Peace at the Three Transitions

Wa ḥanānan min ladunnā — and he was sympathetic. Now, do not understand that strength means — I mean, because sometimes we misinterpret words — do not think that strength means being extreme, or being rude, or being rough; that is not the meaning of the word strong. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the strongest, but he was still the most merciful: bil-muʾminīna raʾūfun raḥīm — with the believers, compassionate and merciful. Because sometimes we think that strong means that you have a very rough heart, insensitive, with no sympathy, no mercy; that is not what is meant by strength. What is meant by strength is that you are holding to the commands of Allah (swt) completely.

Yaḥyā (peace be upon him) — all of the anbiyāʾ of Allah were sympathetic, but with Yaḥyā that was a strong attribute of his. Some of the mufassirūn say it means sympathetic towards his parents; some of them say it is general — he was sympathetic towards all people. Wa zakātan — and he was pure. Wa kāna taqiyyā — and he was righteous. Wa barran bi-wālidayhi wa lam yakun jabbāran ʿaṣiyyā — and dutiful towards his parents, and he was neither arrogant nor disobedient.

Security and peace are important for us in our life. The most difficult phases are the transition phases that we go through — and we go through three transition phases.

When we are in the wombs of our mothers, we spend nine months in the comfort and warmth of the mother's body. It is a very cosy and small room, warm, so the child is comfortable; you never hear the child crying in the womb of the mother. When the child is delivered, the child is going through a complete change of stage in their life: they were going from the nine-month stage in the womb to a completely different world. So the warmth and small cosiness of the womb of the mother disappears; suddenly you come into a completely open space. So the first reaction of the child is what? Crying. It is a difficult transition — because you are going to an entirely different stage; you are going to the unexpected and the unknown.

And then we live in this dunyā, and we get used to it — unfortunately, some of us get too much attached to it. We spend some time here, and then it is time for us to move to the next stage; so we go through another transition phase, and that is death. In sakarāt al-mawt, the last moments, you find that the person is going through consciousness and unconsciousness, and that alternates: that person is actually going back and forth, in and out of the dunyā. And that transition phase is slowly taking the person out of the realm of this world; slowly, slowly, he is leaving this dunyā, and the person is aware that he is leaving. And that is much, much more difficult than the transition phase we talked about before, because you spent a long time in this dunyā, and now you are leaving to a completely unknown world, and that is al-barzakh, the grave.

And those are very difficult moments, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) has spoken about them in the hadith, and the ayat of the Qur'an: wa jāʾat sakratu al-mawti bil-ḥaqqi dhālika mā kunta minhu taḥīd — now the moments of death have approached you; that is what you were trying to run away from. You cannot run away from it now; you are facing it. And here you are, you are going to cross the line — and as soon as you cross it, there is no way back. That is another very critical and difficult phase for the human being.

And then you are living in your grave; you have awareness — even though your body cannot move, you are still conscious. And now it is time for you to go through the third transition phase, and that is the resurrection. And this is the worst — because now, suddenly, you have a grave that has popped open; you crawl out of that grave, and you come and see an entirely different world. The sky above your head is cracking; the stars are falling down; the moon is knocked out of its orbit; the sun is right over your head; mountains are exploding and turning into dirt; the oceans are catching fire and burning; there is an earthquake and it is cracking open; and you see people running around you as if they are drunk. So that is the worst; that is the worst of the three transition stages. And this is when we need security and peace most, because these are the most difficult moments. When you read the description of what happens at al-baʿth, it is something unbelievable, if we are able to comprehend it.

Allah (swt) has given Yaḥyā a very, very interesting blessing. Allah (swt) says: wa salāmun ʿalayhi yawma wulida wa yawma yamūtu wa yawma yubʿathu ḥayyā — and peace be on him the day he was born, and the day he dies, and the day he will be raised up alive.

See: in these three difficult moments, these critical moments, when you are in dire need of peace — Allah (swt) has given that peace to Yaḥyā. Allah gave him peace the day he was born; and Allah gave him peace the day he died; and Allah will give him peace the day he will be resurrected again. We ask Allah (swt) to give us peace.