DEATH:
2:28 - How can ye reject the faith in Allah? Seeing that ye were without life and He gave you life; then will He cause you to die and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return. 4
46 In the preceeding verses God has used various arguments. He has recalled His goodness (ii. 21-22); resolved doubts (ii. 23); plainly set forth the penalty of wrong-doing (ii. 24); given glad tidings (ii. 25), shown how misunderstandings arise from a deliberate rejection of the light and breach of the Covenant (ii. 26-27). Now (ii. 28-29) He pleads with His creatures and appeals to their own subjective feelings. He brought you into being. The mysteries of life and death are in His hands. When you die on this earth, that is not the end. You were of Him, and you must return to Him. Look around you and realize your own dignity; it is from Him. The immeasurable depths of space above and around you may stagger you. They are part of His plan. What you have imagined as the seven firmaments (and any other scheme you may construct) bears witness to His design of order and perfection, for His knowledge (unlike yours) is all-comprehending. And yet will you deliberately reject or obscure or deaden the faculty of Faith which has been put into you? (2.28)
2:180 - It is prescribed when death approaches any of you if he leave any goods that he make a bequest to parents and next of kin according to reasonable usage; this is due from the Allah-fearing. 186
186 There are rules of course for the disposal of intestate property. But it is a good thing that a dying man or woman should, of his own free-will, think of his parents and his next of kin, not in a spirit of injustice to other, but in a spirit of love and reverence for those who have cherished him. He must, however, do it "according to reasonable usage": the limitations will be seen further on. (2.180)
3:185 - Every soul shall have a taste of death: and only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the fire and admitted to the garden will have attained the object (of life): for the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception. 491 492
491 The death of the body will give a taste of death to the soul when the soul separates from the body. The soul will then know that this life was but a probation. And seeming inequalities will be adjusted finally on the Day of Judgment. (3.185)
492 Cf. Longfellow's Psalm of Life: "All this world's a fleeting show. For man's illusion given". The only reality will be when we have attained our final goal. (3.185)
4:78 - "Wherever ye are death will find you out even if ye are in towers built up strong and high!" If some good befalls them they say "This is from Allah"; but if evil they say "this is from thee" (O Prophet). Say: "All things are from Allah. But what hath come to these people that they fail to understand a single fact? 597
597 The Hypocrites were inconsistent, and in this reflect unregenerate mankind. If a disaster happens, due to their own folly, they blame somebody else; but if they are fortunate, they claim reflected credit by pretending that Heaven has favoured them because of their own superior merits. The modern critic discards even this pretence, eliminates Heaven altogether, and claims all credit direct to himself, unless he brings in blind Chance, but that he does mostly to "explain" misfortune. If we look to the ultimate Cause of all things, all things come from Allah. But if we look to the proximate cause of things, our own merit is so small, that we can hardly claim credit for good ourselves with any fairness. In Allah's hand is all good: iii.26. On the other hand, the proximate cause of our evil is due to some wrong in our own inner selves; for never are we dealt with unjustly in the very least: iv. 77. (4.78)
6:93 - Who can be more wicked than one who inventeth a lie against Allah or saith "I have received inspiration" when he hath received none or (again) who saith "I can reveal the like of what Allah hath revealed?" If thou couldst but see how the wicked (do fare) in the flood of confusion at death! the angels stretch forth their hands (saying) "Yield up your souls. This day shall ye receive your reward a penalty of shame for that ye used to tell lies against Allah and scornfully to reject of His Signs!" 915
915 Yield up your souls: or "get your souls to come out of your bodies." The wicked, we may suppose, are not anxious to part with the material existence in their bodies for the "reward" which in irony is stated to be there to welcome them. (6.93)
8:50 - If thou couldst see when the angels take the souls of the unbelievers (at death) (how) they smite their faces and their backs (saying): "Taste the penalty of the blazing fire. 1219
1219 In contrast to the taunt against those who trust in Allah, "that their religion has misled them," is shown the terrible punishment, after death, of those who laughed at Faith. (8.50)
