On Death and Dying Live in This World as a Stranger Passing Through

Transcription

1 On Death and Dying Live in This World as a Stranger Passing Through Bismi-Llāhi-r-Rahmāni-r-Rahīm. Allah, help us to understand that everything You give us is a blessing, and that the time You give us is to be used in good ways, to contemplate with deep seriousness how we use our time, how we justify how we use our time, O Allah (swt). The measurement of this time is all too easy to forget. Help us never to forget the reminders You put before us in the form of love, dedication, devotion, and friendship. Of course, we ask You tonight to keep shining Your Light on the soul of our brother Musa, and let the Prophet s (sal) light illumine him for eternity, and that we meet again in the ghaib, in the akhirat. Give him a huge window on Jannah, and help us to purify our own souls through remembrance of our brother. Amin. Suhbat: Bismi-Llāhi-r-Rahmāni-r-Rahīm. Allah (swt) says in Surah al-imran: Every soul shall taste of death. And on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is safe from the fire will be admitted to Paradise, and will have attained the purpose of the life of this world. The life of the world is but goods and chattel and deception. Rasūlullāh (sal) said, Live in this world as if you were a stranger passing through it. All thanks and praise is only due to Allah. Benedictions and salutations and blessings be upon our beloved Prophet Mohammed (sal). As Muslims, this is a good time for us to reassess our approach to dying and to death. Dying is understood to be part of living, and an important part of living. Sometimes we might not want to know about this process, or the process that happens when we pass, because we are afraid and we don t want to think about it. But it shouldn t be the attitude of a Muslim or a Sufi. In fact, it shouldn t be the attitude of anyone, Christian or Jew. The Prophet (sal) said, Live in this world as 1

2 though you were a stranger or traveling passing through it. We are, as Muslims, on the journey. We should know about the whole journey s itinerary, not just one part of it. We should also understand some things about the destination. Most of us don t go on trips unless we know where we are going. We should be very forthright in our learning and understanding about life and of death and dying, so we can organize our lives accordingly to it. We are urged and encouraged to accept the Will of Allah with grace and with humility, with patience and with dignity. Many Muslims, when they find out they are going to die, are quite angry or appalled, indignant or confused; consequently, they protest and create more and more agony and upset in themselves. It s normally associated of course with suffering, pain, and trauma. Unfortunately, we have seen that very close up. It s normal to fear suffering, and it s normal to react to it with anger and frustration, because we feel oppressed by it and powerless before it. There s nothing we can do, and the denial of our own power is very, very difficult. The denial of our own power lies at the root of our suffering. Quite often, when suffering blocks our iman, some of the many questions come forward, like: Why me? Why now? Where is Allah in all of this? Why am I being punished? Where have I come from and where am I going? This is just part of the search for understanding and meaning. In a Sahih Hadith we hear, O man, while on the earth, be sure that we will test you with many things: fear, hunger, and loss of goods and of life, sickness and death, and loss of the fruits of your toils. But give glad tidings to those who, when they are tested, turn to Almighty Allah when afflicted, with patience and with prayer and say, O Allah! Everything comes from you, and to you we will return. These things will happen when we submit to Allah (swt), and we will have peace and Allah s mercy, and we will be guided by Allah. 2

