The Gift of Death & God s Decree

The Gift of Death & God's Decree

By Abdal Hakim Murad - Ramadan Moments 3

Opening

Reference: Traditional Islamic opening

The Promise of Allah

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in His great book:

"That which you are promised will surely come to pass, and you cannot escape it."

That which you are promised - that at the end of this time of distraction, of grazing, of looking around, of perplexity - there will be certainty, al-yaqeen.

"Worship your Lord until that which is certain or certainty comes to you."

The usual meaning of this is that it is death - that gateway which beckons all of us.

The Reality of Death

"That which you are promised is coming."

Our instinct is of course to try and run away - as if that was possible, as if we could avert the divine decree. The very word death الْوَفَاةُ in Arabic means fulfillment.

"The angel of death which you have been entrusted to will bring you to the end of your term. That is our ajal. And we are not able to escape it."

"Say: truly the death which you are running away from will come to you. And then you will be brought back to the Knower of the visible and the invisible, and He will tell you what you used to do."

This is inescapable. Death and taxes - but some people do evade taxation. But even the super rich don't evade death. Look at Maxwell, look at Epstein, look at so many others. Titans in their age, all laid low.

This is the sunnah of Allah in his creation. That everybody has his ajal. Even the Anbiya, the prophets who are the most beloved of creatures - they shall taste the bitterness of death and shall go through that mysterious portal at exactly the moment that the Lord decrees.

The Two Types of Hope

So in this time we can either engage in wool gathering - collecting stuff like so many other people nowadays who read books like "a hundred things to do before you die" as if that was somehow going to help you at the time you do die. Have you done base jumping? Have you climbed El Capitan? Have you travelled to New Zealand and Tahiti? Have you, have you, have you - usually expensive, environmentally destructive things that are just goggling at a world whose source we no longer even dimly intuit.

The Holy Prophet says, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam:

Sunan at-Tirmidhi Hadith 2459

"The intelligent person is the one who calls himself to account and acts for what is after death. And the loser, the useless person, is the one who allows his ego to follow its pleasures and just hopes for Allah's forgiveness."

Tamanna - there's two kinds of hope. In Arabic there's (رَجَاءٌ - Raja') and there's (تَمَنِّي - Tamanni).

Raja' is the hope that we experience when Allah describes his mercy to us and tells us about the infinitude of his jannahs and about the beauty which awaits us. If we are to experience that grace and forgiveness from our creator, how could we not hope for that?

But at the same time there is another human hope - perhaps more common - which the Arabic language calls Tamanni, which means a vain hope. "I'm going to do X but I hope that Y will be the result." "I'm going to do this and hope against hope - it may be hopeless." "I'm going to buy a scratch card and do the lottery and take these risks and I hope it will be alright." "I'm going to drive down the M11 at 110 miles an hour and I hope that things will be alright."

This is reprehensible hope. This is Tamanni. This is an abuse of human reason and of dependence on the creator.

Rolling Up Our Sleeves for Paradise

Tawakkul, reliance on God, doesn't mean you just sit back as if religion was some armchair of promises and just let things take their course.

The Holy Prophet (SAW) tells his Sahaba: "Is there anyone here who will roll up his sleeves for paradise? Paradise has no like. We are the ones who will roll up their sleeves for it, Ya Rasulullah." They say: "We are the ones who will roll up their sleeves for it, Ya Rasulullah."

You roll up your sleeves when you're about to do a job of work, when you're about to sweat, to make an effort, to sacrifice - not just sit around watching something meaningless, but actually to go out to the garden shed, pick up your tools and fix something. Do something with your afternoon. Don't just "tamanna al Allah" - hope that Allah will sort it out.

No, human agency is real. We experience it as real. We are required to act.

Death as a Gift to the Believer

And this is why the believer does not fear death - not really. Whatever state the world may be in at present.

The Holy Prophet (SAW) says in the extraordinary hadith narrated by Tirmidhi:

Sunan at-Tirmidhi Hadith 1609

"Death is the precious gift to the believer."

If he's really a believer and he's rolled up his sleeves and he's actually got on with making something of every moment of his life - while not thinking that his actions will save him, only Allah saves - but at least he is responding and obeying the divine call, putting himself in the way of that grace.

Even if he can't guarantee it, he's putting himself in the way of the rain even though he can't make it fall. That individual, when death comes, it's a gift.

The Example of the Cave

Look at the two who were in the cave:

"The second of the two, when they were in the cave, when he said to his companion: 'Do not be grieved, Allah is with us.'"

Sayyiduna Abu Bakr Siddiq, I was afraid. The knight of the long knives, the Quraysh, the posse - they were out to kill them. But he says to his companion:

"Do not be grieved, Allah is with us."

They were facing death. Nobody around to support them. Sayyiduna Sumayya and others coming by night. But the situation looked bleak. Islam in Makkah seemed to have been defeated. Some of the Sahaba had already lost their lives and the others chased out into a far and seemingly hopeless exile.

But he is with his friend. And in the poem Shaykh al-Islam Abdullah Quilliam writes about this - that he has the Holy Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) consoling Abu Bakr Siddiq, saying:

"Will he we live? No mortal power can take our lives away.

Will he we die? To him we pass - no need to feel dismay."

And this is the لَا تَحْزَنْ - "Do not be grieved."

If you live and you survive, there is more opportunity for experiencing the wonders of God's world, which is all his signs - opportunities to serve him, to serve humanity. It's khair, it's good.

If your ajal has been determined for this time, that is also from the divine decree and it is also to be accepted. "To him we pass - no need to feel dismay."

The State of the Believer

So the believer, to the extent that he has iman, the mu'min, is not really afraid:

"There is no fear upon them, neither do they grieve."

He accepts the divine decree - the bitter and the sweet of it - because he knows that it comes from his beloved, from his Lord, the one whose disposition of all things is always in a state of complete perfection. And this is رضا (rida).

And the rida, which means to be contented with Allah's decree, is a state of happiness - not of fear or misery. If you accept that only Allah's decree can come about, you'll be fine.

Reference: Various Hadith collections

"Whoever believes in qadar (Allah's decree) is safe from stress."

From any kind of inner turbulence, because he knows that everything is under control:

"All matters go back to Allah."

Hope and Fear in Balance

So the believer fears his bad actions, fears his times of distraction, fears that his tawbah may not be adequate. But the believer hopes in his Lord. He has the raja'. And His Lord has said that he is:

"The most merciful of the merciful."

So those who in the month of Ramadan and in this season and in this time pass on through the curtain of death - Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has described himself as the most just and the most merciful. Who would not wish to go on to the most generous and the most just and away from the injustices and the suffering and the pain and the turbulence and the qadar of this world?

The Amazing State of the Believer

So this is the affair of the believer:

Sahih Muslim Hadith 2999

"Amazing is the state of the believer."

And the believers, the awliya:

"Fear comes upon them neither do they grieve."

They do not fear the future - that's in Allah's hands, and therefore the future is good: عَدَالَةٌ رَحْمَةٌ - correctness, appropriateness, rightness.

And the past also in his hands - and it can't be fixed. What's gone is gone. And we look forward not to the outcome of our actions - which are muddy, inadequate, distracted things - but on to the one who has called himself:

"The most merciful of the merciful and the most generous of the generous."

Closing Dua

So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on all of those who are taken back to him in this blessed month of Ramadan, and accept all of their actions according to their best intentions, and overlook everything that they did that was in violation of his command and his law.

And help us to be people of sunnah and istiqamah and rightness, inshallah, in this time of distraction and of confusion and of fear.

Reference: Traditional Islamic closing