14:17 - In gulps will he sip it but never well he be near swallowing it down his throat: Death will come to him from every quarter yet will he not die: and in front of him will be a chastisement unrelenting. 1891
1891 A graphic and deterrent picture, from the preaching of the earlier Prophets, of unrelieved horror of the torments of Hell. The door of escape by annihilation is also closed to them. (14.17)
21:35 - Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial: to Us must ye return. 2697
2697 Cf. iii. 185. and n. 491. The soul does not die, but when it separates from the body at the death of the body, the soul gets a taste of death. In our life of probation on this earth, our virtue and faith are tested by many things: some are tested by calamities, and some by the good things of this life. If we prove our true mettle, we pass our probation with success. In any case all must return to Allah, and then will our life be appraised at its true value. (21.35)
26:116 - They said: "If thou desist not O Noah! thou shalt be stoned (to death)." 3191
3191 Two other cases occur to me where prophets of Allah were threatened with death by stoning: one was Abraham (xix. 46), and the other was Shu'aib (xi. 91). In neither case did the threats deter them from carrying out their mission. On the contrary the threats recoiled on those who threatened. So also did it happen in the case of Noah and the holy Prophet. (26.116)
29:57 - Every soul shall have a taste of death: in the end to Us shall ye be brought back. 3490
3490 Cf. iii. 185, n. 491, and xxi. 35 and n. 2697. Death is the separation of the soul from the body when the latter perishes. We should not be afraid of death, for it only brings us back to Allah. The various kinds of hijrat or exile, physical and spiritual, mentioned in the last note, are also modes of death in a sense: what is there to fear in them? (29.57)
37:58 - Is it (the case) that we shall not die
37:59 - Except our first death and that we shall not be punished?" 4070
4070 After he realises the great danger from which he narrowly escaped, his joy is so great that he can hardly believe it! Is the danger altogether past now? Are the portals of death closed for ever? Is he safe now from the temptations which will bring him to ruin and punishment? (37.59)
39:42 - It is Allah that takes the souls (of men) at death: and those that die not (He takes) during their sleep: those on whom He has passed the decree of death He keeps back (from returning to life) but the rest He sends (to their bodies) for a term appointed. Verily in this are Signs for those who reflect. 4306 4307 4308 4309
4306 The mystery of life and death, sleep and dreams, is a fascinating enigma, of which the solution is perhaps beyond the ken of man. A vast mass of superstition as well as imaginative and psychological literature has grown up about it. But the simplest and truest religious doctrine is laid down here in a few words. In death we surrender our physical life, but our soul does not die; it goes back to a plane of existence in which it is more conscious of the realities of the spiritual world: "Allah takes the soul". (39.42)
4307 Cf. vi. 60. What is sleep? As far as animal life is concerned, it is the cessation of the working of the nervous system, though other animal functions, such as digestion, growth, and the circulation of the blood, continue, possibly at a different pace. It is the repose of the nervous system, and in this respect it is common to man and animals, and perhaps even to plants, if, as is probable, plants have a nervous system. The mental processes (and certainly volition) are also suspended in sleep, except that in ordinary dreams there is a medley of recollections, whichoften present vividly to our consciousness things that do not or cannot happen in nature as we know it in our coordinated minds. But there is another kind of dream which is rarer-one in which the dreamer sees things as they actually happen, backwards or forwards in time, or in which gifted individuals see spiritual truths otherwise imperceptible to them. How can we explain this? It is suggested that our soul or personality,-that something which is above our animal life-is then in a plane of spiritual existence akin to physical death (see last note), when we are nearer to Allah. In poetic imagery, Sleep is "twin-brother to Death". (39.42)
50:19 - And the stupor of death will bring truth (before his eyes): "This was the thing which thou wast trying to escape!" 4955
4955 What is stupor or unconsciousness to this probationary life will be the opening of the eyes to the next world: for Death is the Gateway between the two. Once through that Gateway man will realise how the things which he neglected or looked upon as remote are the intimate Realities, and the things which seemed to loom large in his eyes in this world were shadows that have fled. The things he wanted to avoid are the things that have really come to pass. Both Good and Evil will realise the Truth now in its intensity. (50.19)
