ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?

(The Revival, Official newsletter of muslim youth league (UK) - - - - July/August 1998)

You can dodge the tax man, the security cameras and even the CIA, but if there’s one thing a PhD student in the ‘Art of dodging’ can’t dodge, it’s…..if you haven’t guessed already….it’s death.

Picture the following scene in your head: the shout goes around that such and such a person has fallen ill, and he is in a critical state. All hope is lost- ‘tell us about a good physician-go bring a skilled doctor.’ Physicians and medical experts are called to examine him one after the other but none of them are able to give him hope of survival. Lo and behold! His tongue swells in his mouth, he mumbles, now he no longer recognises anyone. He is hard of breath, he moans, his lashes drop. At this moment he begins to know the state of eternity but his tongue flatters. He is speechless. His family stand around and weep. Now his son and his wife come forward but he is paralysed. Presently his soul begins to escape from the limbs of his body and at last flies away to the heavens. The family at once start to prepare for the funeral. The cries and moans of the sympathisers are over, the enemies are jubilant, the family are busy dividing the estate and as far as the dead man is concerned, he lies entrapped-by his own deeds: such as the harsh reality of moral life. This is a sad but realistic view of death. Scenes like this occur everyday worldwide: it’s something that can’t be stopped. Inevitably, everyone will die- you could be next!

Do you want to know the reality of this world? Let’s ask the Prophet (saw) and see what he has to say. In one Hadith Abu Huraira narrates that once the Holy Prophet (saw) said: ‘Let me show you the reality of this world.’ He then took him to a refuse out side Medina which was full of human skulls and bones and dirty rags. The Prophet said that these skulls embodied greedy people who pinned their hopes on worldly things. He said: ‘the state in which they exist now cannot be tolerably seen by those who have eyes to see. The very sight of those who enjoyed the fragrance of tasty food makes you hate them. ‘The dirty rags represented the gaudy dresses that made men proud. The bones were the bones of animals that carried humans to make them feel proud. Abu Huraira stated that tears welled up in his eyes and he wept bitterly.

The Prophet here is talking to each and everyone of us. Today we live and die for CK Jeans, Armani suits and Gucci watches; we can’t live without the roast chicken, Balti dish and chicken tikka masala. All we want is a Suzuki Vitara, a mansion with a swimming pool and a salary of 30K per year. Ask yourself whether we have pinned all our hopes on things worldly. Are all these worldly gains going to help us in the hereafter? Are they going to save us from the punishment of the grave and the torments of hell?

You’re probably wondering what happens straight after we die. Is death the end of life or is it a transformation from one life to another? When a believer is about to leave the world and go forward to the next world, angels with faces as white as the sun come to him with a shroud and perfume from paradise. The Angel of Death comes and sits at his head and says ‘good soul, come out to forgiveness and acceptance from God.’ The soul then comes out as a drop flows from a water skin and he seizes it and instantly places it in the shroud and perfume. They then take it up and every company of angels asks ‘who is this good soul?’ and the reply is ‘so and so, the son of so and so,’ using the best of his names by which people called him.

The above narration clarifies that from the moment of death till the day of judgment is the period of Barzakh. The first dwelling place of man is the womb of the mother, the second is the world, the third is Barzakh and the fourth is either the Paradise or Hell . During the period of Barzakh a believer feels happy where as a disbeliever suffers terrible torments. We always hear about these so called terrible torments but what exactly are they? A word of warning…..they’re not for the light hearted: Abu Huraira is reported to have said that the Holy Prophet saw on the night of his ascension to Heaven that the heads of some men were being crushed. Soon after, their heads came back to the former condition but were again crushed. This was done repeatedly. The Prophet asked Gabriel who these men were. He said they were those men who used to feel giddy at the time of saying prayers- they read prayers not to carry out an obligation but to cast off a burden. Either they said prayers as they pleased or they totally neglected reading prayers.

He (saw) also saw some men who had covered the private parts of their bodies with rags. They grazed like animals and ate thorny hers or burning stones. He (saw) was informed that they were those men who never gave the poor-due (zakah) or charity. Again he saw some men and women who had kept before them roasted as well as putrid meat, but instead of eating roasted meat they ate putrid meat. He (saw) was informed that they were those men who neglected their lawful wives and developed illicit relations with whores. The women were those who neglected their husbands and comforted the beds of other men. Then the Holy Prophet saw some men whose tongue and lips were being cut of with iron scissors. This was done repeatedly. He (saw) was told that they were the preachers who sowed the seeds of discord. Also , there were some men and women in whose ears and eyes nails were being driven. They were those persons who used to listen to obscene talks and see forbidden things. (Baihalq)