DEATH—PREPARATION FOR DEATH (III)

For a Believer who obeys Allah’s commandments, nothing is more pleasing than death. A Believer who loves attaining Allâhu ta’âlâ will wish for death. Death is a bridge that leads a lover to his beloved. The desire to meet the beloved is a great and high grade. A Believer who has attained this grade will not wish for death to be delayed. Longing for Allâhu ta’âlâ, he will wish to attain Him, to see Him. A person who loves Paradise and prepares himself for Paradise will love death. For, without death Paradise is inaccessible. 

A person’s îmân is determined at his last breath. Once a person has attained this greatest of fortunes, Allâhu ta’âlâ’s blessings begin to come upon him. At that moment he certainly becomes happy. The fortunate person is such that Hadrat Azrâîl ‘alaihissalâm’ comes to him and says, “Don’t be afraid. You are going to the Erhamurrâhimîn (the most compassionate of the compassionate). You are arriving in your own home. You are attaining a great fortune!” For such a person there is no other day more honoured than this. This world is a stopover. Compared with the other world, it is a dungeon. This transient being is only a vision. Like a shade, it gradually recedes, and goes away. A hadîthi-sherîf declares, “Men are asleep. They will wake up when they are dead.” Life in this world is like a dream. With the awakening of death the dream will be over, and the real life will commence. A Muslim’s death is life, eternal life!