53:44 - That it is He who Granteth Death and Life;
56:60 - We have decreed Death to be your common lot and We are not to be frustrated 5250
5250 Just as Allah has created this life that we see, so He has decreed that Death should be the common lot of all of us. Surely, if He can thus give life and death, as we see it, why should we refuse to believe that He can give us other forms when this life is over? The Future Life, though indicated by what we know now, is to be on a wholly different plane. (56.60)
62:6 - Say: "O ye that stand on Judaism! if ye think that ye are friends to Allah to the exclusion of (other) men then express your desire for Death if ye are truthful!" 5458 5459
5458 Of Jewry is a very different thing from following the Law and Will of Allah. An arrogant claim to be a chosen people, to be the exclusive possessors of divine teaching, to be exempt from any punishment for breachcs of the divine law, (cf. ii. 88), is presumptuous blasphemy. It may be Judaism, but it is not in the spirit of Moses. (62.6)
5459 Cf. ii. 94-96. If they claimed to be special friends of Allah, why do they not eagerly desire death, which would bring them nearer to Allah? But of all people they are the most tenacious of this life and the good things of this life! And they know that their grasping selfish lives have run up a score of sin against them, which will meet its recompense. (62.6)
67:2 - He Who created Death and Life that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might Oft-Forgiving 5556 5557 5558
5556 "Created Death and Life." Death is here put before Life, and it is created. Death is therefore not merely a negative state. In ii. 28 we read: "Seeing that ye were without life (literally, dead), and He gave you life: then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye retum." In liii. 44, again, Death is put before Life. Death, then, is (1) the state before life began, which may be non-existence or existence in some other form: (2) the state in which Life as we know it ceases, but existence does not cease; a state of Barzakh (xxiii. 100), or Barrier or Partition, after our visible Death and before Judgment; after that will be the new Life, which we conceive of under the term Eternity. (67.2)
5557 Creation, therefore, is not in mere sport, or without a purpose with reference to man. The state before our present life, or the state after, we can scarcely understand. But our present Life is clearly given to enable us to strive by good deeds to reach a nobler state. (67.2)
SEE:
Fiqh-us-Sunnah
Fiqh 4.13a
It is not proper for a Person to Wish for Death
Fiqh-us-Sunnah
Fiqh 4.13
CONTEMPLATION OF DEATH AND PREPARATION FOR IT BY GOOD DEEDS
Fiqh-us-Sunnah
Fiqh 4.49
Funeral Prayer for a Person Sentenced to Death for a Crime
Fiqh-us-Sunnah
Fiqh 4.20
Informing the Deceased's Family and Friends
The scholars consider it desirable that the deceased's family, friends, and other good people be informed about his death
Fiqh-us-Sunnah Subjects
Death, Dying
1. Contemplation of Death and Preparation for it by Good Deeds
Fiqh us-Sunnah Vol.4 Page 13
2. It is Not Proper for a Person to Wish for Death
Fiqh us-Sunnah Vol.4 Page 13
4. Good Deeds Prior to Death: An Indication of a Good End
Fiqh us-Sunnah Vol.4 Page 15
8. On Invoking Allah Upon Witnessing Death, and Saying "Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raja'un"
Fiqh us-Sunnah Vol.4 Page 19
14. Preparing the Kafan (Shroud) and Grave Before Death
Fiqh us-Sunnah Vol.4 Page 24
16. Sudden Death
Fiqh us-Sunnah Vol.4 Page 25
Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith
Hadith 6.254 Narrated by
Abu Said Al Khudri
Allah's Apostle said, "On the Day of Resurrection Death will be brought forward in the shape of a black and white ram. Then a call maker will call, 'O people of Paradise!' Thereupon they will stretch their necks and look carefully. The caller will say, 'Do you know this?' They will say, 'Yes, this is Death.' By then all of them will have seen it. Then it will be announced again, 'O people of Hell !' They will stretch their necks and look carefully. The caller will say, 'Do you know this?' They will say, 'Yes, this is Death.' And by then all of them will have seen it. Then it (that ram) will be slaughtered and the caller will say, 'O people of Paradise! Eternity for you and no death. O people of Hell! Eternity for you and no death.' " Then the Prophet recited:
"And warn them of the Day of distress when the case has been decided, while (now) they are in a state of carelessness (i.e. the people of the world) and they do not believe." (19.39)
