The most important
stage of your life is the ending. “Whoever dies on something will be
resurrected on it.” If you die in Hajj, with ihram, making talbiyah, RasulAllah
sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said: “On the Day of Judgement, you will be
resurrected saying labbayk Allahumma labbayk.” ”When you die on something, you
will be resurrected on the same thing you were doing.”
RasulAllah(SWS) said: “Oh Allah, make the best of my deeds, the last deeds.”
RasulAllah(SWS) said: “One of you would do the deeds of the people of Paradise until only one
foot [a short distance - transcribers’ note] is between you and paradise, and
then in the end he would do the deeds of the people of hell fire and he would
die and he would enter into hell fire.” And the opposite can happen to – you do
the deeds of the people of hell all of your life and then you do the deeds of
the people of jannah in the end and enter jannah.
What
are the reasons for evil ending? We ask Allah subhaana wa ta’aala for a blessed
ending.
1.
Al-Fasaad fil al-’Itiqaad
Al-Fasaad
fil al-’Itiqaad corruption and defect in the belief. Analogy: You buy a
computer and work on that computer. It works fine for a few months. Then you
put it through a rigorous application; it fails and breaks down. You find that
it had a defect from day one. This defect didn’t show up because it was being
dealt with gently. When you put it through a rigorous test, this defect showed
up. You thought that it was brand new and nothing was wrong with it. There was
a hidden defect. Similarly, you can think that you’re fine now and your aqeedah
is fine. You have some doubts in the corner of your heart – about Allah, about
the ambiya, for example. Death approaches and shaytaan comes and puts you
through a test. That defect or problem shows up. When you find out that there
is a corruption in your belief, you give up your whole belief. You would lose
it all. You lose the whole battle. That’s why Ibn AlQayyim says, “We believe
that out of the mercy of Allah, Allah will not mislead the person if he was of
true righteousness.” There must be something wrong with that person.
Allah
says: “Say (O Muhammad SAW): Shall We tell you the greatest losers in respect
of (their) deeds? Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life while they
thought that they were acquiring good by their deeds.” (18:103-104) The biggest
losers are the ones who think they are doing right, but they are doing wrong.
You find that someone is very righteous, but he is not doing things the way of
the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. It is all unaccepted.
2. al-Istiqaamah
Diversion
from the straight path. A person could be on the straight path, but then he
decides to take a turn. When this person takes this short turn (onto the wrong
path), it’s like a fork – it starts out as a small turn, but the further you
go, the farther you become [from the straight path].Iblees was one of the
righteous. He did that small mistake out of a great problem – kibr (arrogance).
He became the worse of creation.
Allah
says: “And recite to them the story of him to whom we gave our ayaat, but he
threw them away so shaytaan followed him up and he became of those who became
astray. And had We willed, We would surely have elevated him therewith, but he
clung to the earth and followed his own vein desires.” This man received the
ayaat of Allah, but he detached himself from the ayaat of Allah and followed
his own desires. This person had the knowledge, but he was misguided because of
his attachment to dunya because he followed his own desires. This is contrary
to Islam. Islam is submission to Allah. You submit to Allah, even if it’s
against your own will and desires. You give up your desires for Allah. We do
not custom make Islam to serve us. We change ourselves to fit into Islam. We
change our own characters to fit Islam. Islam is COMPLETE submission.
Submission to Allah. This man had the knowledge, but it didn’t do him any good
because he followed his own desires.
The
Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said: “The thing that I fear most on you
is a man who memorizes Qur’aan until the light of Qur’aan shows up on his face
and then he detaches himself from the ayaat of Allah. Then he carries the word
on his neighbor and accuses him of shirk.” Hudhayfah ibn AlYamaan asked
RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, “Who is the mushrik among them? The
accuser or the accused?” RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “The
accuser.” The man fell into fitna and accused his neighbor of shirk – and he
himself has become a mushrik.
3. Alisraaru
’ala al ma’aasiyy (insistence on sinning)
A
person may be commiting a small sin, but the ‘ulamaa` say that insisting on a
small sin makes it a major sin. When you keep on doing it again and again, it
becomes a major sin.Adh-Dhahabi, in his book AlKabaa’ir, talks about evil
ending. There was a man who was obsessed with chess. They kept on telling him
to say la ilaaha illallah, but he couldn’t. At the end, he kept on repeating,
“Checkmate, checkmate” until he died.
