Remembering Death and the Grave

‘Abū ʿAbdillāh said [to me], “O Abā Ṣāliḥ, when a [funeral] bier is lifted, imagine that it is you who is being carried [upon it], or that you are the one asking your Lord to return you to the world so that you may do…

“A caller cries out every day, ‘O son of Ādam, beget for death, amass for annihilation, and build for destruction!’”

“I said to Abū Jaʿfar (a), ‘May I be your ransom! Inform me of something that I may benefit from.’ So he said, ‘O Abā ʿUbaydah, remember death often, for a person does not remember death often but that he detaches…

“The Messenger of Allah (ṣ) said, ‘Death! Death! Death comes with whatever is in it; it brings comfort and ease, and a blessed return to the lofty heavens for the people of the eternal abode – those who had struggled for…

Were it not for prostration before Allah and the gatherings of the [pious ones among the] people who [choose to] utter virtuous words, just as the best dates are plucked [and harvested], I would have wished for death.”

When al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī (a) was on his deathbed, he cried, so someone asked him, ‘O son of the daughter of Allah’s Messenger, you are crying despite having the position that you have next to the Messenger of Allah (ṣ)?…

“Jibraʾīl (a) came to the Prophet (ṣ) and said, ‘O Muḥammad, live as you like for you will indeed die, love whomever you want for you will indeed separate, do whatever you wish for you will indeed be requited therefor,…

“Prophet Dāwūd died suddenly on a Saturday, so the birds shaded him with their wings. Mūsā, the interlocutor of Allah, died in the wilderness, so a caller cried out from the sky, ‘Mūsā has died! And which soul does not…

‘I went to visit Abā ʿAbdillāh (a) in order to console him for [the death of] Ismāʿīl, so he invoked [divine] mercy upon him and then said, “Verily Allah consoled His Prophet (ṣ) Himself and said: Verily you shall die,…

“ʿAlī (a) said, ‘He who counts his morrow as part of his lifetime has not given death its due status!’ ʿAlī (a) also said, ‘A servant does not lengthen his [worldly] aspiration but that he ends up doing evil deeds [to…

“ʿĪsā ibn Maryam (a) used to say [regarding death], ‘A terror which youknow not when you will meet, so what prevents you from preparing for it before it comes to you suddenly?’”