First published on: 9 Tips About Death: From Ugly To Lovely


  Summar Hamdy

What an idea! How cruel it is to realize that you don’t belong where you think you belong! How cruel it is to realize that you’ll die and be buried in a grave! How cruel it is to realize that you can simply die now, tomorrow or just two seconds away! How cruel it is to realize and know through scientists that this earth entirely will never stay forever!

Those ideas, beliefs and facts can hold you from sleeping for a very long time. You just try and try not to think of them, but they keep coming back. They dominate you, they dominate me, and whatever tries we make to get over them, efforts don’t work.

So, here’s my experience on the matter, to turn those facts from ugly to lovely.

Search faith about the Hereafter in Islam


Believing in the Hereafter is a nature in human beings. It’s enough for us to see death, it’s also enough for us to have a dream to be in a place we have never been to find ourselves there the very next day. All beliefs spoke about the Hereafter somehow. You’ll find it reasonable in Islam, there’s no turning into an animal, but there are:

A book


A witness


The judge


Accounting


Huge mercy


Payback


Reward


And eternity


Turn fear into motivation


Fear isn’t like we’ve learnt the worst part in a relationship. It’s like the chili in a delicious plate, and without it, you might feel stuffed very fast and no more enjoy your meal. Fear is part of the relationship with God; it’s not complete without it. Muslim scholars say that the relationship with Allah is on 2 wings; one of them is hope/love, and the other is fear. Hell is fear; penalty is fear; jail is fear; and departure is fear. Fear always makes you run faster. To run is much better than to stand, to sit down, to sleep and of course better than falling. Running is healthier, gives you muscles and better heartbeat on the long term.

It’s just a passage


And no matter how ugly it looks like, this too is going to pass. And yes, some people will die. We’re all going to die. What’s most important is on which condition we’ll die? Fighting for the truth or fighting against it?!

Make the meaningless meaningful


If you don’t think that everything you do here has a feedback there (in the Hereafter), then why are you doing it?

No matter how a strong believer you are, you’ll come to the point of thinking, “OK, this will end someday, then why am I doing it? This is a broken chain anyway. Someday all of this is going to end; the entire earth will.”

The only thing that will keep you going is to believe that what you build on this earth, you’ll find in a much better shape there in Paradise.

Making people happy and helping others can stop at the point of not getting so happy doing so. Have you ever faced a situation when you helped someone then he hurts you later so much that he made you reconsider if you really want to help others?

The only meaning that will remain steady is to do it for pleasing Allah (The Creator), for Him to give you something as a reward, to help you as long as you help others. Muhammad said:

If anyone relieves a Muslim believer from one of the hardships of this worldly life, Allah will relieve him of one of the hardships of the Day of Resurrection. If anyone makes it easy for the one who is indebted to him (while finding it difficult to repay), Allah will make it easy for him in this worldly life and in the Hereafter, and if anyone conceals the faults of a Muslim, Allah will conceal his faults in this world and in the Hereafter. Allah helps His servant as long as he helps his brother.” [Related by Muslim].

Don’t dig deep into the Hereafter and forget to live


“I fast and I breakfast, I wake up at night for praying and sometimes I sleep, I get married.” Those were the words of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Digging deep into thinking about death and the Hereafter may make you forget that you’re still here. Don’t neglect your temporary joy as well. Consider it as help for you to continue until then. But take it the easy way, not the hard way:

Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard? | Jon Jandai | TEDxDoiSuthep


Create the ‘Things to do before I die’ list, but rearrange priorities


But this time, put learning about the Creator as a top priority. Everything else will become meaningless if you didn’t fill this hole inside your heart. Everything else will become very tiny and temporary compared to this huge question in your head. Enjoy your trip to Hawaii, however, your joy will soon come back to this question before you sleep: “What is this all about?”

Help others to get through


Help others, but not only for you to be happy. I saw many people who stopped helping others because they find it no more fun because they faced challenges. And do not help others to please them. I saw people who never stopped helping a needy, even when he turned against them. You’ll always find a reason on this earth why you should stop helping others if you don’t have a Hereafter-purpose.

Reorganize your priorities, and accompany people who don’t stick to it


When you drown into life making yourself more dependent on one of its temporary joys, this joy suddenly stops -for being finite by nature- and hurts you so deep, making you feel like the world became worthless after this loss. But when you enjoy while knowing that you, everyone, and even that joy are going away at the end, then you can have a full joy with your own independency from life. So don’t keep that question opened and irritating. Know the answer, enjoy the beautiful moments as independent. Enjoy it the hero way.  

Listen to Quran, read Quran


Quran isn’t just relaxing, and overwhelming to make you feel safer in here, but it gives you a path where to go, and tells you what to do. Here are some examples:

And your Lord would not have destroyed the cities unjustly while their people were reformers”. [Quran.com/11/117].

“O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So follow not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just. And if you distort [your testimony] or refuse [to give it], then indeed Allah is ever, with what you do, Acquainted”. [Quran.com/4/135].