Chapter 9 - On Death

Imam Baqir (a.s) said: “Moses, the son of Imran (a.s) said: O' Lord! I am content with Your decree. You make the elders die, and keep the children.” God said: “O' Moses! Are you not pleased with the way I give them daily bread, and guard them?” Moses said: “O' Lord! What a good guardian and what a good advocate you are.”

“O' People! Fear God. He hears whatever you say and knows whatever you hide. Prepare yourselves for death. A death from which you try to escape will approach you. Even if you stay where you are, it will overcome you. It will remember you even if you forget it.”

“Are you not amazed that he has bought her and plans to pay for her in one month? Usamat has high ambitions. I swear by God who controls my life, that I do not even expect to live the very next moment. I am waiting for God to take away my life at any moment. I think I will die before I swallow any bite to eat.” Then the Prophet (a.s) added: “O' Children of Adam! Prepare yourselves for death if you are intelligent. I swear by the One who controls my life: “All that hath been promised unto you will come to pass; nor can ye frustrate it (in the least bit)” [The Holy Quran: Anam 6:134]

Imam Reza (a.s) was questioned about the saying of Ameer al- Momineen (a.s): “It is better to be killed with a sword than die in bed.” Imam Reza (a.s) said: “It means to be killed in the way of God.”

“O' People! May God have Mercy upon you. Adopt fear of God which is the best thing for your trip to the Hereafter. Know that your path is towards the Hereafter, and that you must pass over the Bridge to the Hereafter. You have a great stress awaiting you. There are many awesome and hard to pass stages along the way. You have to go there, and stop at those stages. You can either pass through those awesome scenes and hardships and its trials by God's Mercy and be saved, or you may suffer from a destruction from which there is never any way to be saved.”

God's Prophet (a.s) told Abdullah ibn Umar: “Live like passers-by and prepare yourself for death.”

“There is comfort in death for a believer because he departs the world from which he fears, and he rushes towards what he expects and hopes for.”

Do you have any wealth?” He said: “Yes.” Then the Prophet (a.s) said: “Then send your wealth (to the Hereafter) ahead of yourself. One is always attached to his wealth. If he sends it ahead of himself, then he likes to join it soon. But if he keeps it in this world, he likes to stay here with it.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “Gabriel descended upon God's Prophet (a.s) and said: “O' Muhammad! God greets you and says: Do whatever you like since you will reach it; and love whoever you wish since you will separate from him. Live as much as you wish since you will die. O' Muhammad! Night prayer is an honor for a believer, and a believer's honor is dependent upon his tongue.”

Imam Baqir (a.s) said: “An angel calls out everyday and says: “O' Children of Adam! Deliver children to die, collect wealth for destruction, and build your houses to be ruined.”

Ameer al-Momineen (a.s) said: “Whoever prepares himself for the future life of this world has not recognized the truth about death. People who have high aspirations will commit sins and do evil. If one could see his own death, and how fast it approaches him, then he would hate high aspirations and seeking (material things of) this world.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “Remember death often, since one who often remembers death will abstain from the world.”

Ameer al-Momineen (a.s) said: “Know that graves are either gardens among the gardens of Heaven, or ditches among the ditches of Hell. Beware that the graves say the following three times each day: “I am the house of the believers. I am the place of the worms.” Beware that a Day will come that is so horrible that breast-feeding mothers will drop their babies, kids will get old, the skies will be rent asunder, pregnant women will miscarry. The people will seem to be drunk, while they are not. They seem so due to the severity of God’s punishment. Beware that beyond the graves there is: “... a Garden whose width is that (of the whole) of the heavens and of the Earth.” [The Holy Quran: Al-i-Imran 3:133] May God protect you and us from this painful punishment, and have Mercy upon us regarding the humiliating punishment.”