Chapter X: Remembrance of Death
Know, O readers, that death is terrible. People are unmindful of death as they do not think of it. He who remembers it, does not do so with his whole heart. So death-thought does not cast any influence on him. The mode of thinking of death is to free your mind from all thoughts and put in it only thoughts of death. Be like one who embarks on perilous sea voyage. When thought of death covers his whole mind and becomes predominant, his worldly happiness decreases and his heart breaks. The best mode of thinking of death is to remember the death of friends and neighbours, their burial underneath the ground and their faces and conditions in the graves. How their beautiful faces have become foods for worms and insects, how their wives and children, being orphans and stricken by extreme poverty, are passing their days miserably, how their properties have been destroyed. Think individually one by one. Think how death overtook them suddenly without any notice and how unprepared they were for death and the next world. The saint Abu Darda said : When mention is made of the death of a man, think yourself as one of them. Ibn Masud said : He who takes lessons from the condition of others is fortunate. The Caliph Omar bin Abdul Aziz said : Don't you see that you equip for a traveller with goods for going to God each morning or evening and put him underneath the ground, while he leaves his friends and dear relatives and his properties and riches for ever? The saint Muti once looked towards his house and got satisfaction. At this he began to weep and said : By God, had there been no death, I would have taken great pleasure in looking towards you. Had the place which I will occupy after death would not have been narrow, I would have cooled my eyes by seeing this world. Thereafter he began to cry like a child.
386 DEATH AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS Vol-IV
PANGS OF DEATH
The wise Loqman said to his son : O dear son, you don't know when death will attack you. Be prepared for it before it suddenly overtakes you. Know that he who has suffered the pangs of death, will only understand them, but he who has not suffered them may only understand them, but he who has not suffered them may only understand them by conjecture or seeing the pangs of death of another.