The Reality of Death - Shaykh Hafeezullah Khan

The Reality of Death

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, we all know that our time of death is fixed. Each and every one of us will face death. As Allah says:

Every soul shall taste death, then to Us you will be returned.

This means that we will all die. But there are some people who are blessed with a death in a manner that is a thousand times better than this worldly life, which we can't even imagine. These are the people that when their death comes, the angels give them glad tidings of Jannah before their death.

And the angel of death says to them, before taking their soul, that don't fear, because Allah's pleasure and His forgiveness and His paradise are waiting for you. As Allah says in Surah Fussilat:

Those who say our Lord is Allah alone and then they stand firm on their iman in every situation in their life, the angels will descend on them saying at the time of their death: you don't need to have fear, you don't need to have grief. We have brought for you the glad tidings of Jannah, which you have been promised from Allah and His messenger in this world.

These are the people, brothers, who will get a good ending when they die.

Signs of a Good Ending

Among the signs of such people is, as Prophet Muhammad ﷺ says in a hadith from Musnad Ahmad:

(Musnad Ahmad)

If Allah wants good for a servant, He will use him before his death. The companions asked, "O Messenger of Allah, how can He use him?" He said, "He will enable him to do good deeds." When Allah wants goodness for a person, He uses him before his death — He blesses him with the ability to do good deeds before his final moments and then his soul is taken.

Likewise, in a hadith from Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said about such pious people that in their last moments, death becomes more beloved to them than their life. And the desire to meet Allah overcomes them. As the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6507; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2683)

He who likes to meet with Allah, Allah too likes to meet with him. And those who don't desire to meet with Allah, Allah does not like to meet with them either.

After hearing this hadith, Aisha رضي الله عنها asked the Prophet ﷺ: "No doubt everyone dislikes death, so how is this?" The Prophet ﷺ replied that this is not what is meant. When death comes to a mu'min, he is given the good news of Allah's pleasure and his high rank, and then nothing is more beloved to that person than the desire of meeting Allah. And when a disbeliever faces death, the angels give him news of Allah's punishment, and so the most undesirable thing to him is his death — he does not want to meet with Allah and Allah too does not like to meet with him.

This is why in another hadith from Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that when the funeral is ready for burial and people lift it on their shoulders, if the soul was pious, it will say, "Take me quickly, take me quickly," because the angels will have already given him the good news of Jannah. And if it was someone sinful, it will say, "Oh my destruction, where are you taking me?" — because he already knows his final destination, except the human beings around him.

And for such pious people, their last moment will end with the shahada on their tongues. As the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said in a hadith from Abu Dawood:

(Sunan Abu Dawood, Hadith 3116)

One whose last word will be لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ, he will enter Jannah.

Another sign of a good ending, mentioned in a hadith from Tirmidhi, is that Allah will save those people from the punishment of the grave whose death comes on the night of Friday or the day of Friday.

And there is another sign: that they will die as martyrs. As the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said in a hadith from Tirmidhi:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1421)

Those who die while defending his wealth, his deen, his life, and his family, will be considered a martyr.

Reflections on the New Zealand Tragedy

Dear brothers and sisters, we saw last week the tragic incident that took place in New Zealand. And we hope from Allah that these brothers and sisters who were killed by a terrorist in that tragedy will be considered as those who had a good ending at the time of their death. Because Allah blessed them with death as martyrs on the best day of Friday, and in the blessed place in the sight of Allah — inside a masjid and in a state of worshipping. SubhanAllah. No doubt, these were the people whom the angels will have given good news of Jannah before their death. Indeed, they have been killed in a very brutal way. But we should know that Allah will forgive them before their first drop of blood hit the ground.

Dear brothers and sisters, this incident reminds us that we should always be prepared to face death, and our preparation should be such that our death comes as a good ending of our life. And we should always remember that Allah said:

Your death should not come upon you except in a state of Islam.

And that can only be when we spend every moment of our life pleasing Allah and always make this du'a:

O You who turns the hearts, make our hearts steadfast upon Your deen.

