Abu Bakr Zoud – Death As Mentioned In The Quran
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All praise and thanks belongs to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And may the peace and blessing of Allah
be upon his servant and final messenger, Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
As to what follows my dear respected brothers
and sisters in Islam,
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi
wa barakatuh.
We ask Allah to
accept our gathering and to bestow his mercy
and forgiveness upon us all.
My brothers and sisters in Islam,
what I wanted to share with you on
this last day
of the light upon light events
is
concerning the topic of death
and how it was mentioned in the Quran
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And I know sometimes
that the topic of death
could create panic
and anxiety and worry for some.
But I say to you that, allahu 'alaam,
anxiety and fear comes from the unknown.
When you don't know something, you begin to
fear it.
And when that matter is clarified to
you, and you receive knowledge about this matter,
it eases that anxiety.
And I hope
that with sharing this topic from the Quran,
it creates that ease
so that you know what you are looking
forward to.
Because death is a reality
and this is a matter that Allah has
written upon everyone.
Allah
says
Allah says to Nabi salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
if you tasted death,
do you think others are going to live
forever?
Meaning everyone will die. Those that are most
beloved to Allah
would taste death,
and as a result everyone else on earth
and every living creature will taste death.
Allah aasawajal, he says,
Every nafs,
every person
shall taste
death.
And that means
that the soul never dies.
It only tastes
death.
It tastes it only as it's coming out
of the body. What dies is the body.
That's what decomposes
and that's what's put into the earth.
But the soul itself only tastes death.
And you've all heard this ayah.
Did you have a question?
What is the implication
of the word?
What is the implication of the word
that each and every soul
shall taste death?
Allah did not say every soul will die.
He said every soul shall taste
death. You know, when you taste something,
it can either taste sweet
or bitter and sour.
And when people experience death,
some will have a pleasurable experience,
a sweet taste to it,
and others
will have a miserable experience
and it will be bitter and sour for
them.
And you choose this for yourself.
My brothers and sisters in Islam,
in the final moments of life,
when the soul is finally coming out of
a person's body,
it is at that very moment that you
will realize
nothing in this world is of any value
and worth to you.
At that moment when the soul is coming
out,
what does your wealth mean to you? Nothing.
Your cars,
your businesses,
your friends,
your family,
all of these matters
will have no value and no earth.
In the final moments of life,
you will realize
that the only thing that has value and
worth
are your righteous actions
and your good deeds.
Your salat and your Quran and your relationship
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And I tell you something,
you better learn this lesson right now
because if you choose not to learn it
now,
wallahi,
before you leave this worldly life,
you will learn this lesson.
That everything on earth has no value and
no worth.
The only thing that has value and worth
are your righteous deeds in this relationship that
you have with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
If you choose to learn this lesson now
and work towards
valuing what has value,
then Alhamdulillah.
And if you choose to neglect and ignore
this fact,
just before you leave,
you will realize what I had said and
you'll say that was right, but it is
too late by then. My brothers and sisters
in Islam,
this is why Nabi salallahu alaihi wa
sallam
instructed us to remember death often.
He said, make mention of death and make
mention of it in abundance.
And he called it
the destroyer of pleasures
because that's the reality of death.
It destroys the pleasures of this worldly life.
And every single day we see an example
of this.
This worldly life is a fake enjoyment.
Every pleasure you
engage in
becomes destroyed and you see it in this
life how fake it is. I'll give you
an example.
Allah, Asojal, when he described this worldly life,
he said,
You all know this part of the ayah,
that this worldly life is nothing but a
deceptive enjoyment.
It's a fake false enjoyment,
and you see this every single day.
The foods in front of you,
you enjoy the meal,
Hours later it comes out, what a fake
enjoyment.
You drink the best of drinks,
then it comes out a few hours later,
What a fake enjoyment.
You sit with your friends and with your
family.
You chat, you laugh, you have the best
times.
All of a sudden you receive a call.
Our friend has passed away. All of a
sudden.
No warning, no nothing. He's gone. What a
fake enjoyment.
Just yesterday we've enjoyed ease and ease together
and all of a sudden,
I don't enjoy his company anymore.
You wear the best of clothing,
you sieve and you sieve your wealth
to buy your favorite brand and your favorite
sportswear.
Then finally you purchase it,
and a few months later,
it wears and it tears away, and you
throw it in the bin.
What a fake enjoyment.
The very same things that we enjoy on
earth,
Allah
made them
the thing that we see, the fakeness of
this worldly life within.
And so we're
supposed
to awaken to this reality.
And the more you know that this worldly
life is a fake enjoyment,
and that 1 day you will also be
cut off from these worldly pleasures,
there will come a day in which you
will no longer eat. You will no longer
drink,
you will no longer be clothing yourself and
dressing yourself.
