Why This Heedlessness of Death?

Why This Heedlessness of Death? necessary travel arrangements. An individual’s life is also a sort of journey. Each of us is journeying from life to death and beyond. Yet, few people, if any, view this journey through the lens of death. We live as if we are going to live here, on Earth, forever. My ancestral home is Azamgarh, in eastern India. In the period before India’s independence there was a rich man who lived there. He began building a mansion for himself, near the city’s main road. He spent a lot of money on the project. It was to be a multi-storeyed, fort-like house. Beautiful artwork adorned its walls and roof. But before the construction work was over, the man died. He was unable to live in the mansion of his dreams. This is the story not just of one man though. It is almost every person’s story. Most of us make plans and build dreampalaces and live in such a way as if we are going to live here forever! Why are most of us so heedless about the reality of our own death? This is a really serious question. We see or hear about others dying. But rarely, if ever, do we think about our having to leave this world one day too. According to a hadith, the Prophet of Islam said: When people turn around to return after the burial of a person, God sends an angel at that place. He takes some earth from the burial site and hurls it at people, saying: “Go back [again] to your world and become forgetful of your own death!” (Al-Haba’ik fi Akhbar alMala’ik by Jalaluddin Suyuti, vol. 1, p. 112) In this hadith a profound truth is explained in symbolic language. It is an admonition. People see others dying before them. They participate in their burial. They see that a person who just a while ago was moving about has now been buried below the ground. Yet, they do not draw any lesson for themselves from this. They continue to lead a heedless life.