Peace in the Most Needed Moments

To refresh your memory again — even though we just talked about it, I think last week — we said that the most critical moments, the difficult moments on the human being, are the moments of transition between two different phases in your life. As human beings, we go through phases. We live in the womb, and that's one phase, for nine months. And then we go through a transition phase — and that's delivery — and we come to another world. During that transition, when we are leaving from one world to another, from the world of the womb to the world of the earth, that's a very difficult and nervous moment on us.

So when we are born, what is the first reaction? We cry. Because we are going through this transition: we are going from the known to the unknown. We are going from the world we are familiar with to the unfamiliar world. You leave the warmth of the womb for the vastness of this new world around you. So that's a difficult moment.

And then we live in this dunyā. We were unfamiliar with it, and we became familiar; it was unknown, and it became known — and unfortunately, we become too attached to it. And then, when it's time for us to leave this world for the other world, we go through a transition phase, and that is very difficult. And it's more difficult than the one before. And this transition phase is sakarāt al-mawt, the agony of death.

And this agony of death is like a swing: you are going back and forth, in this dunyā and out, conscious and unconscious — until you finally cross the line. That's it: you leave the dunyā for good, and you are going into an unknown world, ʿālam al-barzakh. And this is very difficult, and you find people are in a state of shock when they are dying, and in pain and agony — because they are leaving the dunyā they are so attached to. And that's why we shouldn't be attached to dunyā. They are leaving the dunyā they are so attached to, for something that is unknown.

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik came to one of the scholars — I think it's Abū Ḥāzim — and he said: mā bālunā nakrahu al-mawt? How come we hate this? Abū Ḥāzim said: li-annakum ʿammartum dunyākum wa kharrabtum ākhiratakum, fa-takrahūna al-khurūja min al-ʿumrāni ilā al-kharāb.

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, the khalīfah of Banū Umayyah, very wealthy and rich, came to this scholar, Abū Ḥāzim, and he told him: how come we hate death? Abū Ḥāzim told him: because you constructed your dunyā, and you destroyed your ākhirah; so you hate to go from what is constructed to what is destroyed. You built and you established yourself in dunyā, and you didn't build a house for yourself in the ākhirah; you didn't build anything. So you don't want to go from something that is established to something that is not. That's why we need to build our future in the ākhirah. That's what we should establish — because you're going to leave whatever you established in dunyā.

In that transition phase, it's very difficult: sakarāt al-mawt. And then we enter into the grave, and we see the Hellfire, and we see Jannah. And then the Day of Judgement starts, so we go through another transition, and that is taking us from the world of the grave to the world of the ākhirah — and that is the worst of all. That is the most difficult.

Because your grave pops open, and you crawl out of your grave, and you come out to the dunyā, and you see the world is shaking — earthquakes. The ocean is catching fire and exploding. Mountains are bursting. The sky above your head is cracking. People are running around you as if they are drunk. The sun is right over your head. And you know the state of shock when you wake up from sleep and there's something surprising happening around you. Well, you are waking up from sleep — from a deep sleep in your grave — and imagine the shock that you will go through when you see what's happening in the ākhirah. So that is a very unpleasant, and difficult, and insecure moment.

So Allah (swt) says about ʿĪsā: and peace be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive. So Allah (swt) is giving me peace in the most needed moments: when I was born, and when I die, and when I'm raised up again. And we know that ʿĪsā ibn Maryam did not die yet. This is one of the indications of his coming back.

Dhālika ʿĪsā ibnu Maryama qawla al-ḥaqqi alladhī fīhi yamtarūn: such is ʿĪsā, son of Maryam — it is a statement of truth, which they doubt. This is the true word of ʿĪsā. If you want to know the life of ʿĪsā, these are the ayat.