Death is a fact that none can ever deny. It will surely come to everyone and everything at the specific time. We should not lead a life of forgetfulness. Watch this video to draw some lessons.
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This is a serious topic that no one should miss out on. This important topic applies to everyone because we all have an appointment with death and ignoring it wont make it go away.It this episode you’ll learn God willing how to better prepare for Death and for what comes next. Share this show with all your friends.
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Everyone is scared of dying and rightly so. The uncertainty of what lies beyond is frightening. It may be that of all religions, Islam, provides the most graphic details of what comes after death and lies beyond. Islam views death to be a natural threshold to the next stage of existence.
Islamic doctrine holds that human existence continues after the death of the human body in the form of spiritual and physical resurrection. There is a direct relation between conduct on earth and the life beyond. The afterlife will be one of rewards and punishments which is commensurate with earthily conduct. A Day will come when God will resurrect and gather the first and the last of His creation and judge everyone justly. People will enter their final abode, Hell or Paradise. Faith in life after death urges us to do right and to stay away from sin. In this life we sometimes see the pious suffer and the impious enjoy. All shall be judged one day and justice will be served.
Faith in life after death is one of the six fundamental beliefs required of a Muslim to complete his faith. Rejecting it renders all other beliefs meaningless. Think of a child who does not put his hand in fire. He does not do so because he is sure it will burn. When it comes to doing school work, the same child may feel lazy because he does not quite understand what a sound education will do for his future. Now, think of a man who does not believe in the Day of Judgment. Would he consider belief in God and a life driven by his belief in God to be of any consequence? To him, neither obedience to God is of use, nor is disobedience of any harm. How, then, can he live a God-conscious life? What incentive would he have to suffer the trials of life with patience and avoid overindulgence in worldly pleasures? And if a man does not follow the way of God, then what use is his belief in God, if he has any? The acceptance or rejection of life after death is perhaps the greatest factor in determining the course of an individual’s life.
The dead have a continued and conscious existence of a kind in the grave. Muslims believe that, upon dieing, a person enters an intermediate phase of life between death and resurrection. Many events take place in this new “world”, such as the “trial” of the grave, where everyone will be questioned by angels about their religion, prophet, and Lord. The grave is a garden of paradise or a pit of hell; angels of mercy visit the souls of believers and angels of punishment come for the unbelievers.
Resurrection will be preceded by the end of the world. God will command a magnificent angel to blow the Horn. At its first blowing, all the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth will fall unconscious, except those spared by God. The earth will be flattened, the mountains turned into dust, the sky will crack, planets will be dispersed, and the graves overturned.
People will be resurrected into their original physical bodies from their graves, thereby entering the third and final phase of life. The Horn will blow again upon which people will rise up from their graves, resurrected!
God will gather all humans, believers and the impious, jinns, demons, even wild animals. It will be a universal gathering. The angels will drive all human beings naked, uncircumcised, and bare-footed to the Great Plain of Gathering. People will stand in wait for judgment and humanity will sweat in agony. The righteous will be sheltered under the shade of God’s Magnificent Throne.
When the condition becomes unbearable, people will request the prophets and the messengers to intercede with God on their behalf to save them from distress.
The balances will be set and the deeds of men will be weighed. Disclosure of the Records of the deeds performed in this life will follow. The one who will receive his record in his right hand will have an easy reckoning. He will happily return to his family. However, the person who will receive his record in his left hand would wish he were dead as he will be thrown into the Fire. He will be full of regrets and will wish that he were not handed his Record or he had not known it.
Then God will judge His creation. They will be reminded and informed of their good deeds and sins. The faithful will acknowledge their failings and be forgiven. The disbelievers will have no good deeds to declare because an unbeliever is rewarded for them in this life. Some scholars are of the opinion that the punishment of an unbeliever may be reduced in lieu of his good deeds, except the punishment of the great sin of disbelief.
The Siraat is a bridge that will be established over Hell extending to Paradise. Anyone who is steadfast on God’s religion in this life will find it easy to pass it.