You will no longer be meeting with friends
and going with this person and that person.
You will no longer be taking this phone
out to check your social media and go
through
real after real.
You will no longer be doing this. A
day will come.
And this is why Nabi salallahu alaihi wa
sallam described death as the destroyer of pleasures.
These are the things that you are pleased
with, you enjoy.
Death will come and will destroy them all
at once.
You won't enjoy any of them anymore.
You're only there with your deeds
going towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And the more you remember death and the
reality of this wealthy life,
what it's supposed to create is a sense
of urgency within us to repent and to
seek forgiveness from Allah
This is the purpose of remembering death.
Because the 1 who's alert and aware of
this reality,
he rushes to atoba wl istighfar,
and he will also be content with what
he has.
If a person has forgotten the topic of
death,
he will never be satisfied and content with
what he has.
But if a person is always remembering the
topic of death
and always aware of it, it'll make him
content with what we has.
Because he'll say, I just need what I
need until the last day. And then afterwards,
I'm going somewhere else.
And it also softens the heart.
And we need this in a day of
a in a day and age where the
hearts have become tough and rigid
because of the fitan and the corruption and
the injustice
that is around us.
My brothers and sisters in Islam,
indeed death soften the hearts,
and it is
it is a reason for why Allah
might forgive your sins
by the me fact of remembering it and
remembering it.
Jabal radiAllahu anhu narrates that Nabi sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said,
A man walked by a skull.
There was a skull on the earth.
So perhaps he was close to a graveyard,
a cemetery.
He passed by a skull
and he remembered death.
So he said,
He said, Allah. He said, oh, Allah. I
am who I am.
The weak, sinful, heedless human being. And you
are who you are.
The Lord, the almighty, at the waabur Rahim.
I am the 1 who frequently goes back
to sinning,
and you are the 1 who frequently forgives
and accepts the repentance of the slaves.
And he fell into Asashdah.
Then he heard a voice,
a voice of an angel calling him.
The angel said,
raise your head
for indeed Allah is who he is.
The all forgiving, the all merciful.
And you are who you are.
The sinner, the 1 who choose to acknowledge
his state of sin and heedlessness.
Allah has forgiven you, and Allah
forgave him.
And the scholars have mentioned
that just bypassing the cemetery
and remembering death
could be a reason for why Allah
bestows his favor and mercy and forgiveness upon
a person.
My brothers and sisters in Islam,
in the Quran, Allah
mentions to us
the 5 stages of how the soul is
extracted and removed from the body.
And it happens over 5 stages.
These stages could happen
in less than 1 second.
They could happen in 1 minute. They could
happen over a few days, over a few
weeks, over a few months. Everyone is different.
But every person that dies,
his soul goes through 5 stages.
Number 1, Allah
says,
in the first stage
the first stage is the day of your
death.
Allah
records this stage in Surat Al Baqarah
when he
said,
Allah said,
feed the day in which you will return
to your lord.
And the first stage
is the day in which you will return
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
There is a day
and a time
and it is very exact and specific
and a location as well.
When your day of death arrives,
that information,
the information of the fact that you will
be dying today
will be handed over to the angels
that are in the company of Allah aSawajal
in the heavens.
And they will begin their descent
going to that person.
They will have with them shrouds
from the shrouds of the paradise
and the scent of musk.
That's for the believer.
And farther than the believer,
shrouds from the fire will be prepared
so that the soul when it's extracted, it's
wrapped up with the shroud.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says,
No 1 knows
where he will die.
That ain't that
information is given to the angels. They they
know exactly where they're going to meet you.
You might not be in that location yet.
So let's say it is the day of
your death
and the angels have been told to take
your soul in a specific location.
You're not there
yet. They go down to that location.
They don't come to where you are and
follow you. They go to that location.
There's no such thing as he was in
the wrong place at the wrong time.
That's something that is common on the tongues
of people,
and it goes against the belief of the
Muslim.
Never ever, ever say
upon receiving the news of the death or
of a death of a person that has
died,
he was at the wrong place at the
wrong time.
Never say that because Nabi salallahu alaihi wasalam
said,
if Allah
decreed
that he take the soul of a person,
When Allah decrees to take the soul of
this person
at that exact location,
Allah will make for this person a reason
to end up being there.
And as a result, you will travel to
your final destination.
You will go to it by your feet.
And there is something beautiful in the Quran
that describes
our fear of death and how death approaches.
Allah says,
Tell them.
Make an announcement to people and tell them.
You see death,
the 1 that you run away from,
it will meet you.
But you see the beauty in the language?
To flee from something
is to have the danger behind your back
and to run away from it.
