All Praises are Due to Allah,
Death a word listening to which, a shiver of fear runs through our body and it is surely the most horrified word to hear even though we see a large number of people dying everyday of different age groups, belonging to different sections of the society and having different reasons of their death.
The Qur’an says:
“Every soul shall have a taste of death: and only on the Day of Judgement shall you be paid your full recompense.” (Quran 3:185)
“Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good, by way of trial. To Us must you return.” (21:35)
” Every soul shall taste death, then to us you will be brought back” (Quran 29:46)
From the above ayaat it is very much clear that death is certain and inescapable. It has no cure. And this is what we have seen that even the richest person on earth or the most powerful ones are passing away and are buried in a simple shroud. In this world of advanced technology,there isn’t any medicine or device which can help us to escape from it. The maximum we can do is to somehow prolong our lives but each one of us is aware deep down that we have to leave this world one day and we will be answerable for every act we had been doing, right from our first breath to the last.
“Say: the Angel of Death who is given charge of you shall cause you to die, then to your Lord you shall be brought back.” (Quran – 32:11)
“Wherever you are, Death will find you out, even if you are in towers built up strong and high! ” (4:78)
Being Muslims we have strong faith and believe in the six pillars of Imaan which include to have faith in Allah that even counts his ninety nine attributes among which are Al Muhyi ( the giver of life) and Al Mumeet (the taker of life).
“He gives life and causes death and to Him you shall return” (Quran 10:56)
And the Day of judgement,that is, meeting our Lord which is certain after death, this life in which we are living is a journey to its ultimate destination which is either heaven or hell.
Now that we are sure of death and are cognizant of the fact that it is inescapable,the only solution is to prepare for it at its best and make dua that our last act must be good because making dua for a good end has been the sunnah of prophets.
“My Lord, You have given me [something] of sovereignty and taught me of the interpretation of dreams. Creator of the heavens and earth, You are my protector in this world and in the Hereafter. Cause me to die a Muslim and join me with the righteous.” (Quran 12:101)
“So whoever would hope for the meeting with his Lord – let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone.” (Quran 18:101)
We must begin to prepare for it right from this very moment because death does not come with any warning or it does not have any specified age, and who knows the Day might be very soon.
The first step to prepare ourselves for death is to find our goal or objective of our birth. the purpose of our life, why Allah has created us and then ponder and act over it, so that we will be among His obedient and righteous slaves in the hereafter.
“And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.” (Quran 51:56)
“And they were not commanded except to worship Allah (being) sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give zakah (poor due). And that is the correct religion.”[Quran 98:5]
Allah also said (what means):
“Say (O Muhammad): ‘Indeed, I have been commanded to worship Allah (being) sincere to Him in religion.'” [Quran 39:11]
Worshiping Allah is our purpose of life, so our every thought, word and action should revolve around it. Worship is a blanket term which not only includes the obligatory acts like Salah, Zakah, Sawm and Hajj which help us and train ourselves to remember Allah every now and then but rather our merciful Allah wants to reward us and shower His bounties on our every act that we do in our daily lives like going to college, meeting friends, having meal and so on. We can turn all this into ibadah and get ourselves rewarded and our names enrolled in the list of the righteous.
Allah’s Messenger sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam (may Allah exalt his mention) : “Verily, all actions are but driven by intention and for everyone is what he intended.”[Al-Bukhaari and Muslim]
Allah’s Messenger sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam (may Allah exalt his mention) also said:
“Certainly, Allaah does not look at your shapes (appearance) or wealth. But He only looks at your hearts and deeds.”[Al-Bukhaari and Muslim]
From the above mentioned Ahadith we can turn all our acts into ibadah by just doing it according to sunnah and beginning it with bismillah and expecting reward from Allah.
As Muslims, we have surrendered ourselves and our will to Allah. so our only goal is to please Allah and be pleased with Him once we reach to this state we will be leading a peaceful life followed by a peaceful death.