Paradise and Hell will be the final dwelling places for the faithful and the damned after the Last Judgment. They are real and eternal. The bliss of the people of Paradise shall never end and the punishment of unbelievers condemned to Hell shall never cease. Unlike a pass-fail system in some other belief-systems, the Islamic view is more sophisticated and conveys a higher level of divine justice. This can be seen in two ways. First, some believers may suffer in Hell for unrepented, cardinal sins. Second, both Paradise and Hell have levels.
Paradise is the eternal garden of physical pleasures and spiritual delights. Suffering will be absent and bodily desires will be satisfied. All wishes will be met. Palaces, servants, riches, streams of wine, milk and honey, pleasant fragrances, soothing voices, pure partners for intimacy; a person will never get bored or have enough!
The greatest bliss, though, will be the vision of their Lord of which the unbelievers will be deprived.
Hell is an infernal place of punishment for unbelievers and purification for sinful believers. Torture and punishment: for the body and the soul: burning by fire, boiling water to drink, scalding food to eat, chains, and choking columns of fire. Unbelievers will be eternally damned to it, whereas sinful believers will eventually be taken out of Hell and enter Paradise.
Paradise is for those who worshipped God alone, believed and followed their prophet, and lived moral lives according to the teachings of scripture.
Hell will be the final dwelling place of those who denied God, worshipped other beings besides God, rejected the call of the prophets, and lead sinful, unrepentant lives.
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Time is the most precious gift that humankind possesses and can be taken from us at any given moment.
What is time, what causes it? Is it a dimension, can you slow it down or speed it up?
When we think of time we tend to think of the ways in which we measure the passing of time, a clock or watch, or we think of a measured interval of time such as an hour or minute. Humankind has always been concerned with time, the passage of time, the measurement of time, and the scientific qualities of time. We talk about time travel, the relativity of time, the direction of time and wheel of time.
There are theories and concepts of time and it is studied in religion, philosophy and science. Time even has economic value. Time is money. Time has social and personal importance; we use our concept of time to place events appointments and milestones in sequence. We order our lives around time, in Islam lives are structured around the daily prayers.
In the 11th century, Avicenna doubted the existence of physical time, arguing that time exists only in the mind due to memory and expectation. Islamic and Christian theologians adopted the idea that time is linear. Verses from the Bible tell us there is a time for everything: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Time has an intrinsic value that is recognized even in motivational rhymes for adults and nursery rhymes for children. To realize the value of one year, ask a student who has failed that year. To realize the value of one month, ask the mother of a premature baby, and to realize the value of one second ask the survivor of an accident.
Both the Qur’an and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) make it clear that Islam considers time to a very valuable resource. Believers are encouraged to be conscious of time, to recognize its importance and to organize it wisely. If human beings do not waste or abuse time, but rather think of it as a blessing from God then they have every reason to hope for success both in this life and in the hereafter.
By Al-`Asr (the time). Verily, man is in loss. Except those who believe and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth and recommend one another to patience. (Al-`Asr 103:1-3)
Prophet Muhammad instructed his followers and thus the believers to know and value the importance of time in the following traditions.
Humankind will remain standing on the Day of Resurrection until he is asked about four things: his life and how he spent it, his youth and how he used it up, his property and how he acquired and managed it and his knowledge and how he utilized it.
There are two of God’s favors that are forgotten by many people; health and free time. (Al-Bukhari)
Islam teaches us that time passes quickly and can never return, it is irretrievable. It is also the most precious gift that humankind possesses and can be taken from us at any given moment. God is the Giver but He is also the Withholder. Time passes swiftly and God reminds us in the Qur’an that the months and years pass but when we are standing before Him on the Day of Judgment our time on earth will seem as though we had lived, dreamed and worshipped for less than a day.
