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On the Remembrance
of Death, and an Encouragement to Remember it Abundantly
Know that the heart of the man who is engrossed in this world and
is given over to its vanities and harbours love for its appetites
must certainly be neglectful of the remembrance of death. Thus falling
to recall it, when reminded of it he finds it odious and shies away.
Such are the people of whom God has said: Say: Lo! the death
from which ye shrink will surely meet you, and afterward ye will
be returned unto the Knower of the Invisible and the Visible, and
He will tell you what ye used to do.
’Now, men may be either engrossed [in the world],
penitent beginners, or arrived gnostics. The man engrossed does
not remember death, or, if he does, it is with regret for his world,
and he busies himself with disparaging death. The remembrance of
death increases such a one in nothing but distance from God.
The penitent man recalls death frequently, so that fear and apprehension
might thereby proceed from his heart, making his repentance complete.
It may be that he is in fear of death lest it carry him off before
his repentance is complete and before his provisions for the journey
are replenished; lie is excusable in his aversion to death, and
is riot included in the saying of the Prophet (may God bless him
and grant him peace): ‘Whosoever would abhor meeting with
God, God abhors meeting with him’. Such a man does not abhor
death and meeting God, but only fears the meeting with God passing
him by as a result of his deficiency and remissness. He is like
the man who is made late for a meeting with his beloved by busying
himself with preparations for the encounter in a way that will find
approval: he is not deemed to be reluctant about the meeting! The
distinguishing mark of the penitent man is his constant preparation
for this matter and his lack of any other concern. Were he to be
otherwise he would associate with the man engrossed in the world.
As for the gnostic, he remembers death constantly, because for
him it is the tryst with his Beloved, and a lover never forgets
the appointed time for meeting the one he loves. Usually such a
man considers death slow in coming and is happy upon its advent,
that he might have done with the abode of sinners and be borne away
into the presence of the Lord of the Worlds.’ Such was the
case with Hudhayfa, of whom it is related that when death came he
said, ‘A dear friend has come at a time of poverty. Whoever
repents [at such a moment as this] shall not succeed. O Lord God!
Should You know that poverty is dearer to me than wealth, and sickness
more beloved to me than health, and death more dear to me than life,
then make my death easy for me until I meet You.’
Thus it is that the penitent man may be excused the aversion he
feels for death, while another is excusable in loving it and longing
for it. And higher than either of them is the degree of he that
has entrusted his affair to God (Exalted is He!) and no longer prefers
death or life for himself, for the dearest of things to him is that
which is more beloved in the sight of his Lord. By virtue of profound
love and loyalty this man has arrived at the station of absolute
surrender and contentment, which is the goal, and the utmost limit.
But whatever the situation may be, in the recollection of death
there is reward and merit. For even the man engrossed in the world
benefits from it by acquiring an aversion to this world, since it
spoils his contentment and the fullness of his pleasure; and everything
which spoils for man his pleasures and his appetites is one of the
means of deliverance.
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