He
mentioned another man. He kept saying, “Give me the bottle.” Because he was
obsessed with drinking and he kept asking for that.
There
was another man who was an accountant and he just kept saying, “ten, eleven,
twelve” and he kept saying numbers.
Ibn
AlQayyim mentioned the story of a man who they told to say la ilaaha illallah,
but he said, “I can’t.” He didn’t have a problem with his tongue; he could
speak fluently. He couldn’t say la ilaaha illallah, because Allah didn’t give
him the tawfeeq.
Think
about it this way – when you go to bed, what are the things you dream about?
They’ll most likely be what you were thinking about during the day. If you keep
thinking about something all day, you’ll most likely dream of it at night.
Death
is similar to sleep. Sleep is called “the minor death.” When you go from sleep
to the state of awakening, it is similar to sakaraat al mowt. That is why the
thoughts that are on one’s minds are most likely going to show up in the last
moments of life.
We
always think that we can live how we want and sin as much as want. Then, five
minutes before we die, we will take the shahaadah and be guaranteed jannah.
It’s not that easy. You are making a plot against Allah. Why? Because you are
making the intention to not worship Allah until the last moments of your life.
Allah is telling us to worship Him day and night. We are saying that we want to
outsmart Allah and make tawbah in the end. “They are plotting and Allah is planning
and Allah is the best of planners.”
A
scholar mentioned that they visited a man who was dying. When they came in the
house, everyone in the house was listening to loud Umm Kulthum music (a
singer). The tape recorder was high. The shaykh said, “itaqullah! This man is
dying and you are listening to songs?” So they turned it off and put on Qur’aan
instead. When the old man heard the Qur’aan, he said, “Turn that off and turn
Umm Kulthum back on because she soothes my heart!” And he died.
When
you grow up on something, you are going to die on that thing.
Never
think that you can outsmart Allah. You have to have khashiy of Allah. The ones
who are the greatest losers are those that feel safe or secure of the
punishment of Allah. “Only the losers are the ones who feel secure from the
punishment of Allah.” Khashya is an integral quality of a Muslim. To be a
Muslim you have to have fear of Allah in your heart.
4.
Da’ful Imaan (weak faith)
Sulayman
ibn Abdil Malak, a khalifah of the Muslim world, visited Makkah and Madinah. He
was asking, “Is there anyone here who has met the companions of RasulAllah
sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam?” They said, “Yes, Abu Hazim.” He said, “Call
him.” So they bought Abu Hazim. Sulayman ibn Abdul Malik asked him, “How come
we dislike death?” He said, “Because you have built and established this world
and you have destroyed your akhirah. So you hate to go from what is
established, to what is destroyed.” If you’re not preparing for akhirah, why
would you want to go there? When we love this world, we don’t want to go to the
akhirah.Scholars have said, if somebody has the love of the world at heart,
then just before their death – when the person realizes they are leaving dunya
for akhirah – they will become attached to the thing he loves (to dunya). And
then that person will start hating Allah because Allah is the One who wants to
take him away. If that happens, this is khulood fin naar – eternal punishment
in Hell, because you are hating to meet Allah, so Allah will hate meeting you.
When
Mu’aadh ibn Jabal was passing away. He said, “Welcome to death. I have been
waiting for you for a long time. I have been waiting for the Promise of Allah
to me. Welcome to death.” He’s happy. He said, “O death, don’t think that I
ever wanted to live in this dunya because the love of this world. The reason I
wanted to live in this world was to fast in the hot summer days and pray in the
long, cold winter nights. So as long as it is time for me to leave, I welcome
you. Take my soul.” He wants to meet Allah, so Allah will want to meet him.
RasulAllah
sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “Every Prophet, before he dies, is shown his
place in Paradise and then he is given the choice to stay in this world or
die.” So the ambiya are given the choice. This hadith is narrated by ‘Aa`isha.
When RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was dying, he had his head on my
lap, she said. Then he fell unconscious, then he woke up. He started staring at
the sky and he said, “O Allah, with the highest companion. (Allah).” ‘Aa`isha said
that she knew at that moment that the Prophet was being given the choice, and
he was not choosing us. RasulAllah(SWS) was given the choice by the angel of death,
and the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was saying that he wanted to be
with Allah. And that was the last thing he said. [Bukhari]
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