Chapter X: Remembrance of Death
It is narrated that a man acquired vast wealth. He constructed many buildings and adorned them with iron gates. There were innumerable slaves and slave girls therein. Then he prepared a grand feast and brought all his beautiful wives. Then he ascended the throne and began to shake his legs placing one of his legs upon another in pride. Then he said : O self, enjoy it for long long years. Hardly had he finished this talk's a poor man with tattered rags on him came to the door and began to knock it. The guard at once rushed to the door and enquired of his whereabouts. He said : Take your master to me, The guard said : Will our master come down to a man like you? He began to knock the door with a greater force. The guard rushed on him and he said: I am the angel of death. Go and inform him to come to me. When he came, he took his life.
Hazrat Wahab-bin-Monabbah said: The angel of death took the life of a great tyrant and ascended the heaven. The angel asked him : O angel of death have you ever felt kindness in your, mind in taking the life of a man? He said : Yes once I felt kindness when a pregnant woman was alone in a dense jungle. She gave birth to a son there and I was ordered to take her life at that very moment. I felt kindness for her helplessness and for the condition of her just born child. The angel said : You have taken the life of the mother of a mighty emperor who was that helpless child. He said : All praise is for God who does what He wishes.
The great saint Ata-bin-Yasin said: The angel of death gets a list of persons on the 15th night of Shaban each year and he is ordered to take the lives of those persons in the list in that year.
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Hazrat Khaisamah narrated that the angel of death came to the Darbar of Sulaiman and was staring at one of his courtiers for long. When he went away the courtier asked Solaiman : Who is that man who stared at me? He said that he was the angel of death. The courtier said : I think he has come to take my life. Please save me from him. Solaiman ordered the air to throw him to India. The air carried out his order. The angel of death came to Solaiman again who said: You stared for long at one of my courtiers. The angel of death said : Yes, I have been ordered to take his life in some place in India but I have seen him here. I thought : How can I take his life in India when he has been here at the moment. More wonderful it is that I found him at the appointed time in the fixed place in India and then I took his life there.
394 DEATH AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS Vol-IV
SECTION IV
THE DEATH OF THE PROPHET AND THE FOUR CALIPHS