DEATH
* O you who are enjoying the bliss of this world, you will
soon leave your bliss! How fine this piece of poetry is:
Listen, for you are able to hear
if you do not take the initiative it will be too late.
Eat as you like and live in ease,
the end of all of this will be death.
Soon, your wealth and life will vanish, your eyesight will deteriorate,
your mind will lose its sanity, and your capacity for
food and drink will decrease. You will see the pleasures but
you will be unable to have anything of them. Your wife, children,
and maidservant will hate you and wish for your
death. Care and grief will be thrown on you. This world will
abandon you and the hereafter will receive you. If you have
•DEATH
•THINKING WELL
OF THE OTHERS
•HAVING A
SENSE OF
SHAME
•ENDURING
AFFLICTION
•EPILOGUE
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done good for the hereafter, it will receive and embrace you, but if you have no such works,
the grave will be your place and the Fire will be your final abode. It is illusion [that you are
in]. The Prophet (Allah’s prayer and peace be on him) used to say: “The real life is that of the
hereafter” and repeat it to himself and to his companions (may Allah be satisfied with all of
them).
* Use your good health and your leisure time in obedience to Allah (mighty and glorified is
He) before the approach of an illness that ruins your health and business and a matter that
takes away your leisure time. Make full use of your affluence before you become poor, for affluence
does not last forever. Be generous to the poor and share with them your wealth, for what
you give them is credit that you have with your Lord and will be useful for you in the hereafter.
Woe to you! Take full advantage of your life before your death. Learn a lesson from death, for
the Prophet (Allah’s prayer and peace be on him) used to say: “Death is sufficient a preacher.”
Death wears out every new thing, brings near every distant thing, and muddles every pure
thing. There is no escape from death. It may come in this very hour and on this very day. This
matter is under the control of someone else; it is not in your hands. Everything that you have
is a loan: your youth, good health, leisure time, affluence, and life are all on loan to you. Therefore,
make what really matters to you your concern.
* Death is watching you while you are unaware. You have forgotten to wait for it despite the
fact that it is standing in front of you. It will soon come your way — targeting your well‑being
and lives. The soul of one of you will go, while his body stays behind like the corpse of a
sheep. Who will have mercy for you will bury you in the ground before the earth’s wild beasts
and insects eat you. Your family, friends, and enemies will stay with their food, drink, and pleasures,
and they may or may not ask Allah to show mercy to you. Many kings were killed by
their enemies who then threw them in the wilderness, deliberately without burial, to ensure
that they are devoured by dogs and insects. How ugly the king who ends up like this is! How
good this piece of poetry of one of them is:1
One that death can remove is not a real kingdom
The real kingdom is that of the One who does not die!
The sensible among you is one who remembers death and is satisfied with whatever destiny
brings, thanking for what he likes and enduring with patience what he dislikes. Focus your reflection
on matters related to your religion, instead of reflecting on lustful desires and pleasures,
and reflect on death and what follows it.