A speaker from among them said, “How long have you stayed (here)?” They said, “We have stayed (perhaps) a day or part of a day.” They said, “Your Lord (alone) knows best how long you have stayed (here)”. (Al-Kahf 18:19)
They will say: “We stayed a day or part of a day. Ask of those who keep account.” (Al-Mu’minun 23:113)
A believer should not waste precious time on things that will not bring him closer to his Creator. Actions that do not contain a benefit for himself, his society or humankind in general are usually wasted actions, wasted time. Islam categorized things according to their level of importance. The first Muslims used to capture and use every single second of their time.
Thabit Al-Bunany said: “When my father was on his deathbed, I went to assist him in pronouncing the testimony that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah, but he said, ‘Son! Leave me alone, for I have recited all my supplications five times and I’m on my sixth cycle now.”
Prophet Muhammad also told his followers: “Do not curse time (ad-dahr), for God is the one who crafted time.” (Muslim)
Imam An Nawawi commented on this by saying: “The meaning of the phrase “for God is the One Who crafted time” means that He is the One Who causes those events and accidents to happen, and He is the Creator of all that happens.”
Those who understand the value of time should make an effort to organize their time and make realistic plans. The entire life of a believer can be considered worship when that person is conscious of doing only what is pleasing to God. Religious obligations must be a first priority, however God is generous and time that seems so fleeting when we are flittering it becomes filled with blessing when we are using it to please our Creator.
The words of God in the Qur’an and the message of Prophet Muhammad to the believers are clear; we, humankind, are told to be conscious of time. God reminds us that life in this world is but temporary and we do not know our appointed time of death.
As believers we must never waste or abuse time, rather we must value it as a blessing from God. We must all understand that wasting even a single moment is an opportunity gone, never to return. When our time in this world is up, there is no going back and we will be held accountable for all that we do. Time is indeed precious!
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Source: islamreligion.com.
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How do you live your life; in what way, by what means and for what purpose? How do you prioritize it? How do you define it? Do you live the life true to yourself? How would I know?
Have you ever asked yourself questions about God, belief, this life, the Hereafter, and etc.? If yes, what answers have you got?
And if no, why? Why haven’t you stopped to consider such matters? Are they irrelevant? Do you on purpose keep yourself away from it , or are you just preoccupied with other important things?
Why should we ask such questions? Besides, do we need faith at all to be able to define our life and find answers to such “philosophical” questions?
Factually and even shockingly the video here traces and outlines such rarely discussed matters, and the meaning of life accordingly …
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Source: dawahskills.com
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What is the truth about Islam; what is true and what is not? What message does the religion have? What does Islam offer us and life in general? What does it mean to be a Muslim?
What is it about Islam and Muslims that anti-Islam media and Islamophobes are portraying and promoting?
A Muslim fifteen years now, brother Peter describes his life-changing journey, how he found faith, his life purpose and meaning, how Islam spoke to both his heart and mind, turning his life around.
In the video below brother Peter, from his death bed at hospital, speaks of his experience of deep spiritual fulfillment and growth into the fold of Islam…
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Source: NewMan2015’s Youtube channel
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Not too long ago I went to visit a friend of mine whose mother was dying of cancer. She had been battling cancer for about five years, and the news came to me that she was on her last days.
My mom has been there all my life, never failed me once, never. And never once have I ever come to her and just said it…
So, I went to visit the brother, and I sat down with him, he was explaining to me that his mother is going through this state of “Sakarat Al-Mawt” conscious and then unconscious, and that the cancer was really starting to spread all over.
So, as I sat with this friend of mine and he was talking his eyes tear up. So I naturally assumed it was because his mother was dying. So I tried to comfort him and tell him that this was natural in life. He said to me, “I’m not crying because she is leaving and of course I’m upset, but this is not why I’m crying”.
I said, “then why are you upset?”
He said “I’m upset because all my life I never thanked Mother for what she’s done.”
Honestly I can’t explain what happened to me when he said these words.
“All my life I’ve never said ‘thank you’ to my mum”, he continued.
And now that she’s sitting in the next room and she’s alive but she is conscious and unconscious, and even if I spoke to her she is not going to be able to understand or comprehend the words that I’m saying.
