Death is Not an Accident

Once, a woman’s husband died in a road accident. While speaking with her I suggested that she view this event in the light of the following two verses of the Quran:

We shall certainly test you with fear and hunger, and loss of property, lives and crops. Give good news to those who endure with fortitude.  (2:155)

Every human being is bound to taste death: and you shall receive your rewards in full on the Day of Resurrection. He who is kept away from the Fire and is admitted to Paradise, will surely triumph; for the life of this world is nothing but an illusory enjoyment. (3:185)

According to these verses, death is a decision of God. Life comes into being through a decision of God, and death also happens in the same way.

The fact is that no death is really an ‘accident’. Death is a test. If death is viewed as an accident, it makes one feel sorrowful. On the other hand, if death is seen as a test, one is fired with a new determination. One will think, “Till now, I was being tested through life. But now my test will be conducted through death. I should see death as a test and should seek to pass this test successfully.”

Anyone’s death—be it as a result of an accident or illness—never happens at the wrong time. Every person who takes birth in this world is born for the purpose of being tested. For every person a certain examination period has been already determined. As soon as this period is over, the angel of death arrives and takes the person’s soul to the world of the Hereafter. The time for this to happen has been fixed by the Creator.

We need to be completely realistic with regard to the matter of death. We must accept it as an indisputable and unchangeable reality. We should make death a means to draw vital lessons for life, and not something to feel sorrowful about or regret. He who obtains true understanding of death becomes extremely serious. He will make his ‘tomorrow’ his goal, instead of his ‘today’. His life will become a Hereafter-oriented one in the complete sense.