3 Of course, pain and suffering is something that is there. Most certainly, we have to understand it is not a curse of Allah; but it is a blessing and a test to see how we are going to react when we are challenged and tested. What we call death is not annihilation; it s not an ending. It is just movement from one state to another. People talk about transmigration of the soul, for example, from one form of biological existence to another form in another dimension. In the Traditions of the Prophet (sal), this other dimension is called the barzakh. It means in Arabic and Farsi a barrier or partition between two areas or zones, usually described as an isthmus between two seas. Those two seas which I sent you pictures of last week are the physical manifestation of those seas. The physical state and the Day of Resurrection are two different things. So the rūh is released to a new life that is independent of the physical body, and this event which we call death is that event. Allah says: Every soul shall taste death. Then in the end, you shall return to Us. The person continues their life within the form of a spirit body, in the same way as if we were living in this physical body. Allah says, Say not of those who were slain in the way of Allah as dead; nay, they are alive though you perceive it not. (2:154) The Prophet (sal) said about death, as it is recounted by one of the scholars of Hadith, The deceased who has tasted death knows those who washed his body, who shrouded his corpse, who performed the funeral service for him, who attended his funeral procession, who descended the corpse into the grave and who prompted over his grave to remember the questions of Munkar and Nakar. On the day of the battle of Badr, the Prophet (sal) ordered that the 24 corpses from the Qureysh tribe should be picked up all together and buried in a mass grave. After the battle, the Prophet (sal) stopped by the grave where the corpses of the slain Qureysh had been thrown, and he called them by the names of their fathers. Would you not be joyful now if you had believed and obeyed Allah and 3

4 His Messenger? We have indeed found the victory that your Lord promises. Have you, too, found victory in the idols that promised you? On hearing him speak, Umar asked, O Rasulallah! How do you address people already dead? The Prophet (sal) said, I swear by Him in Whose Hands Mohammed s soul is that you are no better than they at hearing what I say. They can hear better than you. (This event is recounted in Bukhari.) We know in our day and age, some of us from the 60 s and 70 s, that people were very fascinated by death, and talked about what happened in afterlife experiences like Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Raymond Moody and others who experienced near-death experiences. There were a lot of pretty remarkable phenomena that were reported around those. Then in the most recent time, we heard what Steve Jobs said when he died. He said, Wow, wow, wow three times. Suleyman Nyang reported to us that he saw light. He was dead for 12 minutes and saw light and family and friends coming to him. A strange sound sometimes, a beautiful smell, a fragrance, a buzzing, a ringing noise, the pure smell of fragrant musk, or rosewater is sensed by people who have had these experiences, or those who passed. Peace and painlessness. While people are passing, they may be in intense pain, but as soon as they leave the body, pain vanishes and they experience sakina / tranquility. [There are] out of body experiences, the tunnel experience, the light experience, rising to the heavens, accompanied by angels. Instead of a tunnel, some people talk about being cast into the sky, seeing the earth, seeing themselves below, [seeing] he celestial angels, as if they were astronauts on some journey to space. People of light come. Once on the other side of the tunnel, they rise into the heavens. The dying people meet people who glow with inner light. Often they find that friends and relatives who have already died are there to greet them, glowing with inner light. 4

5 After meeting the people of light, the dying often meet a powerful spiritual being, some have called Allah, Jesus, or angels, although sometimes they report being scared. They don t sense that they are on their way to hell, but that they fell into it. Then their life is reviewed. The Being of Light presents the dying person with a panoramic review of everything they have done in their life based on non-verbal kinds of cues and communication. In particular, they question about their acts of worship, how most of their lives were spent, how they relive every act they have done to other people, and how they come away feeling that love is the most important thing in life, just as Musa said toward the end of his life. I think it was the last time he spoke. He said it was all about compassion and love. Then there is a reluctance to return. The Being of Light might tell a dying person that they must return back to life. Other times they are given a choice, the ones who have this near death experience, of staying or returning. It doesn t matter. The person who is given the choice is reluctant to return, even if they know they could. If they choose to return, it is because of loved ones they don t wish to leave behind. One common question or attitude is what possible evolutionary pressures could result from this experience? Why would dying brains suddenly have the ability to see other realities? Allah answers that. Kubler-Ross couldn t answer it, but Allah answers it. Allah says in the Qur an: It is Allah who takes the souls at death, and those that die not during their sleep. Those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back from returning to life; but the rest He sends to the bodies for a term appointed. Verily, in these are signs for those who reflect. Every night, as you know, we die and are reborn. O you people of iman! Fear Allah as He ought to be feared, and die not except in the state of full surrender and submission to the Will of Allah. We are taught this in Islam. Dying is normally associated with suffering and pain and difficulty, as I said. But it s normal to have fear of 5

