Ali Albarghouthi – Signs Of A Righteous Death
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AI: Transcript ©
Inna alhamdulillah, nahmaduhu wa nasta'eeluhu wa nastaghfiruhu,
wa na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa
sayyi'ati a'malina, man yahdihi allahu fa la
mudhilla lah, wa man yudhlil fa la hadiya
lah, wa ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wahdahu
la sharika lah, wa anna muhammadan abduhu wa
rasuluh, sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
wa sallam, amma ba'du fa inna khayra al
hadith kitabullah ta'ala, wa khayra al hadi
hadi muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa sharra
al umuri muhdathatuha, wa kulla muhdathatin bid'ah,
wa kulla bid'atin dalalah, wa kulla dalalahin
finnaar, amma ba'd.
It is a well-known fact that we
are all going to die.
But not all deaths are equal.
There is a death that would be pleasing
to Allah Azza wa Jal, and there is
a death that would be otherwise displeasing to
Him.
And if you think about it, as we
strive to live the best life that we
can, we should also think about having the
best death possible.
And Rasulullah alayhi wa salatu wa salam said,
idha aradallahu bi'addin khayran asalah, qaloo wa
maa asalahu ya rasulallahi qala yuwafiquhu aw yaftahulahu
amalan salihan, thumma yakbiduhu alayhi.
wa fee riwayatin yaftahulahu amalan salihan, fayamootu alayhi
liyardhaa anhu jiranuhu waman hawla.
He said, alayhi salatu wa salam, that if
Allah wants the best for someone, He sweetens
them.
They said, O Messenger of Allah, and what
does that mean, He sweetens them?
He said, He opens for them, He leads
them to a righteous deed to do right
before their death, and as they're dying, they're
doing that thing.
And that's what sweetens them mean.
And another narration or another hadith, he said,
alayhi salatu wa salam, He guides them to
a righteous deed, they die doing it, so
that their neighbors and those around them are
pleased with them, that they have the best
of things to say about them, because he
died praying, he died fasting, he died in
hajj, he died giving sadaqa, a righteous deed
that Allah facilitated for that person, because Allah
wanted him to die in that fashion.
And you may wonder, why, what does that
mean when you die doing a good thing?
He said, alayhi salatu wa salam, yub'athul
mar'u ala ma mata alayhi, a person
will be resurrected in the state that he
died in.
He will be resurrected in the state that
he died in.
There are a couple of other hadith that
explain this.
So he said about those who are martyred,
shuhada, in the cause of Allah azza wa
jal, he said, ma min makloomin yuklamu fee
sabeeli allahi, illa ja'a yawma alqiyamati, wa
kalmuhu yadmi, al lawnu lawnu dam, wa reehu
reehu misk.
He said, alayhi salatu wa salam, anyone who
is injured for the sake of Allah azza
wa jal, he'll come on the day of
judgment with that injury still fresh, flowing with
blood.
He says, the color will be the color
of blood, but the smell will be the
smell of musk.
And that is an honor for that person.
So anybody who sees him on the day
of judgment, on the day of resurrection, knows
the status of that person when they see
and they smell.
So if he dies as a martyr, he
is resurrected in that state.
And he said in another hadith, alayhi salatu
wa salam, for the person who dies in
the state of ihram, hajj, and umrah, fa
inna hu yub'athu yawma alqiyamati mulabbiyah.
He will be resurrected on the day of
judgment with talbiyah, labbayk Allahumma labbayk.
That's why when you shroud him, when you
put the coffin, you don't cover his head.
So how you die matters, because it determines
how you will be resurrected.
And as it is exciting to know that
those who die righteously will be resurrected righteously,
you have to think about the opposite as
well.
That if a person dies committing a sin,
he will be resurrected with the sinners, with
those who commit that sin.
If a person is resurrected committing anything displeasing
to Allah, that's the last thing that he's
doing.