Dear brothers and sisters, yes, these martyrs will have a high rank in the sight of Allah, and they will be enjoying the pleasure of Jannah now. But as Muslims, we need to bear in mind some points related to this incident and this situation.

Point One: Truth and Falsehood Are Always in Conflict

We have to remember that there has always been a conflict between truth and falsehood, and this will remain till the Last Day. The Shaitan has committed not to let the children of Adam live peacefully in this world. And the followers of the truth are constantly facing different kinds of problems and trials. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions faced such Islamophobia while they were in Makkah for the whole ten years, and also in Madinah as well. So we need to be steadfast in our deen in this situation. And we have to remain attached to our masajid.

We also need to know that whatever Allah has decreed for us, it will happen. As Allah says in Surah At-Tawbah, ayah 51:

Say: Nothing will befall us except what Allah has decreed for us. He is our protector. Let the believers then put all their trust in Allah alone.

We have to remember that whatever we face is from Allah and it is for our good. And sometimes such tragedies are a lesson for us, and they happen to reform us so that we change ourselves. So no doubt, such an incident as happened in New Zealand is sad and painful for the relatives and for us all — but it also has some positive aspects for Islam and Muslims.

As you have seen after this incident, in New Zealand the whole communities of all faiths have come forward in support of Muslims to show their solidarity. Did you ever imagine that non-Muslims would come to protect your mosques while we are praying inside? And it's happening now in New Zealand. And did you ever imagine that a parliament session in a non-Muslim country would start with the recitation of the Qur'an? And it's happening in New Zealand. Did you ever think that the Adhan would be broadcast on the TV and radio for Jumu'ah prayer across the whole country? And this has happened. And the Friday sermon has been broadcast worldwide. The Prime Minister herself was present at this sermon. And the non-Muslim women of the country wore headscarves to show their solidarity with the Muslim women. No doubt, the Prime Minister of New Zealand has emerged as a mother of humanity after this incident. And we are grateful for everything she has done and the role she played after this incident. And we are also grateful to the whole community of New Zealand.

Dear brothers and sisters, this shows how Allah brings out goodness from even a very sad and evil tragedy.

Point Two: Such Incidents Are a Test — We Must Change Ourselves

Such incidents are also a test from Allah for us so that we learn from them and change ourselves for the better. As Allah says in Surah Al-Anbiya:

And We test you with evil and good as a trial.

So at this moment, we should think: we are the followers of a deen that has been chosen by Allah for us. Allah has made us the best of nations. Our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the most beloved to Allah. The holy book, the Qur'an that we have, is the last message from Allah for all of mankind. And we have been made as witnesses over all communities. But still, after these qualities, there is hatred being spread everywhere against us. Why are we not getting the help of Allah in these situations?

Dear brothers and sisters, Allah has replied to this in the Qur'an, saying: if you help the deen of Allah, then Allah will surely help you. But if we look at ourselves today — our iman and our actions — we see that rather than helping the deen, we are doing everything that damages the deen.

For example, the nations before us were blessed with many bounties of Allah. They had the guidance of Islam and a whole load of favours of Allah, but they did not appreciate this. They became ungrateful instead of appreciating these blessings. They did not value them. So Allah humiliated them and says:

If you give thanks, I will certainly grant you more. But if you are ungrateful for My favours, My punishment is terrible.

Dear brothers and sisters, it is clear that just as the previous nations faced the wrath and anger of Allah because they were ungrateful, so too we have become ungrateful — and therefore we are deprived of Allah's help now.

It is true that Allah has blessed us with this deen, the deen of tawhid. He is the All-Powerful, the Protector, the Total Provider. He is the only one who makes us respected and the one who degrades us. He is the only one who listens to the du'a of the worried. He is the only one who overcomes our problems. But sadly, we have forgotten our Lord, Allah. And instead, we associate His attributes with those other than Allah from among His creation. And we seek help from those who have passed away.

