On Remembering Death
In a society where we are so engrossed in the pleasures of the life, death inevitably becomes a taboo topic. Therefore, such topics should be jotted down on paper, as paper have more patience than people [1]. There is hardly anything in our life that is more certain than death. Despite that we, being the most intelligent creation, manage to find ways to distract ourselves from the inevitable reality. Our proclivity for instant gratification coerce us to fall prey to beautiful lies of life and forsake the preparation for the harsh truth of death.
The example of this life is like the sand castle on the bank of the river, waiting for the next wave of water to demolish it. Yet we procrastinate the preparation for death as we are aware of when the next wave of water will hit our sand castles. The duration of this life as compared to afterlife is nothing more than the duration for which a symbol drawn on water stays.
Materialist’s View
Before delving into the Islamic eschatology, we will briefly discuss the opposing viewpoint put forward by the subscribers of materialism. Materialists believe that everything that exists can be broken down to matter, and they oppose the viewpoint of dualism that the brain and mind are separated from each other. Due to this, they posit that death is the end of the story and there is no such thing as afterlife because humans are just composed of body without any soul.
They oppose the religious viewpoint of afterlife. According to materialist, the concept of eternal afterlife renders this life meaningless. Suppose you are a billionaire, then losing a couple of bucks will be negligible for you. Similarly, the eternal nature of afterlife make this life of little value and meaningless.
Islamic Eschatology
In Islamic view, humans are composed of body and soul. The death occurs when the soul is taken from the body and the soul continues to live in a different form. As we are easily distracted by the shining lights of this world, Islam encourages to constantly remind yourself of the imminent reality of death. Simultaneously, it is encouraged to cherish the blessings granted in this world while abiding by the rulings of the religion. As the ultimate purpose is to get permanent residence of paradise (Jannah), things that gets us closer to attaining the goal are encouraged. One should engage with the world, but with the thought that one day he has to abandon this worldly life. The more you are obsessed with something, the harder it is to let it go.
The Quran is full of reminders for human beings about death and belief in afterlife is one of the essential part of religion. One of the most cited verse of Quran is as follows.
Every soul will taste death. (The Quran 3:185, Translation by SAHIH INTERNATIONAL)
The choice of words to explain the end of worldly life for humans is precise and subtle. The Quran could have mentioned that every soul will die. But the usage of the word “taste” suggests that soul is withdrawn from the flesh, and the human soul continues to exist in a different form. A person should be alive in order to taste something. Human soul is kept alive in order to taste death.
It’s true that sometimes meaning gets lost in translation. When we literally translate the above verse, then the word used for “taste” is not a verb, but instead it is a noun (taster). Now, a taster of death is someone who has already tasted the death. You are a driver because you have already driven a vehicle, not because you aim to drive. This means we all have already experienced the death.
One possible way to interpret this is that we were all dead, and we were brought to life. The other way to look at it is that we all experience death every day when we sleep. Because if you notice, then this world completely stops for you when you are asleep. Nothing happening in this world concerns you anymore, and you have no guarantee that you will come back to life or not. Another explanation could be that we are all taking perpetual baby-steps towards death. Every moment that passes whether it is a moment of joy or sadness brings you closer to death. Hence, we are tasting death every passing second.
Importance of Afterlife
Justice
If there was no other reason for afterlife, then the reason that the justice will be done in the afterlife will suffice. The ultimate justice does not exist in this life. This life was not meant to be perfect, rather this was only meant to be a test. People kill other people for their greed of power. Maybe you have seen honest, genuine and pious person whose life is filled with the calamities. You also have seen people who are the reason for such calamities, and they seemingly get away with whatever they do. Don’t you think that a day of judgement is required for all that?.
Some people are born rich and other poor. Some people are given health, while others spent their life in misery. Some people with purest of the intent and action seems to struggle while the monsters seems to be openly roaming around with their hammers. There is no equality and ultimate justice in this world. If a person commits murder of 100 people, then how possibly could you do the justice?. One time death sentence is not ultimately justice. Even in the case when a person slaps other person. How would you make sure that the other person slapping back will do so in a manner that will cause precisely the same pain [2]. The Quran states this fact that the full compensation for everybody’s deeds will be given on the day of judgement, where the ultimate justice will be done.
Every soul will taste death, and you will only be given your [full] compensation on the Day of Resurrection. (The Quran 3:185, Translation by SAHIH INTERNATIONAL)
Meaningfulness
The concept of afterlife gives meaning to this life. Let’s recall the materialist argument that a couple of bucks (duration of this life) has no value for a billionaire (duration of afterlife). Apparently it sounds plausible, but the fact is that these couple of bucks determine the destiny of the billionaire. The life is so meaningful that whatever we do here in these couple of year on universe will directly dictate what will happen in the eternal afterlife.
We are surrounded by the problems and suffering. Just when we think that our life is stable and in order, we are faced with the chaos this life has to offer. There was a time when not doing the homework was the end of the world for you. Then you realized the pettiness of that worry when you faced some other worries in your life. Every worry that we currently have seems like a dwarf as compared to every upcoming concern. But the truth is that every other worry of this wordily life seems extremely petty when we think about the death and afterlife. The idea that you will be compensated in the afterlife adds meaning to your suffering and worldly concerns starts looking much smaller.
Preparation
Time restriction gives meaning and motivation for this life. Imam Ghazali mentions the method of filtering out the beneficial knowledge from futile knowledge. He provokes us to think if your life will end in a week. The knowledge you will be willing to attain at that moment is the beneficial knowledge that will be helpful in afterlife. This principle can be extrapolated to other things in life.
Let’s imagine that you are made aware that you will die within a year. Will the things you have preoccupied yourself with will still be important to you?. If you ask me, then it is certainly not the case. The deadline for this life gives us motivation to work on the things that will be beneficial for the afterlife. The following saying of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) summaries the worldly things that are pertinent for the afterlife.
When a man dies, his deeds come to an end except for three things: Sadaqah Jariyah (ceaseless charity); a knowledge which is beneficial, or a virtuous descendant who prays for him (for the deceased). (Riyad as-Salihin 1383)
The first is to do things that keep on benefiting people after your demise. Therefore, the death is an impetus for making this world a better place to live in for other people. This altruistic attitude is elegantly explained by the Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit”. The second is to spread beneficial knowledge, which I aim to do with these articles. And I aim to start working on third option soon ;)
Every white hair should encourage you to erase dark spots from your heart. Let’s stop chasing the shadow and be wary and prepared for the next wave coming to demolish our sand castles.
References
[1] Quote by Anna Frank
[2] Presumably idea by Imam Ghazali
Nouman Ali Khan ~ Tafseer of Ali ‘Imran 185 ~ Every soul shall indeed taste Death