Can you, brothers and sisters, imagine that?
For those of us who are fortunate enough that their mothers are still around, how does this affect you?
My mom has been there all my life, never failed me once, never. And never once have I ever come to her and just said “Thank you”. Can you imagine that?
Listen to the details of this pitiful story from brother Brother Mohamad Hoblos…
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Source: OnePath Network
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We live in a world that demands logic and proof and is not content with only belief. Someone might wonder how a rational, practical minded person could believe in life after death. People tend to assume that anyone who believes in the Hereafter does so on the basis of blind faith.
But in fact, belief in the Hereafter is completely logical. And it is the only way the injustices of this world can be reconciled with a just and all powerful Creator.
We know that in addition to physical pleasures and comforts there are certain ideal conditions that human beings instinctively desire and strive to attain, such as love, respect, security and contentment.
Though many people are able to acquire a portion of these objectives here on earth, there remains one that is largely unobtainable – and that is justice. Most people hold the conviction that life is not fair: that they have often been misunderstood or not appreciated, that in some way they have been harmed, cheated or oppressed.
Daily newscasts disclose the killing, torture, displacement and starvation of countless innocent people by powerful tyrants and nations, lives ruined by the vicious or careless acts of others or by natural disasters, and the poor and helpless being subjected to theft and deception. Seldom is even partial justice ever restored. Yet, every human being desires justice. Even if he does not seek it for others, he certainly wants justice for himself.
So why has the Creator instilled in man a longing for something he cannot experience in this world?
The answer is that this life is only one portion of his existence and that the logical conclusion which restores the equilibrium found in all creation is in the Hereafter. It is there that every person will be fully and precisely compensated for his good and evil deeds. This is the perfect and absolute justice which God has promised all people.
The present life is a trial in preparation for the next realm of existence. The explanation given by the Qur’an about the necessity of life after death is what the moral consciousness of man demands. If there was no life after death, the belief in God would be meaningless, or it would be a belief in some kind of indifferent and negligent deity who, after having created the human race, is no longer concerned with its welfare.
But certainly, God is just. He will indeed punish the tyrants who have killed thousands and caused suffering to their families, corrupted institutions and societies, enslaved people and nations, robbed, deprived and plundered.
And what about I hose who patiently endured so much injustice and hardship, suffered to uphold truth, saved lives or sacrificed in order to assist many people? What earthly compensations could possibly restore the balance for them?
This can only take place in an eternal life where every individual affected in the least by someone’s actions will testify for or against him, and where the innermost thoughts and intentions, known completely to God, will be judged precisely and perfectly. Since man’s term of life in this world is limited and because numerous individuals are affected by one’s actions, adequate rewards and punishments are impossible in the present life.
The Qur’an states categorically that the Day of Resurrection must come and that God will then decree the fate of each soul according to its record of deeds.
Additionally, God has stated in the Qur’an that the present creation is in itself a clear proof that He is able to create and re-create as He wills, whatever He wills, however He wills and whenever He wills, for God originates and repeats creation with equal ease. Consider these words revealed to His final Prophet:
Say, ‘Travel through the land and observe how He began creation. Then Allah will produce the final creation’. (Al-`Ankabut 29:20)
Did We fail in the first creation? But they are in confusion over a new creation. (Qaf 50:15)
Is not He who created the heavens and the earth able to create the likes of them? Yes, and He is the Knowing Creator. (Ya-Sin 36:81)
Do they not see that Allah, who created the heavens and earth and did not fail in their creation, is able to give life to the dead? (Al-Ahqaf 46:33)
Does man not remember that We created him before, while he was nothing. (Maryam 19:67)
And you have already known the first creation, so will you not remember? (Al-Waqi`ah 56:62)
Have they not considered how Allah begins creation and then repeats it? Indeed that, for Allah, is easy. (Al-`Ankabut 29:19)
And it is He who begins creation; then He repeats it, and that is easier for Him. (Ar-Rum 30:27)
As We began the first creation, We will repeat it. (That is) a promise binding upon Us. Indeed, We will do it. (Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:104)
In fact, the material of creation is already in existence, merely to be developed once again at His command. Observable evidence of this ongoing process is now being presented regularly by astronomers and specialists in other fields of modern science.
