Death: A Permanent Reminder

One who learns the reality about death will begin to remember death often. Realizing that the life prior to death was meant for action and the life after death was meant for receiving the consequences of his actions, he will start preparing for his Hereafter.

What is death? Death is the time and place for total helplessness to come face to face with Omnipotence. Before death, one who regarded himself as free, will after death, all of a sudden, learn that his freedom was not his own: this freedom was rather granted to him by another Being, God Almighty. Death all of a sudden will tell him that the life, prior to death, was meant for action and the life after death was meant for receiving the consequences of his actions.

Death is a gate through which man must pass and after passing through it, he has to hear the final judgement of the Creator of the Universe. No court exists in which he may appeal against this judgement.

Death means leaving one world for another world. In the previous world, one had received everything for the purpose of being put to the test. In the next world, whatever one will receive will be as a result of the test. Where, in the previous world, everything was given to him without his having deserved it, in the next world he will receive things only if he had made himself deserving of them.

According to a Hadith, the Prophet once observed: “Remember death much.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 4258) This means that death should become a permanent reminder for man. It is as if when someone were injured physically, he would feel the pain all the time, and if he felt the pain all the time that would become a permanent reminder of the mishap for the person.

Similarly, one who learns the reality about death will begin to remember it all the time. The remembrance of death will remind him of the Hereafter, and the remembrance of the Hereafter will remind him of all the things which are related to the life after death.