Period for Preparation
If you check the word ‘death’ in a dictionary, you might find that it is defined as ‘the permanent cessation of life’.
This dictionary meaning of death presents a negative picture of death. It suggests that a human being was born as a complete being but after living a short time here, he has been extinguished forever. With his death, all his desires, hopes and abilities have completely disappeared, and in such a way that they can never come back.
In contrast to this, Islam presents a positive concept of death. According to Islam, death is not the end of life. Rather, it marks the beginning of a second phase of human life.
Man was created as an eternal being. Then, his lifespan was divided into two parts—the pre-death period, and the post-death period. The former is the period for sowing the seeds of actions. The latter is the period for reaping the results of one’s actions. All this is part of God’s creation plan.
In line with this creation plan, we should regard the pre-death period of our life as the preparatory period. We should spend it in preparing ourselves for the eternal life that follows death by leading a God-oriented life. This phase of life is the only one we have to engage in this preparation, because in the post-death phase of life there will be no actions but only the reaping of the results of one’s previous actions. The event of death is a message to us to focus on preparing ourselves for the eternal life after death. In this regard, we should do what we need to today itself and not leave it for tomorrow. For, who knows if we will be alive then?