The last thing that he believes, the last
thing that he enjoys, he'll be resurrected in
the company of those who commit that sin.
So that is what is terrifying about it.
Now Rasulullah alayhi salatu wa salam gave us
signs of a righteous death.
And these are important to know so that
we can recognize them.
That's why he said alayhi salatu wa salam,
what these signs are.
And to try whenever possible to strive to
get them, because they are signs, hopeful signs.
So the first and the most important of
them is he said alayhi salatu wa salam,
man kana aakhiru kalamihi la ilaha illallah dakhalal
jannah.
The one whose last words are la ilaha
illallah, he will enter jannah.
That's why it is a sunnah for a
person who is dying to receive the advice
of those around him.
Say la ilaha illallah, la ilaha illallah.
He said alayhi salatu wa salam, laqinu mawtaakum
la ilaha illallah.
Those who are about to pass, say in
front of them, around them, la ilaha illallah.
So the last thing that they say is
la ilaha illallah.
And if that's the thing, that's the conclusion
of your words in this dunya, that is
a very hopeful sign that you will go
to jannah by the will of Allah azzawajal.
It was important to remember that it's not
always easy to say la ilaha illallah at
that time.
Because you'll only be able to say it
if you felt it, if you lived it,
if you believed it.
And Ibn Qayyim rahimahullah has recorded instances of
people who were presented with the opportunity to
say it, and either they refused, outright refused,
no I don't believe it, no I'm not
going to say it.
Or they were unable to.
Not because of illness where the tongue cannot
move, but because the sin that they were
addicted to, in love with, blocked their tongue.
So he says, I cannot say it, I
want to say it, I cannot say it.
So sin, especially the ones that we are
addicted to, the major ones, the ones that
we have not repented from, they have that
ability to resurface at the last moment of
life, and overtake that person, and prevent him
from saying the thing that he needs to
say the most, which is la ilaha illallah.
So how you live tells you how you
are going to die.
So that is one sign.
He said also, alayhis salatu wassalam, pointing to
another sign, he says, al mu'min yamutu bi
arakil jabeen.
He says, the believer will die while his
forehead is sweating.
That is another sign, that is another indication.
He said also, alayhis salatu wassalam, man mata
yawma aljumu'ati aw laylat aljumu'ah, waqahu
allahu min azabi alqabr.
He says, the person who dies Friday, on
the day, or the night of Friday, aljumu
'ah, Allah will protect him from the punishment
of the grave.
So that is a hopeful sign, that if
a person is fortunate enough to die, and
you cannot choose the time of your death,
but he is fortunate enough to die on
Friday, it's night or it's day.
You see, that is a hopeful sign from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Another sign is martadam shahada, to die as
a martyr.
And in a hadith, he said, alayhis salatu
wassalam, lil mu'mini aw lishaheedi inda rabbihi sittu
khisal.
He says, the martyr will have six rewards
with Allah azza wa jal.
Among them, he will see his place in
Jannah.
Among them, he will be protected from the
punishment of the grave.
So that is reserved, that's an honor, for
those who die in battle for the sake
of Allah azza wa jal.
That is a good righteous end.
But martadam has a more expansive meaning than
just simply dying in battle.
Once Rasulullah alayhis salatu wassalam, he asked the
sahaba, ma ta'uddoona alshuhadaa feekum?
He says, who do you consider to be
a shaheed among you?
They said, O Prophet of Allah, those who
are killed in the cause of Allah.
He said, idhan shuhadaa wa ummati qaleel.
He says, if that's the case, then the
shuhadaa, the martyrs of my ummah are few.
They say, O Prophet of Allah, then whom?
He said, man qutila fee sabeelillahi fahuwa shaheed,
wa man maata fee sabeelillahi fahuwa shaheed, wa
man maata fee alta'ooni fahuwa shaheed, wa
man maata fee albatni fahuwa shaheed, wa man
maata fee algharaqi fahuwa shaheed.
