Fear Of Death
Date:
Channel: Bilal Philips
File Size: 8.07MB
AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of preparing for death and not fearing it. They stress the need for personal education and finding avenues for wealth, emphasizing the need to be believers in reality and avoid confusion. The speakers also emphasize the importance of learning and finding avenues for wealth in the future.AI Generated Transcript ©
All praise is due to a lot of peace and blessings be on his last prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and and all those who follow the path of righteousness until the last day.
The topic of today's hookah
was the fear of death.
The Imam began the presentation
by asking the question, why do we fear death?
Why do we fear something
which we have not tried out?
Normally,
we fear fire because we've been burned by
something we've experienced.
From that experience, we understand its dangers and its harm cetera. And as such, we fear it is the normal black. So why is it then that we fear death, since none of us have experienced it, to come back, and to speak about it?
He proposed that the reason for fear is perhaps partly instinctual.
This is something which is shared with all the animals,
that all of the laws creatures
have a natural desire to try to survive.
So not allow itself to be destroyed.
This is something
built in every one of our last features.
But beyond that,
we go above the remainder of a lot features.
Have an ability to
intellectually understand,
to go beyond our instincts.
Why then,
do we fear something
which must go
something which is unavoidable.
And at the same time,
we love so dearly
so deeply,
something which must go
this world
and the things that this world
is the question that we do need to reflect on.
If our intelligence
was serving us properly,
then
we shouldn't fear something
which is unavoidable.
That which comes to everyone we know will come, no matter what we do, we will die.
Something that is so definite.
We should not have a fear
and
the thing that we know we will lose.
We know without a doubt
that we cannot take this world with us. We will leave everything behind everything we have gathered the house car wives, children, everything. We cannot take them with us. We are absolutely certain.
So
then our intellect
if it is serving us well it should tell us that we cannot become
too attached to this world.
However,
opposite is reality.
We fear death.
And we love this world.
And this is one of the signs of our time
is something which the Prophet Mohammed predicted
would happen to Muslim
because in his time
his companions
were not afraid of this
and that is why
they defeat
Give
people around them who are far greater and stronger than them militarily.
far greater numbers.
Because those people that were fighting feared death.
But they did.
And the amount of gave a number of different examples from the time of the problem.
And it would behoove all of us to read of the lives of the Sahaba.
the companions of the Prophet, tell them to read
the authentic stories of their lives is a book called companions of the Prophet, which is by compiled and translated by
Potter was
published in England, very good collection of
stories of the companion
material is, for the most part, authentic materials and three volumes,
three books,
it's very important for us to
have these stories
for our children read of the story,
because it gives us something of the feeling of that earliest generation, that early generation of Muslims, what their understanding of Islam
what it what does it do for them?
How does it change them? How does it make them different from the people have their time
because the farmers are seldom spoken the time in the future.
1400 years ago, he spoke of a time when
the world
would partake
in the destruction of the Muslim, oma,
the way that the animals you know, when you do get a group of animals, dogs or whatever, and you put a plate down with food, they all rush on the plate, and everyone is picking it
up.
You gave this
metaphor, a symbol, that plate of food represented the Muslims of the future.
And the companions out with it, because the Muslims of the future
would then with the numbers of Muslims
get smaller and smaller and smaller until the world you know, everybody had congregated against us and could easily destroy them. We said no,
their numbers will be many.
Their numbers will be many.
We're always here how many Muslims are on Earth, about a third of the population or a quarter of the population, over 1 billion Muslims.
And we see the reality
there will be many, but they will be like the bubbles before for us by the flood.
The flood comes through and it takes things away and turns them up there. But there are bubbles which are created created on the surface of the flood.
Having no strings, we use them.
That's what they would be like many enough
billion.
But they will be.
And he went on to explain
that they're useless because
there has spread amongst them a lot, a
strong love of this life. And they fear of
death, the fear of death had reached into their heart
so deeply
that they will do anything to stay alive.
They will do anything to collect
the trinkets of this world
and because of that
the nation's would destroy them.
And of course, this is not political change.
Until
once again,
come back
to the realization
of the reality of this life
and to
the essence on the face of Islam.
The religion, which is not just a series of rituals.
You will see people coming to the masjid
all pray.
But they're not praying.
Booty them, playing with their headscarf checking their watches,
leaving on one foot and switching to the other foot.
cracking your knuckles. We welcome
braying but not great.
Because
what is fair about?
Just a ritual that my parents do. And I'm doing.
That's the state of Islam. Throughout the Muslim world,
people are doing it because their parents did it. why they did it. They don't really know. Because their great grandparents.
But
what is the purpose of prayer?
What is prayer supposed to do? For us? Are we doing a favor by
a lot of needs offer? All we bring because we need to pray?
And if we need to pray, why do we need to pray?
