Advice of Scholars - REMEMBERING DEATH

Sayyid Abdulhakîm bin Mustafa Arwâsî ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’says in his booklet Safar-i-âkhirat:

Discreet men and women who have îmân and who have reachedthe age of puberty are termed mukallaf. It is sunna for those who are mukallafto remember death very often. For, remembering death urges to hold fast to thecommands and to avoid the prohibitions. It reduces the temptation to commitharâm. Our Prophet (sallallâhu ’alaihi wasallam) declared: “Remember deathvery often; it ruins tastes and terminates amusements!” Some men oftasawwuf made it a habit to remember death once every day. Muhammad Bahâuddîn-iBukhârî (quddisa sirruh) would imagine himself dead and interred twenty timesevery day.

To die does not mean to cease to exist. It is an eventthat does not annihilate existence. Death is the termination of the soul’sattachment to the body. It is an act of the soul leaving the body. Death is amatter of man’s changing from one state into another. It is to migrate from onehome to another. ’Umar bin Abdul’azîz (rahmatullâhi ’aleyh) said, “You havebeen created only for eternity, for endlessness. Only, you will migrate fromone home to another!”

Death is a blessing, a gift for the Believer. It is adisaster for the sinful. It is relief for the poor, and torment for the rich.Wisdom is a gift endowed by Allâhu ta’âlâ. Ignorance is the cause of strayingfrom the right way. Cruelty is man’s ugly aspect. Worship brings good humour,joy, and a sacred light to the eyes. Weeping with fear of Allah polishes theheart. Laughter dopes the heart with venom. Man does not wish death. Yet, infact, death is more useful than mischief. Man likes to live. Yet, in fact,death is better for him. With death the true Believer gets disentangled fromthe torment and exertion of this world. With the death of the cruel, countriesand peoples attain relief. It will be pertinent to quote an old couplet ofpoetry, which was inspired by the death of a cruel enemy of the religion: