Discomfort at the Time of Death Redeems Sins

Discomforts or comforts at the time of death mentioned above do not represent a hard and fast rule. It is not that a righteous person never experiences death time trouble. There are many a faithful whose souls depart easily. Also there are some good and faithful people who get God's mercy whereby their sins are wiped out through the

death pains and discomforts. This is because though one is faithful, he must also leave the world in a clean state (after removal of the blemishes of sins) so that he may be clean in the Hereafter also and may become eligible for divine grace right from the first stage of grave. In the case of infidels the death time pain is the starting point of his post-mortem punishments and tortures. But how will it be when the angels cause them to die smiting their backs. (47:27) Comfort on Deathbed, Reward of Good Deeds of the Dying Disbeliever It is also sometimes seen that infidels and sinners die easily. It is so because they had some good deeds in his life. His soul departs comfortably so that this account may be cleared in this world (he never believed in the post-mortem accounting). So he gets the reward here instead of the Hereafter. For example, a man spent his money for some good cause or helped a poor oppressed person. As a reward of this good deed he is given ease at death so that he may get the reward of this good deed in this very world and may have no claim in the Hereafter. The same is regarding the trouble faced by a believer at death time, which makes him, clean from the impurities of the sins of his lifetime. Anyway the fact of the matter is that, for an unbeliever, death is the beginning of his misfortune, be it comfortable or painful. For a faithful both pain as well as ease is the start of bounties and comforts of everlasting nature. So the deathbed condition indicates no fixed rule. Confiscating a disbeliever's Soul through Torture There is a tradition in the third volume of Biharul Anwar according to which once the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) went to visit his cousin Ali bin Abi Talib (a.s.). The latter was suffering from an illness of the eyes. He was sighing and groaning due to acute pain despite the fact that he was a mountain of patience in bearing troubles. At that time the Holy Prophet gave Ali frightening news, which made the latter forget his pain. The Holy Prophet said, "O Ali! The archangel

Jibraeel has informed me that when the time of taking the soul of a disbeliever comes, some angels of torture arrive and retrieve his soul hitting him with bars and whips of fire." Ali (a.s.) asked, "O Messenger of Allah! Does such a terrible thing happen to anyone from your Ummah also?" The Holy Prophet said, "Yes, even in Muslims there are three groups whose souls are taken in this harsh manner: First is a tyrant ruler, secondly, who usurps the orphan's property and third is the one who gives false testimony." A Student of Fuzail who Died the Death of a Disbeliever Biographers have written that when the time of death approached for his most knowledgeable and intelligent student, Fuzail and some other persons went to see him. Fuzail began to recite the Surah Yasin[1]. The unfortunate student at that time hit his teacher Fuzail saying, "I don't want you to recite the Surah (Quran)." Just think over the bad luck of a man who had learnt the Holy Quran throughout his life and who had spent his lifetime in mosques, madressas and assemblies of worships and prayers, and at his last moment he says, "I don't want you to recite Quran before me!" The unfortunate fellow did not recite even the Shahaadatain[1] and passed away from this world. This made Fuzail extremely sorrowful. He took to a corner of his house and stopped going out until he saw his unlucky student in a dream and asked him the cause of his bad behaviour on his deathbed. The late student said, "I had three evil habits due to which I left the world in a state of a disbeliever. They were: I was jealous and never liked that anyone should surpass me." Yes, jealousy is the bad habit, which destroys faith just as fire reduces wood to ash. Then evil was the end of those who did evil, because they rejected the communications of Allah and used to mock them. (30:10) [1] Holy Quran Chapter 36

Dying in Disbelief Due to Sinning The second evil habit was backbiting and inciting one against another. It causes separation even between a man and wife. Therefore if someone backbites about a person before you, you should not tell the latter the former was speaking ill of him. Rather, in order to remove dislike between the two, you may tell one that the other was praising and using good words. Remember that it is no evil to tell untruth with a view to remove ill will and mistrust between two persons because the intention is only to improve relations between two brothers. There is a Persian proverb: Untruth resulting in improvement of relations is better than a truth causing strife. Contrary to it, backbiting is the worst evil as besides increasing ill will and enmity between two human beings, it deprives the backbitten one of peace and calm. Then it sows seeds of trouble and unrest, which is worse than murder. And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers. (2:191) ...and persecution is graver than slaughter; and they will not cease fighting with you until they turn you back from your religion, if they can; and whoever of you turns back from his religion, then he dies while an unbeliever- these it is whose works shall go for nothing in this world and the hereafter, and they are the inmates of the fire; therein they shall abide. (2:217) The third evil, which was found in Fuzail's student, was that of alcoholism. These were the three greater sins, which cause a man faithless death even though he were a scholar and a high-class teacher.[2] [1] Dual formulae of faith in Islam   [2] Greater sins have been discussed in detail in Ayatullah Dastghaib's book Gunahane Kabirah