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IS
DEATH SOMETHING TO FEAR?
In
the Name of God, the Merciful the
Compassionate
(This
is a conversation held with some young
people who are surrounded by
temptations but have still been able
to retain their power of judging what
is happening around them.)
Death
is inevitable and, whether willingly or
unwillingly, everyone will enter the
grave. Apart from the following three
ways, there is no other way of entering
into it:
First
way:
For the believers, the grave is the door
to a world more beautiful than this one.
Second
way:
For those who confirm the next life but
follow the way of dissipation and
misguidance, it is the door to a
solitary imprisonment, an eternal jail,
where they will be separated from all
their loved ones. Since they do not
practice their belief, that is exactly
how they will be punished.
Third
way:
For the unbelievers and the misguided
who do not believe in the Hereafter, it
is the door to eternal “execution”;
that is, it is the gallows on which both
they and their comrades will be executed
as an eternal punishment. Since they
believe death to be an execution with no
resurrection, they will be punished
eternally.
The
appointed hour is secret. Death may come
at any time to cut off anyone, without
differentiating between young and old.
In the face of so awesomely threatening
a reality, miserable man will surely
search, as a matter of the utmost
urgency and concern in his life, for the
means to deliver himself from eternal
punishment and from an unending
imprisonment. Surely man will search for
the means to change the door of the
grave into a door opening onto a
permanent world of light and eternal
happiness.
Death
will be experienced in these three ways;
this is a fact which was reported by one
hundred and twenty-four thousand
truthful reporters-the Prophets, in
whose hands are signs of truthfulness in
the form of miracles. This report of the
Prophets has been confirmed by millions
of saints relying on their discernment,
vision and intuitions. Also, innumerable
painstaking, truth-seeking scholars have
proved it rationally with their decisive
proofs at the level of “certainty
depending on established knowledge.”
All these groups are unanimously agreed
that it is only through belief in God
and obedience to Him that one can save
oneself from eternal punishment and
imprisonment and make of the grave a way
to eternal happiness.
If
only one single reliable reporter had
warned that a particular way carried a
one percent risk of the traveler
perishing on it, one would lose one's
appetite for that way because of the
distress and fear that one percent risk
of perishing caused. However, hundreds
of thousands of truthful, authoritative
reporters-Prophets, saints and
painstaking scholars-and with
demonstrable proofs of their truth, have
warned that misguidance and dissipation
carry a one hundred percent risk of the
gallows of death and eternal punishment.
By contrast, belief and worship remove
both gallows and imprisonment, and
change the grave into a door opening
onto an eternal treasury, a palace of
lasting happiness. Assume that in the
face of such an extraordinary, awesome
and mighty warning, miserable
man-especially one who claims to be a
Muslim-does not truly believe and
worship. Then I ask you how he will be
able to overcome the anxieties that come
from waiting for his turn to be invited
to those gallows, even supposing he had
been given rule over the whole world and
all its pleasures.
Old
age, illness, misfortune, and numerous
instances of death everywhere in the
world, open up that frightful pain and
remind us of it. Even if the people of
misguidance and dissipation seemingly
enjoy innumerable kinds of pleasure and
delight, they are most certainly in a
hellish state of spiritual torment,
albeit a profound stupor of heedlessness
makes them temporarily insensible to it.
For
an obedient believer the grave is the
door to an eternal treasury and endless
happiness. Since, by reason of the “belief
coupon,” a ticket from the allocations
of Destiny for billions worth of gold
and diamonds has come up for him, he
constantly expects the invitation, “Come
and collect your ticket” with a secure
and solid, profound pleasure and
spiritual delight. This pleasure is such
that if it were to take on the material
form of a seed, it would grow into a
private paradise. However, one who
abandons this great delight and pleasure
for the sake of indulging the drives of
youth, and chooses in a lustful,
dissolute manner, temporary illicit
pleasures, which resemble poisonous
honey certain to give innumerable pains,
falls to a degree a hundred times lower
than an animal. Such a person will not
be like Western unbelievers-for they, if
they deny their own Prophet, may yet
recognize another. If they deny all the
Prophets, they may yet recognize God; if
they are atheists, they may yet possess
some good qualities which are the means
to certain perfections. But a Muslim
knows both the Prophets, and his Lord,
and all perfection by means of the
Prophet Muhammad (upon him be peace and
blessings). So, any Muslim who abandons
his instruction and breaks with his
line, he will no longer recognize any
other Prophet, neither will he find any
support in his soul to preserve any
human perfection. The Prophet Muhammad
(upon him be peace and blessings) is the
last and the greatest of the Prophets,
superior to all with respect to his
mission, miracles and accomplishment. He
came with a universal religion and
Message encompassing all time and
peoples, and is therefore the cause of
pride for mankind. A Muslim who abandons
the principles of his training and the
fundamentals of his religion will most
certainly not be able to find any light
or achieve any perfection. He will be
condemned to absolute loss and decline.
So,
you unfortunates who are addicted to the
pleasures of worldly life and, troubled
about your future, struggle to secure it
and your lives! If you want pleasure,
delight, happiness, and ease in this
world, be content with what is
religiously lawful. That suffices for
your enjoyment. You must have understood
from the foregoing explanations that in
each pleasure forbidden by religion lie
a thousand pains. Suppose the events of
the future-for example, of fifty years
hence-were also shown in the cinema in
the same way that they now show events
of the past. Those who are now leading a
dissipated life would weep with horror
and disgust at the things with which
they entertain themselves.
Those
who wish to be permanently, eternally
happy in this world and the next should
follow the instruction of Muhammad (upon
him be peace and blessings) on the firm
ground of belief.
So,
you unfortunates who are addicted to the
pleasures of worldly life and, troubled
about your future, struggle to secure it
and your lives! If you want pleasure,
delight, happiness, and ease in this
world, be content with what is
religiously lawful.
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