THE FINAL REALIZATION

THE FINAL REALIZATION When Death Approaches ALEXANDER the Great (356–323 BC), the son of King Philip of Macedonia, is often remembered for his incredible conquests and the vast empire he built. The city of Alexandria in Egypt still stands as a testament to his victory there. However, despite all his successes, Alexander met his end in a palace in the ancient city of Babylon, dying in the same helplessness as any ordinary person in a humble hut. Though he had achieved everything he desired in life, he left this world empty-handed. His vast empire was divided among his generals after his death, as his only heir had already been killed. In his final moments, he confessed, “I wanted to conquer the world, but death conquered me.” He lamented that he could not achieve the peace in life that an ordinary person might attain. The greatness of Alexander was so profound that even Julius Caesar, upon passing by a statue of Alexander in Spain, wept uncontrollably, lamenting that he had not been able to achieve even a tenth of the conquests Alexander had accomplished in just ten years. Similarly, Napoleon Bonaparte, a man of immense power, expressed deep despair at the end of his life. His final words were, “Disappointment was a crime to me, but today no one in the world is more disappointed than I am. I hungered for two things: power and love. I attained neither power nor love. I searched extensively for love, but I never found it. If this is all that human life has to offer me, then surely human life is a meaningless thing, because its end is nothing but despair and destruction.” Harun al-Rashid, a ruler of a great empire, admitted in his old age, “I have spent my entire life trying to avoid sorrow, yet I could not avoid it. I have lived a life of boundless sorrow and worry; there is not a single day of my life that I have spent without worry. Now, I am on the brink of death; soon the grave will swallow my body. This is the final fate of every human, but every human remains unaware of their end.” When Caliph Mansur al-Abbasi faced death, he realized the futility of his worldly pursuits. He said, “If I were to live a few more days, I would set fire to the kingdom that repeatedly led me astray from the truth. The truth is that one act of goodness is better than this entire kingdom. But I realized this only when death took me into its embrace.”