reason I was walking on my tippy toes because there were so many angels present in this gathering, that there was no space for me to walk. So he was walking on his tippy toes.

And the Prophet said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1633)

The throne of Allah shook at the death of Sa'ad. Yet also that Rasulullah said that when Sa'ad was lowered into the grave, the grave did constrict upon him.

The grave did constrict, بِغَطَّة. The scholars explained this in various meanings. Some have said that this was that constriction like a mother hugging her child. And so that the grave did that, excited to receive him. And others have given the fact that this is a standard procedure. When a person goes for surgery, when a person goes for an injection, that no matter how righteous, how pious you are, it doesn't make a difference.

The pain is gonna be there when they put the needle in. That is just part of what the system of Allah is. That when a person is lowered in the grave, that's one of the first things that happen, that the earth closes up upon the person.

This is called the بِغَطَّةُ الْقَبْرِ, the pressing of the grave. So when Sa'ad, the Prophet is saying, isn't safe from that. Where do I stand? Where do you stand? The one who the عَرْش of Allah shook at his death.

My brothers and sisters, we have to constantly be reminding ourselves when we hear the جَنَازَة news every single day. Yesterday we were at a جَنَازَة and a brother met me there. He said, I'm just coming late.

He barely made it. From where? From another جَنَازَة. From another جَنَازَة, in two masjids. One over here, one over there, 15 minutes apart. That's where we are. Every single day we're seeing جَنَازَات leaving.

And this is an opportunity for us to reflect. At that time as we lower that person to the grave, it's over. They cannot turn back and simply attend one جُمُعَة صَلَاة.

Imagine every person in the grave today, how many of them would wish that they could come half hour early before the صَلَاة begins and sit in front row and get the reward of sacrificing a goat, of sacrificing a camel for the sake of Allah. How many of them would say, وَالله, if I got one opportunity, I would leave work. I'm coming for جُمُعَة anyway.

I would leave work a little bit earlier to be able to sit in front and do ذِكْر and listen to the talk so that I could get the reward today of صَدَقَة. But it's over. Even if they want to come sit at the shoes, they can't today.

If a person today say that today is Friday, I wish I could say صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ once, so that Allah would elevate my status in paradise by 10 levels, and that Allah could bless me 10 times, and Allah would forgive my sins 10 times by saying once صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ. How many of them would wish that they could come today on Friday? يَا اللَّهُ

Allah says, He will say, رَبِّ ارْجِعُون, allow me to go back to this world so that I may do good deeds, يَا اللَّهُ.

Please, I will make sure that this will never happen again. Allow me one more chance. لَعَلِّي أَعْمَلُ صَالِحًا so that I may be able to do good deeds.

Spend just one جُمُعَة, one Friday in the masjid, reciting سُورَة الْكَهْف, reciting سُورَة يَس, reciting سُورَة الصَّافَّات, sitting with my تَسْبِيح in a corner and reciting a thousand times, لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ, a thousand times صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, and then I go right back into the grave. I'm not gonna even go visit my wife, not gonna go visit my kids. I want nothing, just an opportunity from the grave to sit in the masjid and right back to the graveyard.

I swear every one of them, if they were given an opportunity, they would most definitely do so. But they are not. It's too late.

The answer is كَلَّا. Never again you will be given this opportunity. You had your place.

Allah says, did I not give you a long enough life for you to have reflected? And did not enough warnings come to you? The warnings of a white beard, the warnings of arthritis pain, the warnings of getting up in the night to go to the bathroom, the warnings of seeing people in front of you passing away, the warnings of old age all around you. These are warning signs that came from Allah. Death didn't come suddenly.

Instead Nabi, he even sought refuge in Allah from sudden death. اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّا نَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ مَوْتِ الْفُجَاءَةِ. O Allah, we seek protection in you from sudden death because it doesn't allow a person to prepare.

But in reality, my brothers and sisters, there's nothing sudden about it. If you look at one aspect of it. Because we know we have to go.

Like we started off the talk today, that there's one aspect of our life that everyone agrees upon. That whoever came into this world, most definitely must leave. That's why Nabi said, that Jibreel told him the following words, beautiful words.

He said:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2333)

Live as long as you wish. But remember, you're gonna die one day. And love whoever you wish. Because one day you shall have to leave them. And do as you like, as much as you like. Because you will definitely be punished or rewarded for that.

And this is a message for all of us. That love who you wish. Live as long as you wish. Do as you wish. But it all will definitely come to an end. The relationships will come to an end. Life will come to an end. Actions will come to an end.

That the honor of a believer is in the قِيَامُ اللَّيْلِ is standing up at night. And his dignity is in اسْتِغْنَاؤُهُ مِنْ النَّاسِ From keeping his hands away from people. From never extending his hands in front of people. This is where the honor lies of a believer.

So we are asked to remember those who passed away. Send دُعَاء for them on this blessed Friday. Whatever Quran you're reciting, whatever دُعَاء you're doing, remember your parents, your grandparents, your elders, and all of those from the ummah who have passed away.

And if we remember them, hopefully when we leave this world, people will remember us as well. Visit the graveyards as much as we can. Attend the جَنَازَة صَلَاة.

Attend the burial process as well. If possible, partake in washing of a body. Listen and speak about death as often as we can.

And not just speak about it. As we said, اسْتِعْدَاد Prepare for it as well. I pray to Almighty Allah that He softens our hearts.

That He allows us to tear up out of His love and out of His fear. I ask Allah that He allows us, our children, our spouses, our extended families, our friends to remember our own death time and again on a daily basis. And that He removes this غَفْلَة and this heedlessness from our lives so that we repent quickly before the day comes when it's too late to repent.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَٰذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