by HARUN YAHYA
Who knows, perhaps that time is now, or too close to you.
These lines may be your last chance, or a last reminder, a last warning
before your death, to check and control yourself.
While you are reading these lines, you cannot be sure that you will
still be alive one hour later. Let's say you will be, but there is no
guarantee for the next hour. Not for an hour, it is not definite that
you will be living for one more minute or for even a second. There is
also no guarantee that you will be able to read till the end of these
lines. Death will come, most probably, at a time that you haven't
thought about it one minute before.
You will surely die, also the ones that you love, before you or later
than you, they will all die. 100 years from now, there will be not even
one alive person that you now know.
Everybody has endless plans about life. Finishing high school, attending
a university then graduation, finding a job, buying a house, getting
married and having some kids, then bringing the kids up and then
retiring to live a peaceful and quiet life... These are some of the most
usual and common ones. Apart from these, according to people's different
conditions, everybody has thousands of more complicated and detailed
plans. However, it is not certain that they will get realized. However,
death will get realized for a hundred percent.
A student who strive very hard to attend a university, dies while going
to his first classes. Or, somebody, on his way to his first day at work
or a newly married couple on their way back from the wedding ceremony
die at an unexpected traffic accident. A successful businessman, to gain
some time, prefers aeroplane transportation, but the plane crushes and
the life of the businessman ends dreadfully.
All the plans are in vain now. Without realizing the rest of his plans
and will never be able to realize them, they go to a place of no
return... But they have not planned anything for the place that they are
going now. They have been preparing everything in detail for years for
things that they will never be able to realize, but they have not ever
thought about what is very certain to happen.
Then, which one should a man that has wisdom, comprehension and reason,
give the priority to- to the one that is for sure, or make plans for the
other? Most people, give priority to the indefinite one. At whichever
stage of their life span, they make all their plans for a better way of
living in the future.
If men were immortal, this choice would be reasonable. However, all the
plans are doomed to an end called death. Therefore, giving importance to
things that will end and leaving what is certain, is absolutely
irrational. Nevertheless, people cannot apprehend this crystal clear
fact because of a weird magic that enslaves their mind. When this is the
case, they cannot identify their real life which starts with death. They
don't get prepared for this. When they are revived, they go nowhere but
Hell, which is created especially for them because they deserve it.
This booklet is written to make people think of the facts that they
don't want to think and to remind them of the big event that approaches
fast. This big event is definite. Qur'an, describes this as "Sure
Reality". (AL-HAAQQA, 1)
Therefore, escaping from thinking is not a solution at all.
SUPERSTITIONS AND REALITIES
Mankind have found solutions to many kinds of problems that arose
throughout the history, but only death. Every living thing is born
doomed to death. Some of them pass away when they are young, some live
a longer life, and some die even older. Nobody's property, wealth,
position, rank, power or beauty keep death away from them. Without
exception, all were obliged to die and will be obliged to die.
A lot of people, don't want to think about death and don't want to
remember that it is certainly going to happen to them. They have
developed a defence mechanism that they will not die if they do not
think about it. Whenever someone happens to talk about death, people
consider him to be a 'pessimistic' person and don't let him talk about
it. However, if someone talks about death, with or without any purpose,
he is reminding people of one of the most important signs and manages to
wipe the foggy cloud of heedlessness away a little. Yet, people that
chose unawareness as a way of life, get disturbed by things that draw
away their unawareness. But these who run away from the thought of death
in life, will get overwhelmed more when they face the real death. The
greater is their ignorance in this life, the greater is the horror,
confusion and pain at the Day of Resurrection and in the Hell.
You will see no man that can resist ageing and death as time passes.
You'll see no man free from death. It is impossible! Because man does
not own neither his body nor his life. One indication of this, is that
he wasn't the one to decide for his life . Another indication is that he
has no solution to stop his death. The Master of his life is the One
that gives it to him. And He, can take away that life whenever He wills.
Allah, the owner of all lives, informs us with the verse :
"We granted not to any man before thee permanent life (here): if then
thou shouldst die, would they live permanently?" (AL-ANBIYA, 34)
There are about 6 billions of people on earth, there have been numerous
people since the first man. And all have experienced death without
exception. Death is the end for all that lived before us and is living
now. Nobody can save themselves from this unavoidable end. This is what
it says in Al Qur'an:
"Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment
shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from
the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of
Life): For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of
deception." (AAL-E-IMRAN, 185)
Supposing Death as Coincidence or Bad Fate
Death does not happen by chance. Like all other things, death happens by
Allah's decree. Everybody's time of birth is known, likewise the time of
death is also circumscribed even to its second. People consume their
predetermined time and approach rapidly to their last instant. The
place, the time and the type of death is predetermined in their destiny.