6 suffering, and to react with anger and frustration because we feel oppressed. But we have to understand that the suffering does block our iman, and so we have to come to the answers that I tried to touch on tonight. Nafs mut mainna, the soul at peace, Allah tells us, O contented soul, O satisfied soul, return to thy Lord well-pleased and he wellpleased. Enter thou among My devotees; yea, enter thou into My Paradise. This stage, which occurs when the spirit departs the body to make it lifeless, is clearly discussed as an article of iman. We believe in the resurrection, where the body and the spirit will be reunited with each other in the Hereafter. This life is a stage for action, and every action will have a reaction in the Hereafter. It s no accident that the first hadith in the Sahih Bukhari is about intention: actions follow intentions. We have to come to understand how important our intentions are in our daily life. This life that comes after resurrection is a reward, and human beings will either be in pure happiness or totally misery. It s part of the basic Islamic belief, and not just Islamic. For us, it s Islamic belief that after resurrection and after an account of our deeds, we will be judged accordingly. And those upon whom Allah bestows His Mercy will be in Paradise. The Prophet (sal) said, Even the deeds of the best person will not be enough to send him to heaven without the grace of Allah. A true slave of Almighty Allah, when he is afflicted with suffering and pain will turn to Him and say in prayer, We belong to Allah, and unto Him is our return. O Allah, reward me for my affliction, and give me something better in exchange for it. O Allah, cause me to live so long when life is better for me, and cause me to die when death is better for me. The road to Paradise is paved with suffering and hardship, while the road to hellfire is paved with desire. So, my dear brothers and sisters, there is always more. The Prophet (sal) also said, O Muslims, you are in need of having patience in dealing with adversity, as well as 6

7 success. Everything that happens in one s life is for some purpose, and we need to turn to Allah with patience and with prayer. The Prophet also stated, increase the remembrance of the Destroyer of all pleasures. We repeat that often in sama. We pray to Allah to bless the ummah, to bless Musa and all of us here, to create affection in the hearts of all of us, to reform our hearts and guide us to the right path, and take us from the darkness to the light. Some others will speak now, and then I have a story to tell you at the end. [People share memories and stories of Musa archived on cd and dvd]. This story was published in the Huffington Post just a few months ago. One can learn many lessons at a graveyard. I once found myself helping carry a corpse of a stranger, an old woman, to her final abode. At the time, I was 20 years old, on a family trip to the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. Following the Isha prayers at the Prophet s Masjid, and the recitation of the obligatory funeral prayer, I came across a middle-aged man searching for help to transport the coffin of a woman who I later learned was his mother. She had passed away a few hours earlier, and her son was eager to fulfill her final wish of being buried immediately after death. The son was the only family member present, and he was anxious to hastily transport the steel coffin containing the corpse of his mother wrapped in a white shroud to the Garden of Heaven, a graveyard adjacent to the Prophet s (sal) mosque. Since it was late at night, the mosque had emptied quickly, and there weren t many eager-beavers to lend a hand. A few men on their way out of the mosque regrettably declined to aid the man, saying they had to travel far before reaching home. I wanted to help, but was unsure if I would be able to carry the coffin all the way to the grave, situated a couple of hundred meters away. After a handful of 7