He said, alayhis salatu wassalam, the one who
dies, the one who's killed in the cause
of Allah, he's a martyr.
That's the top level of martyrdom.
But also, the one who dies naturally in
the cause of Allah, while in the cause
of Allah, he's a martyr.
The one who dies in the plague, because
of it, he's a martyr.
The one who dies because of an abdominal
disease, datul batn, he's a martyr.
And the one who dies drowning, he's a
martyr.
In a couple of other hadith, the Prophet
alayhis salatu wassalam added to them, wa sahibul
hadmi shaheed, the one who dies under the
rubble.
A building, a wall falls on top of
them and he dies because of it.
He says, that's martyrdom.
Wa sahibul harqi shaheed, the one who dies
because of a fire is also a martyr.
So, first of all, we don't ask for
these things to happen for us or anybody
else.
We leave that to Allah azzawajal.
Second, these things, though they may seem awful,
the Prophet alayhis salatu wassalam is telling you
what?
Look a second time.
Take a second look and consider that this
very thing that looks awful could be rahma
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because Allah wanted a better end for that
person.
So yes, they die in that way.
But take solace, take comfort in the fact
that Allah azzawajal chooses how His servants die.
And He chose that they would die this
way.
And His choice is not inferior to yours,
it's better than yours.
And some of the ulama, they've added to
the list that we have or extended it
to say that the one who dies in
a car accident is similar to one who
dies under the rubble.
And Allah knows best.
So the one who dies in a car
accident.
And some scholars have said, the one who
dies because of cancer is close to one
who dies because of an abdominal pain and
disease.
And that could be even more fierce, a
cancer.
So Allah knows best, but we hope the
best.
That if a person receives that news, they
may consider to themselves that if they are
patient, that Allah azzawajal will give them the
reward of martyrdom.
So it's not always bad.
He said, alayhi s-salatu wa s-salam,
also about women.
He says, a woman dying during pregnancy is
a martyr.
Her child will lead her with his umbilical
cord to paradise.
So that is martyrdom, especially for women.
And he said in another hadith, the one
who dies, the woman who dies because of
childbirth is a martyr.
Now a couple of other categories from the
Prophet alayhi s-salatu wa s-salam.
One is al-murabitu fee sabeelillah.
The one who is stationed to protect Muslims
for the sake of Allah azzawajal in jihad.
He will be protected from the punishment in
the grave, from the questioning in the grave.
And if he dies like that, that is
a good end.
Add to it also, he said alayhi s
-salatu wa s-salam, as martyrdom, he said,
The one who dies defending himself is a
martyr.
The one who dies defending his family is
a martyr.
The one who dies defending his wealth is
a martyr.
The one who dies defending his honor, meaning
his family, is a martyr.
So that definition of martyrdom is big in
Islam.
And if a person is killed unjustly, according
to the Prophet alayhi s-salatu wa s
-salam, he may receive that honor from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And finally, like the hadith that we quoted,
if Allah wants the best for anyone of
us, He inspires us, He leads us to
do something good.
And then you die while reading the Qur
'an, in sujood, in the salah, in hajj,
in umrah, while giving sadaqah, while just simply
having finished doing something for Allah's sake, and
only for Allah's sake, and then you die,
that is a great sign from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala that Allah may be pleased
with you.
May Allah azzawajal make us among those people.
Now there are signs that the Prophet alayhi
s-salatu wa s-salam did not mention,
they're not in the Qur'an, they are
not in the sunnah, but a person may
witness them, such as the dead smiling, the
dead smiling or the smell of musk emanating
from the body or the grave of that
person, or other such similar observances.
So first we say that the Prophet alayhi
s-salatu wa s-salam didn't say anything
about these signs.
So at best they are secondary, meaning that
if we see that the person had received
a good ending, and then we also notice,
based on everything that we said, he received
a good ending, he's pleasing to Allah azzawajal,
people around him praise him.