These are the realities that we have to grasp for prayer to become meaningful
for Islam, to become
meaningful, to become a way of life, and not just a series of rituals.
And when Islam becomes a way of life,
in truth, then
we will use the fear of death
and will then be able
to
make what's
the
source of guidance
for this world,
the example
of righteous
the upholders
of the law,
the divine law,
which should govern the lives of mankind.
But the reality is that we today
fear death.
Because
we don't know what comes after.
We don't know what
we are going to find when we die.
It is an unknown.
know Allah has told us in great detail about what we will find.
He is explained to us.
When a person dies, what happens? The angels coming picking the spirits, you know everything the whole process, you know, being in the state of the grave of the resurrection, the judgments, crossing over the, you know, the bridge, you know, going to paradise, what is in Paradise, what is in hell?
For a law, through revelation has explained it to us in vivid detail,
because our faith
has not gone beyond the state of meaningfulness.
Then it remains unknown.
All that has been explained, is meaningless.
It's still the great unknown
and intimate knowledge,
which has advanced over
the centuries.
It has advanced fundamentally in the material areas,
societies
have evolved materially, the technology is all in the material sphere.
It has not
explained
or dissected
or improved
the quality of human spiritual life.
Because the most technologically advanced societies
are the ones in which the people
are the most self destructive.
The reality you find most societies that are building going to the moon etc. These are the same societies that are destroying the various creatures
and
The vegetation,
the atmosphere, I mean, they are destroying the world. At the same time that they are advancing.
Technologically, they're destroying the world. And they destroy themselves, find that the rate of murder, suicide, AIDS, diseases, etc, etc. It's just higher and higher and higher.
So this tells us for those of us who reflect
that the advancements in technology
really does not provide the ability to society.
That ultimately, stability comes
in faith
spiritually based,
and it is only when people are spiritually advanced, that they find stability in this life
isn't one of the things
which
I've made
some Westerners and caused them to become Muslim.
When they saw,
they came across them
under the worst of circumstances.
Yet, they seem to have
a spiritual calmness
and ability to deal with their circumstance, in spite of the severity of the calamities which befell them.
And this is coming out of Islam.
There is no way that the Western society can explain how it is that some people would seek that
weather today or whether in the past,
when those
early Empire came across the Muslims, they try to understand the brought them down and try to understand from them how it is that these people were not afraid of.
They couldn't understand it them
and the society cannot understand it.
So for us,
those of us who
realize
the
inescapable
that
we realize something we cannot escape,
and we have a commitment to Islam,
a commitment to faith,
then,
we have to prepare ourselves.
Because if we, in fact, accept that death is inevitable,
and we consider ourselves to be practicing,
then our actions should reflect our preparation for death. Now, preparation for death doesn't mean
as for some people,
you take your capital, buy it from today
is the clock that the wrap your body will die, and we love people, they will buy it now.
And you go to Mecca, and you wash it in grams of water,
take it back and keep it in your cupboard.
This is
not what it's meant to say we prepare for this.
Because of the fact that we have understood what is coming after that we will be held to account for what we do in this life.
We prepare for death by doing what Allah has commanded us to do in this slide. In order that we would achieve in the next slide what you found
ourselves properly for that
we understand
that it doesn't make sense to fear death
because if we feel that
we're fearing a loss will create the death
and a lot of promises
are informed us that he created life and death in order to test us who
the best indeed
We are enjoying the fear of loss, but not fear in the sense that we avoid it because you have two forms of fear. The fear that we're talking about which is not acceptable.
We are commanded by a lot of fear
is a part of faith in the sense of fearing
the harm that will come to us, as he as promised if we disobey Him. No, it's not that we fear like you fear of fire by avoiding fire, to fear a lion by running away from it. We don't fear a lion that we're running away from a lot because we cannot run away from them.
And we that's the way we do not fear death. We do not fear death by trying to run away from it, try to escape it because we can't escape it. We fear it, in the sense that we know that it is coming. And we fear to be unprepared for it.
That aspect of fear, we all should have.
But the fear which has
become rooted in people's hearts,
and all of our hearts
were in,
we are trying to avoid at any cost.
That fear we have to lose out, we have to replace it by preparation,
by acceptance of the reality, and by preparing ourselves for it.
As a lot of fun,
we should make the draw in the philosophy
of life even though you have an element that is very
rare.
And rites of worship,
sacrifice,
our life and our death,
to be
dedicated to a law
in accordance with the will of Allah, the Lord of all the world
is NUAGE should be a reality in our life.
Because whatever we put we do in this life,
we are doing it for ourselves.
The believer, who understands that death is the reality, you have to prepare for it, it does so by realizing the whatever good he does in this life, he or she does in this life, it is for themselves.
It is for whatever evil we do, ultimately is against ourselves.