Allah
says,
this death that you're running away from,
it will meet you. And the word
is to see something in front of your
face.
So you're running away from it, but you're
actually running towards it.
You think it's behind you, but it's actually
ahead of you.
That's the first stage.
The day of your death is handed over
to the angels.
The second stage
is the stage in which the soul is
collected from the body.
So now the angels
dive deep into the body
and begin to collect the soul from the
feet.
And they bring it up all the way
to the ankles
and all the way to the hip and
to the abdominal area. And they continue to
pull it out until it reaches this area
here, the chest.
And of course, Malak al Maut doesn't work
alone.
He has angels with him.
Allah
says That whenever a person is about to
die,
our angels are sent to him and they
extract the soul.
So he has aid is helpers and supporters.
Malik al Mote. He has.
They'll extract the soul until it reaches this
area.
Malak al Moth's job is the final job
just to pluck the soul
as it's at the end
the end stage.
So that's the second stage.
The sole is extracted from the body.
That's when the feet go numb and cold.
That's when a person's knees become numb and
cold.
That's when a person's legs now he has
lost control and movement in them as the
soul is coming out.
The third stage that Allah mentions in the
Quran
is the stage in which the soul has
now reached to the collarbone,
which is this area.
Allah
says,
Allah
speaks about the stage in which the soul
has reached at Taraki,
the collarbone.
At that very moment,
Allah
says,
and the family is standing around him.
Allah now
tells us how the family would react.
It's like the camera now
has panned and it's moved towards the family
so you can see their reaction
in this third stage of death.
The family would begin to scream out, man
raq.
Where is the raqi?
Where is the doctor?
Where is the nurse?
Who can come and aid him and help
him? Hurry up. We don't have time. We're
losing time.
Allah
says,
The
person that's laying there about to die,
he now
is certain
that he is departing this worldly life.
In the 3rd stage
is when the dying person is certain that
he is dying.
Allah says,
And now the shin is folded over the
other shin.
What does that mean?
Like this.
If you stand
and I put this foot over this foot,
this here
is
called But I ask you a question.
If a person is there dying, does anyone
do this?
Do we grab his foot and fold it
over the other? So what is Allah saying?
That the foot,
the shin has been folded over the other.
What it means is this.
When I stand like
this, can I walk forward?
It's impossible. He can't walk.
What that means
is that the 3rd stage in which the
soul comes out,
you can no longer move forward in your
relationship with Allah
If you now wanted to pray, it's too
late.
If you now want to adhere to the
commandments of Allah, it's too late.
If you now decided to wear Al Ijab,
it's too late.
If you now decided
to keep away from a lifestyle of heedlessness
and sin and rebellion, it is too late.
If you now decide to obey and respect
your parents
and stop causing harm and oppression to others,
it is too late.
Now you will be carried to your lord
because you can't.
You're immobile now.
From now on, the angels are going to
take over.
You don't have no control over your life
from that point onwards.
Allahu
Akbar.
This is why death was described in the
Quran as a calamity.
You know, there are many calamities in life.
Financial calamities,
relationship calamities,
so many.
But the only calamity
that Allah
explicitly mentions in the Quran
is death.
He said,
The calamity of death strikes you.
And I think to myself,
why is death a calamity for the person
that is dying?
I can understand how it's a calamity for
those around the dying person.
They're losing a loved 1. They'll go through
a difficult time.
They'll
grieve. They have to bury him.
But the dying person himself,
why is death a calamity for him?
He's departing. He's going. The pains are soon
going to end.
It's because
the dying person,
once his soul is out, the record of
doing good deeds has been closed,
and that is the calamity.
Now if you wanted to say
for Allah, you cannot.
Imagine.
Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam said,
When the son of Adam dies,
his record of good deeds has come to
an end.
And he continues some hasanat if he's established
some goodness for himself before his
death.
But for the vast majority,
if you don't have some good deeds left
on earth,
that will be a flowing river of Hasanat
into your grief. You never established something beneficial
for the people.
Then your record has ended. I don't know.
I don't know what the feeling of a
person in his grief that can no longer
say astaghfirullah.
I don't know what his feeling is.
I don't know how the feeling is for
a person in his grief who can no
longer make a shashta.
My brothers and sisters in Islam,
every single person in his grave at this
very moment,
if he was given the chance to come
back to this
life,
wallahi, his only reason to come back
would be to worship Allah.
Nothing else.
These are not my words.
These are the words of Allah
Allah says, When death presents to a person
this in the 3rd stage,
he says, my
lord, return me.
But why?
He doesn't say, lord, return me. I need
to build my house. I had a bill
to pay. I had some studies to finish.
