A Compulsory Reminder

Death is mentioned in several verses in the Quran. In one verse (29:57), the Quran says: “Every soul shall taste death and then to Us you shall return.”

Death is a compulsory experience for every person. But what is death? One way to define death is that it is that which causes the total detachment of a person from the world that he has constructed from himself and in such a manner that it is not possible for him to ever return there. Consciousness of this fact is enough to completely shake a person out of his heedlessness. In just a moment death tears a person away from the world where he may have spent several decades!

Another way to describe death is that it is a compulsory reminder—a reminder to every person that his real or ultimate destination is not this world but some other place. Death reminds us that one day or the other we will be compulsorily ejected from this present world and then returned to our Creator, going back to the One who created us.

The Quran repeatedly reminds us of this event that is fated for each one of us and exhorts us to be aware of it. We should remember death so often that it can be said that our very thinking should become death-oriented thinking—in a positive way—so that being conscious of the inevitability and reality of our death, we can lead our life in a truly meaningful way, in accordance with God’s creation plan. Awareness of death should enable us to spend the pre-death period of our life in preparing for success in the post-death period of our life.