8 men gathered to move the coffin, four men including me lifted it in unison and rested each corner on our shoulders. As we proceeded toward the graveyard, the coffin was tilted toward my side as I was relatively shorter than the other three. She isn t heavy, I thought to myself in relief. The man behind me yelled, Blessings to the dead! as we commenced our walk toward the Medina grave, and we all joined in enthusiastically, chanting Blessings to the dead! Our voices started to get dimmer as we ran out of breath. The farther we moved away from the mosque, the darker it became. In the sunlight, the sands of the Medina graveyard vary in color from orange to a shade that borders on red, with volcanic rock scattered throughout marking the graves. But that night, it was pitch black. Our pathway was lit only by the lights illuminating from the tower and the minarets atop the mosque where Prophet Mohammed (sal) rests along with Abu Bakr (rah), the first Caliph, and Umar ibn al Khattab, the second Caliph, may Allah be pleased with them both. After a few uneven steps, the buckle of one of my sandals broke, and forced me to push it aside as we continued forward. The ground was warm, even at that late hour, and I could barely see where my feet were stepping in the wide graveyard around us. I was granted relieve when a man volunteered to help, seeking reward only from the Creator. We walked aimlessly for a bit, trying our best not to trample over the other graves as we searched for this woman s resting spot. Once we located it and rested the coffin beside the dug-out, I took a peek at the grave. It was remarkably dark the darkest shade of black I had ever seen. As I stood among these strangers with death before my eyes and a six foot deep grave that felt suffocating from above, the importance of my worries drifted away. As I began reflecting on the temporality of life, it dawned on me how near we all were to death, our inevitable fate, although many of us think about it very rarely. 8

9 Quite out of the blue, I felt I was granted clues and answers to questions that had been filling my mind: Why am I here? Where will I go from here? I had little to no sense of time. My startled parents were out looking for me, when they saw the doors of the Prophet s Mosque close from the windows of our hotel room. I arrived back at the hotel more than an hour later than usual. Yet the impression the experience left on me has been lasting. It was a moment of clarity, an hour that changed the very foundation of my existence. A moment of true reflection is worth more than ages of heedless worship, Faraz Rabbani, a leading Islamic scholar said recently. His words reminded me of that night. At certain points in our lives, we have experiences that shake us to the core and compel us to question our outlook on existence, and if we cultivate them properly, bring us near to the Almighty. Even many years later in times when anger, distress, tribulation, and temptation has tempted to sway me, my mind returns to that graveyard. When you become mindful of death, you think and act differently. It becomes difficult to lash out in anger, when we know how near death could be. A person conscious of death will think twice before defrauding or deceiving another human being. By remembering that we will all perish and be buried in dirt, taking none of our possessions with us, it becomes undesirable to wrong or hurt someone intentionally. One has to realize that death is inevitable. My recollection of the funeral procession that night is vivid. I remember how time ceased for me in the midst of the graveyard. I recalled the haunting feeling of suffocation and discomfort that kept me awake that night back in the hotel, as I rested my head on the plush pillow in the arctic air conditioned room. I thought of the rock hard walls encircling that meager grave. We need not reflect on death at all times to keep us on track. Paying attention to life, to the wondrous creations of this universe can always draw us near to Allah and prompt us to be grateful. But 9

10 also reflect on death, since it turns you away from the superficiality of this world and curbs your ego. I would not say that I am a man of immense knowledge. I haven t spent an adequate amount of time uncovering the miracles of the Qur an as deeply as I should. I have my ups and my downs. My faith at times dangles, and I have to realign my thoughts. It happens more often than I am ready to confess here. But I find that remembering the inevitability of death from time to time is one way to stay grounded. During a course on Buddhist ethics I took over a decade ago, the professor related the story of a newly wedded couple who went to a celebrated monk for marriage advice. Initially hesitant to offer any, since he had never been married himself, the monk finally yielded, giving some of the sounded marital advice I have ever heard. Eventually, husband and wife, each will die. So now, while you are alive, you should strive to be kind to each other. Thoughts of death need not flood our minds with sorrow and negativity. We should understand that it is a natural part of the journey of life. If we work on making every prayer count as if it is our last, and set aside time from our busy pursuits, including social media, that consumes a measureable chunk of our day, to unwind the thoughts and worries entangled in our minds, we might become better humans and will indeed have a better chance of living with peace. This is what I wanted to end the night with. Asalaam aleikum. 10