Reflections on Life and Death pdf download

Reflections on Life and Death

Book contents

• What is Death? 8
• The First and the Second Life 9
• After Death 10
• Time’s Up! 12
• The Purpose of Life 14
• The Reality of the Present World 16
• Building This World, or Preparing For the Hereafter? 18
• This World is Temporary 20
• Death: A Reminder 22
• On the Other Side of Life 23 Running Without a Destination 24 Terrifying Result
• The World After Death 27 News of Death 28 Death’s Lesson 30
• Reading Our Own Funeral Prayers 31 Marking Someone’s Death 32 Who is Eligible for Paradise? 33
• Towards the Most Noble Companion 35
• The 25th Hour 37
• Reflections on Life and Death
• At Death’s Door 38
• The Moment of Death 40
• How Strange! 42 The Real Journey 43 The Journey of Life 44 In the Face of Death 45 From Riches to Ashes 46
• When the Journey Will End 48
• A Door, Not a Grave 49
• What Really Brings a Person Down 52
• The Human Tragedy 53
• To Leave 55
• Thinking of Death Leads to Reform 57
• Death’s Assault 58
• The Impending Storm 60 On the Day of Judgment 61 The Reality of the World 62 Know Your Tomorrow 64 Unaware Humanity 65
• The Final Destination 67 The Other Side of Death 69 On the Brink of Death 71 A Strange Deprivation 73
• I Have to Go Till the Hereafter 74
• The Stage of Life 76
• Decisive Day 78
• Man! 80
• What Matters in the Hereafter? 81 What Will Happen That Day 82 Remember Tomorrow 84
• Heavenly Personality 85
• When Death Will Expose Everything as False 87
• God’s Reward 90
• Fear God 91
• When the Truth Shall Be Made Clear 92
• A Delicate Question 94 On the Brink of Death 95 The Greatest News 97
• Appearance before the Creator 99 Prepare for the Eternal Future 100 Learning a Lesson from History 105 Creation Plan for This World 106 Nature: An Introduction to Paradise 108 Age and Health 109
• Old Age 110
• Everyone is a Traveller Towards Death 112
• The Pleasures of This World 114
• On Death’s Border 115
• How to Understand Paradise 116
• Detachment from This World 117
• Reflection on Death: A Means of Self-Correction 118

Book’s Foreword

Of all the stages through which a person will have to pass, death is the most certain. Yet, it is something

that few people bother to seriously think about, leave alone prepare for. Everyone who is alive now will be dead sometime in the future. One day, the eyes of those who now see will fade and their tongues will freeze into silence.

Every human being will one day be leaving this world, never to return, and will enter a world which he will never leave.

Death is commonly defined as the end of life in an organism. Upon death, apparently all biological and other-related activities of a living being stop, including the mind and the senses.

Research suggests that about 150,000 people die every day around the world.

Throughout history, a great majority of people have believed that humans also have a soul in addition to the physical body and that the soul continues in the afterlife, after leaving the body.

It is here that religion adds a very important aspect to the concept of death. That is, religion says that there is a very meaningful relationship between the pre-death and the post-death period of a human being.

The period before death in the present world can be likened to a nursery where human beings are meant to grow and develop, while in the phase after the present life, a human being will find his true habitat.

Human beings grow in the nursery of this present world, and in the world of the Hereafter plants from this nursery are selected for being settled in Paradise.

According to Islam, in the pre-death period, the Creator has bestowed complete freedom to a person. This freedom is meant as a person’s test.

 Those individuals who give proof of not having misused their freedom and show that they are competent to lead life in a highly disciplined way will be made deserving of entry to Paradise. Paradise is a sublime society where selected persons from the entire human history will be brought together and where they will live for eternity.

Since all of us must, one day or the other, face death, we need to reflect on death often and lead our lives in this world in such a way that when our death finally arrives, we will be adequately prepared for it, having lived as our Creator wanted us to.

Hopefully, this book will encourage readers to give attention to the reality of life and death and to thereby lead their lives in a more truly meaningful way. Wahiduddin Khan