SubhanAllah! When I woke up today, I witnessed this season’s first beautiful heavy snow fall, Alhamdulillah.
Seeing frozen flowers, layers of snow on plants, what came to my mind was Allah’s beautiful attribute Al Mumeet – The Giver of Death!
“Every soul has to taste death. It is on the Day of Judgement that you shall be paid your rewards in full. So, whoever has been kept away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise has really succeeded. The worldly life is nothing but an illusionary enjoyment.”
(Holy Quran 03:185)
SubhanAllah! We know the snowfall season is just a phase, and there will be life again, these flowers and plants will again grow inshaAllah.
Death is also a phase, it is not an end, it is the beginning of a new phase, there is one more life after death!
There is a famous story about a man.
I would like to cite it here as it is an inspiring parable of life and death.
“Once a man saw in his dream, that a lion was chasing him.
The man ran to a tree, climbed on it and sat on a branch. He looked down and saw that the lion was still there waiting for him. The man then looked to his side, the branch he was sitting on, he saw two rats were circling around and eating the branch. One rat was black and the other one was white. It appeared the branch will fall on the ground very soon.
The man then looked below again with fear and discovered that a big black snake had come and settled directly under him. The snake has opened its mouth right under the man so that he will fall into it.
The man then looked up, to see, if there was anything that he could hold on to. He saw another branch with a honeycomb. Drops of honey were falling from it. The man wanted to taste one of the drops. So, he put his tongue out and tasted one of the falling drops of honey. The honey was amazing in taste.
So, he wanted to taste another drop and then another and as a result, he got lost into the sweetness of the honey. He forgot about the two rats eating his branch away, the lion on the ground and the snake that is sitting right under him.
Suddenly when the branch broke he remembered all the dangers and woke up from his sleep.
It was interpreted that the lion he saw was his death.
The two rats, one black and one white, were the night and the day. Black one is the night and the white one is the day. They circled around, coming one after another, to eat the time, taking closer to death.
The big black snake with a dark mouth was the grave. It’s there, just waiting for the fall into it.
AND,
The honeycomb is this world and the sweet drops of honey were the luxuries of this world. We like to taste a little bit of the luxuries of this world and they are sweet and tempting. Then we want to taste little more and then more. Meanwhile, we get lost into it and we forget about our time, we forget about our death and we forget about our grave.”
Such a thought-provoking parable about life and death.
We should prepare for the meeting with our Rabb, Allah Al Mumeet by doing good deeds and by not associating anyone in His worship, in His Lordship, in His attributes.
May Allah Al Mumeet, The Giver of death, bless us with death when He is well pleased with us.
Ameen.