UNTIMELY DEATH
By Babatunde Jose
O Allah forgive our living and our dead, those who are with us and those who are absent, our young and our old, our menfolk and our womenfolk…
Sahih Ibn Majah
An erudite Imam delivered a verdict that struck at the heart of our whole notion and classification of death. His verdict: Death is death. No death is untimely.
What is untimely about death? Who set the ‘death clock’ in our body? Who determines when we would live or die? Who determines where we would die and the type of death? The mystery of death is the greatest limit of medical science, as it imposes the conditional ‘if’ on most of its theories.
The tortoise is presumed to live longest among animals, some living up to 300 years and more. But it does not follow that they must all live long. I have a tortoise that is 26 years old since I bought it, but late last year a friend gave me a small one to keep it company, but it never lived long.
That is life. We have our entries and exit, predetermined and written. Even identical twins do not share the same longevity. This is the joker God Almighty holds in his hands and is never revealed to anyone, even the Angels. No one knows about that day or hour……. Matthew 24:36 And Quran 31:34 says : Verily the knowledge of the Hour is with Allah (alone). . . . Nor does anyone know in what land he is to die.
Except if we are thinking of the dialogue in Isaiah 38 where God gave Hezekiah 15 more years to live. Nowhere in the dialogue was the hour of death revealed to either Hezekiah or Isaiah the prophet who delivered the message. God is Great!
Something untimely is defined as what has occurred prematurely. The most common use of this term is probably in discussing someone’s untimely death, meaning they died young.
This has been the usual notion and interpretation of the concept. However, spiritually it is a wrong notion. Our death does not lie in our hands but that of God. Death comes to a newborn as it comes out of its mother’s womb; it comes to an infant just learning how to walk, so also does it come to an adult who is neither sick nor infirm.
Doctors define sudden death as unexpected deaths that are instantaneous or occur within minutes or hours from any cause other than violence, sudden death following coronary occlusion especially sudden cardiac arrest. For a variety of reasons, something causes the heart to beat out of control.
This abnormal heart rhythm is known as ventricular fibrillation. Some specific causes of sudden cardiac death in young people include: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Despite all these medical mumbo jumbos, it is still death; it cannot be hastened or delayed. A man could be placed on life support to keep alive; this does not mean that his death is delayed. Unfortunately, God determines the day and time when the machine will be unplugged.
Premature mortality is a measure of unfulfilled life expectancy. Because it is believed that deaths of younger people are often preventable, the premature mortality rate is a measure that gives more weight to the death of younger people than to older people. … A person dying at age 60 has lost a potential 10 years of life. Death is an inevitable part of life, but dying before our time is presumed entirely preventable: But is it? According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the average life expectancy for Americans was 78.7 years in 2012. Dying at any point before that age could be considered a premature death.
The questions posed are: Who determines life expectancy? Who says a man must live to a certain age? Is death of young people actually preventable or that of an adult as the case maybe? The best looked after patient who records excellent results in all medical tests often stun medical experts by dropping dead in unexpected circumstances.
To the Muslim, death is exactly like sleeping; complete with dreams (Quran 6:60, 40:46). The period between death and resurrection passes like one night of sleep (Quran 2:259; 6:60; 10:45; 16:21 😉 See Sura Kahf, story of the Companions of the Cave; (Quran 18:11, 19, 25; and 30:55).
The Quran contains various death themes that add significantly to our insight into the meaning of death, the concept is left undefined and always portrayed in close relationship with the concepts of life, creation, and resurrection.
All that is on earth will perish. (Quran 55:26) Allah says in the Quran: “Everyone shall taste death. And only on the day of resurrection shall you be paid your wages in full. And whoever is removed away from the fire and admitted to paradise, this person is indeed successful. The life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception.” (Quran 3:185)
Death is the termination of an individual comprehensive being, capable of believing and disbelieving, and not simply a living organism. Life does not end with death. In the same way that a person does not cease to exist in sleep, similarly he does not cease to exist in death.
And in the same way that a person comes back to life when waking from sleep, also he will be revived at the great awakening on the Day of Judgement. Hence, Islam views death merely as a stage in human existence. Physical death should not be feared but one should, however, worry about the agonies of spiritual death caused by living a life of moral decadence and corruption, a life of brigandage and self-aggrandizement, a life of injustice and cheating, a life of unbridled venality.
A young man, died recently in his sleep. He was 42 going 43. If that were all, it would not have raised our attention, but behold, he was the son of the foremost Pentecostal personality in the country, a man whom many of his followers believe commune with God; he calls God his daddy.
With an exceptionally large estate in Ifewara which he christened ‘prayer city; a serene and opulent collection of edifices dedicated to the glory of God; one would have felt that he would not be the object of trial of the Almighty. But God does not play favorites; even prophets of God were subjected to trials.
The deceased was also a pastor who had dedicated his life to the service of God like his father, mother, and his younger brother. His death is a reminder to us: The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away: Job 1:21. May his soul rest in peace.
At the beginning of Ramadan, we prayed that Allah should spare our lives to partake in the fast and see the end of Ramadan. Unfortunately, many started the fast with us but never made it to the finishing line; they answered the call during the month. Their death was written. It was this fate that befell our brother and friend, Sheikh Raman ibn Seriki (1954-2021) who died on the morning of Thursday April 29th and was buried same day.
He was an Islamic scholar, well versed in the holy books and coordinator of The Centre for Inspirational Development for Mankind into which we contributed funds for the feeding of the needy during Ramadan. Unfortunately, Rahman was unable to see the end of the laudable project. We are rest assured that Allah will reserve a place for him in Jannatul Firdous. Rahman was an old student of Anwar-ul-Islam Model College (old Ahmadiyya College) Agege. He was a good man.
Death should not by any stretch be defined as untimely. People die when it is their time just as we would all die when our time comes. The only thing is that we never know for whom the bell tolls.
Barka Juma’at and Barka da Sallah
Babatunde Jose