Despite this fact, most people believe that their death is a consequence
of the events which, in fact, Allah created as its cause. Everyday death
announcements are read in the newspapers. They come to some shallow
conclusions like "If this precaution would have been taken or if that
thing wouldn't have happened, he wouldn't have died." However, everybody
can live as long as his allowance permits, not one second more, not one
second less. However, people without the consciousness of faith,
consider death as a result of a chain of coincidences. Qur'an makes the
believers avoid from such a totally erroneous belief aroused by the
unbelievers:
"O ye who believe! Be not like the Unbelievers, who say of their
brethren, when they are travelling through the Earth or engaged in
fighting: "If they had stayed with us, they would not have died, or been
slain." This that Allah may make it a cause of sighs and regrets in
their hearts. It is Allah that gives Life and Death, and Allah sees well
all that ye do." (AAL-E-IMRAN, 156)
Believing that death is a coincidence is a great ignorance and
stupidity. And this gives a great psychological pain and an irresistible
regret, as also mentioned in the above verse. Unbelievers and also the
ones that don't believe the way as per Qur'an describes, feel this great
suffering as a 'a cause of sighs and regrets when someone close to them
dies. They presume that there was a chance for him to recover, however
because of bad luck, incidents or unprecautiousness, he died out of
nothing. This thought increases their grief and pain. In fact this pain
is for nothing but their distress of disbelieve.
Though there is a very important mystery; the reason of dying is not an
traffic accident, not a disease, not anything else. All of these reasons
are created by Allah. When our time ends, our souls are taken away with
these kinds of false reasons. Man, even though spends all of his
fortune, will not be able to live even one more minute than his respite.
Qur'an describes this divine law as:
"... To every people is a term appointed: when their term is reached,
not an hour can they cause delay, nor (an hour) can they advance (it in
anticipation)." (YUNUS 49)
Misunderstanding destiny
Most people have a misconviction of destiny, especially about death.
Irrational statements like 'to change the destiny' or 'to get over
destiny' are quite spread among public. People with little wisdom,
little intelligence and little knowledge suppose that their expectations
and predictions are their destiny, and when they don't get realized they
think that destiny does not happen as it was determined and it keeps
changing. They are in quite a foolish attitude as if they have read
their destiny before and it did not happen as it should happen. These
kinds of inconsistent logic mostly originates because the concept of
destiny is not fully understood.
Destiny or fate is, Allah's creation and determination of all the events
in the past and in the future at the timeless dimension, Who created the
concept of time and space out of nothing and Who is independent from
time and space. All the chain of events that were lived and will be
lived is planned and created at its very minute.
Time is created by Allah, therefore He is independent from time.
Therefore, there can be no such thing for Him to wait for the results
what He Himself created. In His sight, the beginning and end of
everything is determined at its point in the infinity. Everything has
already happened. In a film strip, it is not possible for the images to
make changes on the film, likewise nobody has the power or ability to
change anything on the life strip. Fate has the influence on people,
people don't have the influence on fate. Men is a part of the fate and
cannot behave independent from their fate. How can we talk about
changing the fate when one cannot even get out of it. This is like an
actor in a film, getting out of the film, become a physical being and
erasing and changing things in the film which he himself acts. This is a
totally absurd and illogical thing.
Therefore, phrases like 'coming over destiny' or 'changing the fate' are
totally ridiculous. When a person says 'I changed my fate', in fact, he
is saying something predetermined in his destiny.
Somebody can be in coma for days and it may seem impossible for him to
turn back to life. But the same person, contrary to expectations, may
recover. However this does not mean that 'he defeated his fate' or
'changed his fate'. This only shows that person has still not completed
the time allowed in his destiny for him to live. Everything is written
and predetermined at Allah's stage. The verse follows:
"... Nor is a man long-lived granted length of days, nor is a part cut
off from his life, but is in a Decree (ordained). All this is easy to
Allah." (FATIR 11)
"Nor can a soul die except by Allah's leave, the term being fixed as by
writing..." (AAL-E-IMRAN 145)
With these examples, Allah shows us the infinite wisdom and abundance in
variety of His creation. These increase the amazement and gratitude of
believers and increase their faith in Him. On the other side, these
increase the perversion and confusion of the unbelievers whose reasoning
does not go beyond a first step. This helps the believers acknowledge
Allah for showing them the foolishness and the lack of understanding of
the unbelievers and take lessons from them.
One other common belief in the society is that if a 80-year-old man
dies, it would be the appointed hour of death, whereas a young person's
or a child's death is considered to be 'unexpected painful event'. These
people try to consider death as normal if some conditions are provided.
According to them, death after a long-lasting sickness can be considered
natural, however death after a sudden sickness or an accident is a
disaster! Therefore, usually people regard death in a rebellious
attitude. This kind of psychology is a clear sign of disbelieve in fate
and consequently in Allah. Everybody with this mentality which is the
result of disbelief, is doomed to live in distress and sorrow and this
sorrow is only the beginning in this world and is to continue in the
Hereafter.
