We believe that a true and comprehensive
understanding of Islam would not be possible without careful recognition of the
Prophetic Tradition and the Prophet's Household. And Allah is the Source of Strength.
On Death's Watch
" I imagine how would a criminal feel when he gets caught by the Law Enforcing Agencies? He might feel unlucky or frustrated at his own self, that how he did not outsmart the law! But he might have hope that his influences in the government or higher ups might help him out of the situation. Even if that dose not work, he might hope that the LEAs might not have sufficient evidence against him to get him convicted.
The criminal will only loose hope when he gets convicted and is sentenced to death. Maybe his regrets would be on getting caught and not on doing the forbidden. He will re-trace his steps how he got caught and would think about how he could do things differently to not to get caught. He would then curse himself when he will realize how he forgot about the installed CCTV which recorded him red handed during his crime.
The feeling of getting trapped, caught, imprisoned, is the one of the most helpless of feelings because then you are at some one else's mercy and not on your own free will.
This is how this world works, and then there is a system of Allah, whose CCTV system does not have a blind spot.
When death comes, it does not come unannounced. I have known people who died when driving a car, when traveling in airplanes, when sound asleep in their beds. They had plans about life, they had plans about their future, they had planned a vacation the following weekend, they had invested in funds and properties which would do them good after 20 years.
How unpredictable life is, we only realize when we loose someone we know. But death is more unpredictable and frequent than hearing news of some one's death. Allah calls sleep as minor death, when he states in Quran Surah 6, Ayah 60, how he recalls our souls at night when we sleep.
And what can man do if he failed to wake up in the morning?
We all have sinned in our own capacity. All of our senses have experienced the forbidden. Haven't we seen women with lust? Haven't we spoken ill about people behind their backs? Havened we heard about Zulm without reacting upon it? Haven't we eaten something which we had earned through interest, theft, tax evasion, usurping some one else's right?
But Allah still gives us time. He says in Surah 16 Ayah 61, that if Allah had destroyed men for their iniquity, He would not leave on the earth a single creature, but He respites them till an appointed time; so when their doom will come they shall not be able to delay (it) an hour nor can they bring (it) on (before its time).
This time till the appointed time is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) blessing for us to mend our ways and to repent.
If we died while in a state of denial, when Ghaafil, without realizing our disbelief, impatience, wrong deeds and inaction according to our potential, can you imagine the hopelessness of realizing that we wasted our creation?
If we died while we had thought that we still had another 30 years, 30 weeks, or 30 days to live, how unfortunate we would be, because our life and actions would reflect that we were not prepared for it to happen today.
What good can you expect from some one who does not remember his death? No wonder people are afraid to die because they cannot face the fruit what they have sown in their life.
But then there are some who found death sweeter than Honey, as Qasim Ibn Imam Hasan (AS) told Imam Hussain (AS) at Kerbala. "
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