We might think we are getting back at somebody or hurting somebody in this audience, we are hurting them. But in the end is what we have done is unjust, then we are hurting our own selves more. Because the hurts of this life is nothing in comparison to the hurts of the next.
This is why Omar says that whatever evil we do in this life is really against because the greater results, the greater punishment for that evil, or the harm that comes from it comes on ourselves in the next lecture.
So death
is just the transition
something which is unavoidable.
And as such, we should
go to the graveyard remind ourselves that it's coming,
that transition is coming.
We should visit the sick, visit the sick to comfort them, and also to remind ourselves
that we can get sick any time. And from that sickness we can
help something which is a blessing from Allah which you can take away at any time.
So we need to prepare
for the time the rest sickness.
And of course, the worst that can happen to us.
As we have been taught by a lot of friends, but the worst that can happen to us is that we died in a state of shock.
We die in a state of worshipping others besides
others along with a law
and the only way that we can protect ourselves from such a situation is
by understanding the principle of sell sheet
well
and apply is on our line.
Unfortunately, much of what is written about Islam
When we look at the spectrum of materials in any given library,
we'll find much material talking about
economics,
Islamic State,
crime and punishment
for law
zeca
very difficult material,
to find books talking about the fundamentals of Islam.
And so, he is given a paragraph
alized one condition.
As a result,
those people who read and study about Islam today
oftentimes miss some of this
essential material
which should form the basis of everything else, our economics, our politics,
everything, our prayer,
everything has to be built on a solid foundation of
power here, which is not just a word,
a lobbying one or the oneness of a law is more than just that statement is represents
the framework of the life of the believer. So, it is essential for us to understand how it should operate in all of the facets of our life.
So, for those of us,
whose readings are limited
in area,
I would suggest
that they try to find whatever material is available.
And I would personally recommend,
book, which I have written called the fundamentals and style sheets.
If you haven't read it,
then it is very essential for you to read it.
It is perhaps one of the few books available in the Islamic
library, which deals in depth with
essential principles concerning
the amount went on in the second part of the football,
to remind us that
when we die,
as the problem has told us,
all of our deeds and dislikes, and there is nothing more that we can do in this life.
But we may continue to benefit after our death from three basic
actions of
one charity which we have done,
from which people continue to benefit.
knowledge which will pass on
which continues to guide others
and a child who have left behind,
raise righteously will praise for
so part of our preparation for death
should involve
giving as much in charity as we can.
Because if we know what is coming up to us, and we know that the only thing that can benefit us after we die is charity which people continue to benefit from, then we need to try to find as many avenues for us to give our wealth, so that we will continue to be able to benefit from it after we die.
We need to find out as much about Islam as we can, and to educate others, so that those others will educate others. And that knowledge that we pass on not only benefits us personally in this life, but continues to benefit others, which would in turn benefits us in the next slide.
And we prepare for death also by looking after our children well,
by trying to educate them
as best as we can.
primarily from an Islamic perspective. Of course, we have a duty to prepare them to survive in this world.
So secular education is a part and parcel of their education. However,
we should not allow that secular education the need for it to
become the most important aspect of education in their life.
We should emphasize to them
we should find avenues for them.
educate themselves
spiritually,
by already sampled
by material that we have the reader
by bringing them in contact with other righteous,
young people, by involving them in gatherings where in righteousness is spoke about,
spoken about, etc.
And the problem is I found that
that was last words
were not enough in the law would enter Paradise.
And this is not something
which
is easy. For one was not living life
is not something wherein
a person on the deathbed who has lived a corrupt life,
you may be able to go to that person and tell them to say like I'm a law
and they're able to blurt it out before they die No.
These words
can only be said,
in a way acceptable
by my first one who has lived in.
So if we want our last word,
if we want to identify guys with the problem,
then we have to live
in the law now.
And a part of that preparation,
as Abdullayev and Omar
wanted to say
was that
if we have anything, to wills to others, and we want to be given to others after our death, we should not allow two nights to pass
without writing it down.
Even Omar
said that when
you heard this statement of the problem,
he didn't allow.
From that point onward, it is like
any opportunity to pass to the court, what he wanted to leave behind.
This is part of the awareness.
So many people are caught.
They have intention of leaving things for others. But because they're unaware of death, they die. They never have the opportunity to write down what it is, what special things they wanted
to be left behind.
So,
it is argued,
if we are to leave the chambers,
in reality,
not believers,
merely
due to having Arabic sounding names.
We have to be believers in reality, then
we have to be amongst those who prepare.
We cannot have in our hearts
a fear, overwhelming fear of death.
Instead, we have to have an awareness of the reality of
what is to come.
Which is reflected in our preparations whilst we are living.
in all aspects of our lives, we prepare ourselves
for the inevitable