He says,
in the hope that I may do some
righteous deeds.
Don't be fooled my brothers and sisters in
Islam.
This worldly life never ends.
Some people have in the back of their
mind that when I finish my studies,
I'll get serious.
When I get married, insha'allah, that's when I'll
commit to the Islamic lifestyle.
When this happens and that happens and insha'allah,
I will reform.
I tell you a fact about death.
I'll give you my definition about death.
Type there in your phone so that you
don't forget it. Death.
It is going to come way before you
expect.
Much much much before you expect.
That's a simple definition of death.
It comes way before you expect it.
Every single person in his grief
has unfinished worldly business.
There is no grief on earth
that if you had the chance to speak
to the person in there, he'll say brother
Alhamdulillah, I finished all my worldly duties and
I was ready to leave.
No 1.
Someone will be in there. I I was
on my way to to work, an accident.
Someone else, I wanted to witness my son's,
marriage but I couldn't do it. Everyone will
have something he still wanted to do,
but death
stopped
his worldly dreams and hopes.
Be careful.
Be careful. That's the worldly life. That's how
it is.
So that's the 3rd stage the soul has
reached here.
The 4th stage,
Allah Azza wa Jal says about it,
Now the soul reaches the throat area. This
is.
It's gone up from the collarbone to the
throat.
At that moment, Allah says,
Now the family and the friends and everyone
that's around him can just.
They're just looking at him.
Allah says,
and we are closer to him than you
but you cannot see. Meaning, Allah's angels are
closer to him than
you. He sees the angels of Allah.
The person at that stage could possibly,
if he's a believer, return the salaam to
the angels. Onken. Because he sees the the
angels at that time.
Allah says,
Then Allah
gives a challenge to mankind.
People that are atheists,
people that deny resurrection and the afterlife.
Allah's given them a little quick challenge at
this moment.
Allah
says,
if you actually believe,
if you're certain of the fact that you
will not be resurrected,
and questioned
and held to account for your life, then
Allah has a challenge for you.
Allah says,
trying to return this soul back into this
dying person's body.
Go on.
Push your soul back in. If indeed you
are truthful
that there is no after life and there's
no accountability.
Up until this day, the challenge is open
to every atheist.
If you're not and, you know, with the
1, 000, 000 and billions,
with all their information and technology and research.
And they are trying to find ways on
how to bring someone back to life. And
they're investing in technology in where the body
could be preserved
so that hopefully later in many years, there
could be some sort of way into putting
a soul and life back into that body.
But if you cannot return the soul back
into this person's body,
then who gives you the,
who gives you the approval to speak about
how matters run-in this worldly life? If you
couldn't do that,
then humble yourself
and accept the truth from your Lord.
He's the 1 who caused your life.
He's the 1 who's causing your death now,
and you can see it.
Therefore,
he's the only 1 who's able to return
you back to this worldly life.
And finally
and this is the 5th and last stage.
And this is Mulla Qal Mulk's job.
He comes,
and now his job is to just pluck
the soul.
If it was a believing soul,
it'll feel as though water is pouring out
from a bottle.
Goes easy, gentle upon the believer.
And if it's a disbelieving
soul,
then it will be ripped out of the
body
just like forms are ripped out of wool.
And that is because a disbelieving
soul
will see their destination.
A horrible destination, the destination of the hellfire.
So the soul doesn't want to go to
that. It disperses
again into the body. It's ripped out.
As for the believer,
he sees his destination.
He sees the paradise and the mercy of
Allah,
so why would he want to stay in
this entrapment,
in this cage, in this prison, in this
world of life so it flows and it
comes out easily?
And finally,
at that moment,
Malak al Moth
says
a few words.
These few words, he says,
would be a summary of your life.
If it's a believing soul,
he will say,
yeah, He will say, oh, pure, beautiful soul.
Come out. Come
out to a pleasure and a forgiveness of
your lord
and to a lord that is not displeased
and angry with you.
Allahu Akbar. And if it's a disbelieving soul,
oh, filthy dirty soul,
come out
to an anger and a displeasure of your
lord.
You see that? What Malak al Moth says
is a summary of your life.
And so what that teaches us,
if you want to hear, oh, pure, good
soul,
then you already know what your mission and
purpose on life is.
Work towards a pure soul.
Work towards a good soul.
Purify the soul.
Reading the Quran purifies the soul. Every prayer
purifies the soul.
Every good deed purifies the soul. A good
word you speak purifies your soul, prepares you
for the meeting with Allah
And if you are preparing to meet Allah,
then Allah
would love to meet you. We ask Allah
to make us from those
who love to meet him
We ask him
to bestow his ultimate mercy and forgiveness upon
us all. We ask Allah to accept from
us all.