Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem
There is an
incident related of a Sahabi (Radhiyallahu ‘anhu), who, on coming across the verse:
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَآئِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ قف
‘Every soul shall taste of death.’
[Surah Al-Ambiyaa
21 : 35]
…read it so
many times that a voice was finally heard saying: ‘Your recitation has already caused the death of four Jinn.’
In Arabic,
the word, ‘zaa`iqa’ means ‘to taste’.
We should
connect this Ayah (verse) with what
we understand of ‘taste’. Sometimes the taste is bitter, sometimes it is sweet,
and sometimes it is bitter-sweet. We have sugar-coated pills because everyone
wants to taste sweetness. Everyone wants a taste of enjoyment.
Our beloved Allah Ta’ala is informing us of
the final taste of this worldly life and that taste is the taste of
death.
Death is an
indisputable reality and each one has to experience it. So Allah Ta’ala tells
us:
كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَآئِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ قف
“Every
nafs shall taste of death .”
[Surah
Al-Ambiyaa 21 : 35]
Since the
taste of death is a must for everyone that enters into this world, we need to work on developing our spiritual
appetite for death.
If we want
sweetness in death, then our actions will have to be sweet. …I do not think we
need to even ask if there is anyone that would like a death which is ‘bitter’.
Hazrat
Maulana Yusuf (Rahmatullahi ‘alayh) delivered his last bayaan (talk) in Lahore,
Pakistan. It was during this talk that he had a heart attack, and it was on the
way to the hospital that he passed away. He was only in his 40s, so his death
was very sudden and unexpected.
A woman, who
was deeply grieved over his death, had a dream, in which she saw Hazrat Maulana
Yusuf (Rahmatullahi ‘alayh). She asked him: ‘How did you pass away?’
He replied : “The
Tajalli[1]
of Allah Ta’ala was so intense whilst giving that talk, that I could not bear
it. A beautiful rose was then brought to me and as I smelt it, my soul
departed.”
A few days
later, Maulana Umar Palanpuri (Rahmatullahi ‘alayh) who was a close friend of
Maulana Yusuf (Rahmatullahi ‘alayh), saw him in a dream and asked him: ‘Did you
meet Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam)?’
He replied: ‘Yes.
Come I will also take you.’ – and in the dream, he takes Maulana Umar
Palanpuri (Rahmatullahi ‘alayh) with.
This is what
we call “sweetness” of death.
To make our
death sweet, we will have to make our a’maal (actions) sweet. We cannot expect
roses and flowers to grow, if we plant thorns.
If we do
A`maal-e-Sawleha (righteous deeds), then Allah Ta’ala promises a pleasurable
life (Hayaatan Tayyibah) together with success in the next life.
“Whoever does righteousness, whether male or
female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life,
and We will surely give them their reward (in the Hereafter) according to the
best of what they used to do.”
[Surah an-Nahl : 97]
If not, then
read the incidents of the nations of the past and the bitter ends they met.
…Allah Ta’ala protect us all.
[1] Tajalli
: Special Mercy
