Towards the Most Noble Companion

The Quran (66:11) says that when the king of ancient Egypt issued an order to kill his wife, Asiya, who was a believer, she prayed to God thus: 

My Lord, build me a house in nearness to You in Paradise and save me from Pharaoh and his misdeeds. Save me from all evildoers.

These are the words of prayer of a common believer.  This same prayer issued from the lips of the Prophet of Islam in his last moments in these words: Allahumma, ar-Rafiq al-Aala. It means, “O God, the Most Noble Companion!”

These two prayers are, in essence, synonymous. The first prayer is in the words of a common believer, and the second are the words of prayer that came from a prophet.

These two prayers are actually an expression of the feelings of a person of deep trust in God about death. This means that when death arrives, such a person’s emotions are reflected in prayers such as these. At this moment, a person of deep trust in God feels that when he leaves behind everyone he knew in this world, he will attain closeness with God Almighty; that on abandoning the company of fellow men, he will be blessed with attendance in the assembly of angels; that when death separates him from his people, he will not be alone, but, rather, will have the most noble companionship, that of God. And so, for him death will become a journey from a lesser companionship with humans towards a higher companionship with God.

The above-mentioned prayers are not mere words. They are the expression of the inner yearnings of a person of deep faith. Such a person hopes that the stage of life that comes after death should be better for him than the one that with his death will get over for him. In this world, he was blessed with many things from God. These were on a temporary basis. He now hopes that in the world after death he will receive loftier blessings from God, as an eternal reward. He hopes that death will become for him an exit from this imperfect world and an entry into a perfect one.