The Taste of Death

The Quran (3:185) says: “Every human being is bound to taste death.”

A human being lives in the ‘tastes of the world’, but, finally, the taste that is destined for him is the ‘taste’ of death. The taste of death is so bitter that it destroys all other tastes. The Prophet Muhammad has said: “Remember death much because it demolishes all desires.” (Sunan Ibn Majah 4258)

It has been observed that a human being is a pleasure-seeking being. He seeks pleasure in everything—in eating, sleeping, drinking and merry-making, in building a good house, securing a top position, wearing nice clothes and travelling in a luxurious vehicle, and so on.

In all such things a person derives pleasure, so much so that he sometimes gets completely lost in them. But if he seriously reflects on the fact that as soon as death strikes him all these things will be snatched away from him, his life can completely change.

Consider the case of a person who habitually derives malicious pleasure at the cost of others, an all-too-common phenomenon. He revels in demeaning others, because this gives his ego a big boost. He wrongly grabs things that belong to others, thinking that it shows that he is very clever. If such a person were to develop the conviction that the angel of death can arrive at any time and suddenly end his life and that then he would be brought before God to be accountable for his deeds, his life may be totally transformed. He may begin to live as if he has died to the world even before he actually dies.