He died in a way that Allah azzawajal
or the Prophet alayhi s-salatu wa s
-salam have described.
And then you notice that he's also smiling.
We say that is an extra indication by
the will of Allah azzawajal that Allah is
pleased with them.
You also consider or you see from him
or you smell from him musk.
On its own we say Allahu a'lam,
but with other indications and signs, we say
that is maybe an extra sign that Allah
azzawajal is pleased with them.
But based on these signs, whether you see
some of them or you see all of
them, we do not conclude that that person
is in heaven.
We have no power.
We say we hope.
The only people that we know that are
in heaven are the ones whom Allah told
us about, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam had told us about.
Then we are sure.
Everybody else, these are signs, very good signs,
but these are signs and we say Allahu
a'lam.
One of these signs are missing.
We say it's not necessarily bad if this
sign is missing, especially if the person did
not have an opportunity to say La ilaha
illallah before their death.
If, for instance, the death is sudden, and
in fact, one of the signs of the
Day of Judgment is Mawtul Faj'ah.
Mawtul Faj'ah, sudden death, is of the
signs of the Day of Judgment, meaning you'll
find more and more people dying all of
a sudden.
No preconditions, nothing to anticipate or indicate this,
all of a sudden they die.
So that a person may not have the
opportunity to say La ilaha illallah, or died
on a Friday, or have sweated before their
death, or, or, or.
Does that mean that that person have received
a bad ending?
No, it doesn't mean that.
What could be taken as a bad sign
is if a person sins, and they die.
That is a bad sign.
Or a person has the opportunity to say
La ilaha illallah, and he rejects it.
Or he says, I don't want to say
it.
Or find him unable to say it, though
his tongue can move, but find him unable,
he's lucid.
He can talk, but he cannot say La
ilaha illallah.
That is not such a great sign.
But yet we don't say that that person
is in hellfire, we do not know.
We ask Allah to forgive him, we pray
janazah for that person, and we hope the
best for that person, but we do say,
yes, that was not the greatest of signs,
to be at the end of one's life.
Now, how do we get these signs?
How do we get that end?
Where Allah Azza wa Jal said, يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ
إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ O you who have iman,
have taqwa of Allah as He deserves, and
do not die except as Muslims.
And you will only be able to fulfill
this ayah, not to die except as a
Muslim, if you live as a Muslim.
Right?
Because your life is predictive of your death,
and your death is predictive of your resurrection.
How you live determines how you die.
How you die determines how you will be
resurrected.
So you say, I want the best death
for myself, you say, you have to live
the best life.
Otherwise, if you don't repent, you're far away
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The moment of death is the weakest that
you are.
That's the time when you panic.
You'd like to cling on to anything.
That's the time when the sin surfaces.
And that's the time when the shaitan assaults
you with all of his might.
He says, if I can get him now,
I got him.
And if he escapes now, he had escaped
me.
So if you want to be secure at
that moment of death, which is the most
difficult of moments, live a righteous death that
Allah azza wa jal loves right now.
And if you live it right now, you'll
be most hopeful or guaranteed that when you
die, Allah azza wa jal will take care
of you.
سَيُبْعَثُ الْمَرْءُ عَلَىٰ مَا مَاتَ عَلَيْهِ You will
be resurrected in the state that you will
die in.
So think to yourself, when you want to
do something wrong, what if I die right
now?
I'm gonna waste my entire life of salah
and fasting and dua and this, I'm committing
this sin and I die doing it, I'll
be resurrected with those who steal, those who
fornicate, those who look at *, those who
lie to people, those who do this, I'm
gonna be with them.
Not in the company of Muhammad a.s
.w. and those who are righteous.
If you want to be among the righteous,
act as the righteous.
And not only act, what you love, what
grabs your attention really matters.
In another hadith, the Prophet a.s.w.
said, وَلَا يُحِبُّ رَجُلٌ قَوْمًا إِلَّا حُشِرَ مَعَهُمْ
He says, if a person loves a people,
he will be resurrected with them.