The situation now is that the Quraysh of Makkah had only one Laat and one Manat at that time. But today, we find laats and manats everywhere in our society. If we tally our iman and our actions against the standard, we will see that today we have even gone far worse in doing shirk. And when we talk about shirk and tawhid, people often say that we are causing friction in the community. Dear brothers, remember that Allah has made the Muslims respectable only because of this deen. And today, rather than gaining respect through our deen, we try to reach it through worldly sources. And that is why we have been humiliated and degraded.

Likewise, Allah has done a great favour upon us by sending Muhammad ﷺ as a messenger among us and making him a role model for us. It means that whatever we do should be according to his teachings, according to his Sunnah. But today, we see that instead of Sunnah, there is a rise in acts of bid'ah among our society. There are some groups who openly deny the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. And some people, even after knowing the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and the authentic ahadith, go against it and give preference to other sayings and other actions over the Sunnah and the ahadith of the Prophet ﷺ. So in this situation, can we expect the help of Allah? And how can we be saved from His anger?

And the other reason why we are not getting the help of Allah is because we have forgotten our obligations — the duty due to which Allah made us the best of all nations. As Allah says:

You are the best nation that has ever been raised for mankind — because you call others to good and forbid them from evil.

Calling towards good and abstaining from evil is the duty of each and every Muslim, and especially the head of each household — because he will be asked about his family on the Day of Judgment. Today, we have forgotten this responsibility. And as a result, our new generations have gone astray.

What can be worse than the fact that our young Muslims are filling up the prisons rather than filling the masajid? And through their criminal activities and other evil acts, they are creating hatred for Muslims in society. It is a reality that where Muslims are in the majority, those areas are among the highest rated for crimes, drugs, shootings, and theft — and this is highlighted daily in the media. And where these youngsters are to blame, their parents are equally to blame. They gave birth to them but then forgot their responsibilities and left them in the hands of society — without teaching them anything about the deen or about good manners. Such children have become a bad name for us and for Islam as well. And we need to remember that Allah will not only question these youngsters, but their parents too, because they were responsible for them. As Allah says:

O you who believe, save yourself and your family from the fire of Hell.

Responding Wisely in the Face of Islamophobia

Dear brothers and sisters, we are living in an era of social media. And through social media, the tragedy that took place in New Zealand has given strength to the anti-Islam groups and raised their morale. As we have seen, some mosques in Birmingham were attacked in the last hours of the night as a hate crime. This shows that Islamophobia is on the rise.

Anyhow, in these situations, we have to safeguard ourselves and refrain from any emotional reactions — whether it is physical action or even emotional public statements. We need to remain within the laws of the land. Otherwise, we will be helping the anti-Islam groups in achieving their goals. So it is important to be patient and vigilant.

But being patient doesn't mean that we sit and do nothing about it without showing any sort of reaction. As citizens, it is our basic right that we stand together and pressurise the authorities to take action and to provide us and our mosques the security and protection that we need. And we need to pressurise the authorities to take notice of social media, print media, and TV who spread false and provoking news and cause friction within communities — and especially those targeting the Muslim communities.

And we also need to prove that those who are working to spread hatred and divide communities on the basis of hate will never succeed. Alhamdulillah, even here, diverse communities are coming together against any kind of extremism and Islamophobia. So we have to be tolerant and deal with the situation without linking it to any religion or religious groups.

Spreading Peace — The Example of the Prophet ﷺ

And if we want to defeat those who spread hate — not only in this situation, but always — we all, especially our youngsters, need to come forward and together spread peace and harmony in society. Because Islam is a religion of peace. When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came to Madinah, his first statement was about how to serve humanity. At that time, there were also mushrikeen, Jews, Christians, and other people living in Madinah alongside the Muslims. And with this in mind, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2485; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1334)

O people, spread peace wherever you are. Feed the hungry — Muslim or non-Muslim — feed the hungry, and maintain kinship. And when people go to sleep at night, worship your Lord, so you will enter Jannah with ease.

These are the etiquettes of living in a diverse society, as mentioned in the Qur'an and Sunnah. So we need to follow these etiquettes and present a good example to others with our actions and good manners. And through such actions, we can convey our message and people will be ready to listen. But this is not limited to situations like this — we can do such things throughout our life.