Dying in Hope

his wife bemoaned: “O sadness!” When Bilal heard this, he exclaimed: “O happiness!” Then he said: “Tomorrow I shall meet Muhammad and his companions!” (Kitab al-Shifa, Qadi Iyad, vol. 2, p. 53) The stark difference between these two events—one, relating to the famous film producer, and the other concerning a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad—clearly shows the difference between someone who has no knowledge of Truth and someone who is aware of Truth. A person who doesn’t know that there is life even after death may seem happy for some time, but when he becomes old and enters the last stage of his life in this world, he feels that there is now nothing but darkness for him. He is drowned in depression and despair. He dies in a state of hopelessness. In contrast to such a person is someone who has learnt about God’s creation plan. He knows that he should lead a God-oriented life in the pre-death phase of his life so that in the post-death phase of life he can receive a place in God’s eternal Paradise as a reward. For such a person, life, including old age, is an experience full of hope. He lives with hope, and he welcomes death with hope. For him, there is no question whatsoever of despair—neither in this life, nor in the life after death. Modern civilization has provided an individual with many things that provide him comfort and ease. But despite this, most people live in stress and tension. This is because modern civilization provides a person with a great many things for his life before death, but it cannot save him from death, and nor can it give him any message of hope for the life after death. It is this fact that, consciously or unconsciously, causes people to drown in stress and tension.