Being Pleased with Death

It is also very important to remember that one must be eager to meet the Lord. It means that a faithful servant should not dislike death and must never be afraid of it. This is not to say that one must long for death. May God protect! One must never think of suicide because it is possible that one may, in ones lifetime repent for sins and do more good deeds. The meaning of being pleased with death is that whenever Almighty wants to him to die he should, in those circumstances, consider death a bounty because (according to Islam) he is a loyal and an obedient one of God and he will get great reward very soon and taste the sweetness of his good deeds and if he had been a sinner, his sins would come to an end and so also his punishment would decrease. In short, a wise man should be pleased with death at the moment of God's will because death is the only means of scaling the peak of his good fortune, that is, to get rid of the web of deceptions and conspiracies and to enter the house of eternal happiness (Paradise) and to get nearness to God Almighty and to see the Holy Prophet and His Holy Progeny (a.s.) as well as to meet the shining souls of all pious people and Holy saints. The only way to get all this is death. Similarly one must also like and be pleased with a long life and delay in death at the will of God so that he may, to the best of his or her ability, make provisions for the journey to the Hereafter. Love for the World-Condemned by reason and Shariat It is also wrong and misplaced to abhor death and to be crazy after worldly life for enjoying more and more pleasures, as is the way of many. It is against both reason and Shariat. It is unwise because, firstly, real pleasure cannot be achieved in this worldly life. There is a proverb that says: Until a mouth does not taste a hundred fists it cannot swallow a morsel. There is no pleasure in the world, which is not surrounded by hundreds of pains and troubles. If there is youth, old age and weakness is bound to follow

it. If there is health, which is primarily essential for enjoying every pleasure of life, then there are a number of ailments and illnesses, which pose threats to it. If there is wealth, which makes it possible to get comfort and ease, then it is not possible to gain it (wealth) without hard labour. Thus earning of wealth is also not without hazards. Any high position is not attained without labouring hard and facing deterrents and oppositions. Besides all this, what is most significant is that all such worldly gains and benefits, and comforts and positions etc are bound to perish one day. According to a meaningful Persian proverb couplet: Do not become an ardent lover of this world because this disloyal bride had not passed even a single night with sincere love to anyone. Love for this World is an Attribute of Infidels and a Source of Sins Deep involvement in material world is, from viewpoint of religion condemnable because the Holy Quran has regarded love for world an attribute of disbelievers. Almighty says, Surely those who do not hope in Our meeting and are pleased with this world's life and are content with it, and those who are heedless of Our communications: (10:7) It means that the unbelievers are happy with their worldly life. At another place: ...are you contented with this world's life instead of the hereafter? But the provision of this world's life compared with the hereafter is but little. (9:38) Which means: Have you given preference to the material worldly life over the Hereafter? Referring to Jews it says: ...everyone of them loves that he should be granted a life of a thousand years, and his being granted a long life will in no way remove him further off from the chastisement, and Allah sees what they do. (2:96)

Meaning that every one of them likes that he should live in this world for a thousand years. There are many verses like this in Holy Quran. Similarly there are innumerable traditions and narrations. Here we mention a famous tradition of the Holy Prophet from the book Usoole Kafi: The root all evil is love for this world.