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Source: The article is excerpted from the book Clear Your Doubts about Islam, Compiled by Saheeh international.
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Human beings, the Prophet among them, had to learn how to depart, and see their loved ones depart, in silence, with discretion.
During the tenth year of Hijrah (emigration from Makkah), young Ibrahim, who was then about a year and a half old, fell seriously ill. At the very time when the religion of the One was being established all over the Peninsula, with adversity constantly diminishing and the number of conversions continuing to grow, the Prophet saw his only son about to leave life and to leave him. He visited him every day and spent hours by his side.
When the child eventually breathed his last, the Prophet took him in his arms and held him against his breast, tears streaming down his face, so deep was his sorrow.
`Abdur-Rahman ibn `Awf, his faithful Companion, was surprised by those sobs, because he thought that the Prophet had previously forbidden such expressions of grief. At first, Muhammad could not speak; then he explained to him that he had forbidden excessive manifestations of distress, through wailing or hysterical behavior, but not the natural expression of sorrow and suffering.
Then he gave verbal expression to his grief that, in effect , became a spiritual teaching, as he declared that his tears were “signs of tenderness and mercy.” He added a comment springing from his own experience, but which was also true in every Muslim’s daily life: “He who is not merciful will not be shown mercy.” (AL-Bukhari and Muslim)
In the difficult moments of life, kindness, clemency, mercy, and the expressions of empathy that human beings offer one another bring them closer to the One, Ar-Rahman (the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful). Through them, God reaches closer to the believer’s heart, offering the believer what the believer him- or herself has offered to a brother or sister in humanity.
The Prophet was intimately affected, and he did not hesitate to show and express his grief. He added: “The eye sheds tears, 0 Ibrahim, the heart is infinitely sad, and one must only utter what satisfies God.” (AL-Bukhari and Muslim)
God had once more tested him through his humanity and his mission. He had lost so many loved ones-Companions, his wife Khadijah, three of his daughters, and his three sons.”
His life had been crossed with tears, but he remained both gentle with his heart and firm in his mission. It was this chemistry of gentleness and firmness that satisfied the Most Near.
At the time when, in this tenth year of Hijrah, the world seemed to open up to the Prophet’s mission, Muhammad’s human fate seemed reduced to that tiny grave where Ibrahim’s body was laid, and over which he then led the funeral prayer. The Prophet was one of the eject; the Prophet remained a human being.
His life had been crossed with tears, but he remained both gentle with his heart and firm in his mission.
A few hours after his return from the graveyard, an eclipse of the sun occurred. The Muslims were quick to associate the eclipse with the death of the Prophet’s child and see it as a miracle, a kind of message from God to His Prophet. But Muhammad put an end to all such interpretations, saying forcefully:
“The sun and the moon are two of God’s signs. Their light does not darken for anyone’s death.” (AL-Bukhari and Muslim)
Muhammad was thus reminding his Companions of the order of things and of the necessity to make no mistake in interpreting signs, in order to avoid lapsing into superstition.
This was, for them as well as for himself, a spiritual teaching in restraint and humility: human beings, the Prophet among them, had to learn how to depart, and see their loved ones depart, in silence, with discretion, and amid the indifference of the order of things.
The trial of faith and of humanity, which made the Prophet shed tears, consisted precisely in learning how to find, at the heart of the eternity of creation and of never-ending cycles, the strength to face the finitude of the human, sudden departures, and death.
The sign of the One’s presence at the time of a person’s death lies not in the occurrence of any miracle but rather in the permanence of the natural order, in the eternity of His creation, crossed here and there by the passage of created beings, who come and depart.
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The article is an excerpt from Dr. Tariq Ramadan’s book “In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press (2007).
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