It's not just simply what you're doing, but
who do you love?
So if you find that you, yes, I'm
striving, maybe I don't have it yet, but
I'm striving to love Muhammad a.s.w.
the most, to love the sahaba, to love
the righteous wherever they may be, regardless of
nationality, regardless of color, I love them for
Allah's sake and I'm striving.
You say, that's a good sign.
If you find yourself that what really grabs
you, what you gravitate towards are entertainers who
are absolutely displeasing to Allah a.s.w.
Athletes who are absolutely displeasing to Allah.
You look at their lifestyle, what they're proposing,
what they are promoting.
It's sin upon sin upon sin, and you
admire, and you imitate, and you look like,
and you love them.
If this is your group, consider that maybe
when you die, Allah will put you with
them.
So you do actually not only need to
distance yourself from sinners, and rethink that they're
really not models, not examples, not people to
try to imitate or celebrate.
Not only do you physically need to distance
yourself from them, but emotionally you have to
keep reminding yourself, this person is not a
righteous person, not a person of taqwa.
If I were to love him, he'll put
me in hellfire.
So then choose for yourself.
Do you wanna love that person and look
like him?
Go ahead.
But if you wanna love what Allah a
.s.w. loves, you also have to hate
what Allah a.s.w. hates.
And that includes lifestyles that displease Him.
So you only get one life.
You only get one life.
You don't have another opportunity to fix it.
One life and one death.
So either we do it right, or we
lose it forever.
So we ask Allah, Arham al-Rahimin, Rabb
al-Alamin, we ask You, Ya Allah, with
all Your names and attributes to grant us
a righteous death that You are pleased with.
We ask You, Ya Rabb al-Alamin, Ya
Arham al-Rahimin, to make us of those
who live righteously, and die righteously, and are
resurrected among the righteous.
We ask You, Ya Rabb al-Alamin, to
forgive us all of our sins, those that
are public and those that are private, the
minor and the major.
Grant us a sincere repentance from anything that
displeases You, Ya Rabb al-Alamin.
We seek Your protection from ghafla.
We seek Your protection from our hawwa, Ya
Arham al-Rahimin.
We seek Your protection from the whispers of
the shaytan.
We seek Your protection from our own weakness.
Strengthen us, Ya Rabb al-Alamin, with iman
and taqwa.
Make us love You more than anything and
anyone else.
And to love Your Prophet, alayhis-salatu was
-salam, more than we love ourselves, Ya Arham
al-Rahimin.
We ask You, Ya Allah, to send Your
quick relief to the people in Ard al
-Sham.
Ya Rabb al-Alamin, clothe them and feed
them and protect them.
Ya Allah, defend them because they are defenseless.
Ya Allah, defend them and come to their
aid, Ya Arham al-Rahimin.
Allahumma aatina fid dunya hasana, wafil aakhirati hasana,
waqina athab al-nar.
Allahumma ya muqalliba al-quloobi, thabbith quloobana ala
deenik.
Allahumma ya musarrif al-quloobi, sarrif quloobana ala
taatik.
Allahumma a'izza wansur ahl al-Sham, Rabb
al-Alamin.
Allahumma ansurhum ala man aadahum.
Allahumma adfa'a adha man aadahum, Ya Rabb
al-Alamin.
Allahumma kun lahum, wa la takun alayhim.
Allahumma inna najaluk fi nuhur a'daihim, wa na
'udhu bika min shururihim.
Allahumma kfinahum bima shiita, fa innahum la yu
'jizoonak.
Allahumma kfinahum bima shiita, fa innahum la yu
'jizoonak.
Allahumma innahum la yu'jizoonak, fa khuthum akhza
azeezin muqtadir.
Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum, bi rahmatika nastaghif.
Aslih lana sha'nana kullah, wa la takilna
ila anfusina tarfata'im.