Shaykh Abu Ja’far said that a man approached Amir Al-Mu’minin Ali Ibn Abi Talib (‘a) and asked him to explain the reality of death. Imam replied, “You have asked this question from a man who is fully aware of the (nature) of death. When death reaches a person, it carries essentially, one of the three things with it i.e. news of eternal bliss or the information of permanent chastisement or a great fear (for the prospective deceased), where he finds his future blurred, and he does not know the category he belonged to.

However, the one who is our friend and compliant to our instructions receives the news of permanent bliss and our enemy or the one who defies our instructions is given the news of permanent chastisement, and the individual whose position is uncertain but his principles of faith are correct, who has troubled his soul by disobeying God, does not know what would be his final destiny. Such a man receives imprecise news of an atrocious ending.

God will never merge this man with our enemies and will take him out of the punishment of hell due to our intercession. He then advised his followers to continue with virtuous deeds and obey the guided leaders (Imams) and don’t let wishful thinking and novel desires to overpower them. Do not play with God’s punishment because some persons would undergo punishment of hundreds of thousands of years, before they received our intercession.”

Imam Al-Hasan (‘a) was asked a question about death, for which people lacked understanding. Imam replied, “For a believer, death is greatest pleasure, because it is due to death that he finally escaped the mundane pains and dilemmas and moved into perpetual delights of God’s blessings, but for the disbelievers the same death is an immense calamity, because it is a conduit, which takes them away from the comforts of this world into the non-extinguishable fire of the Hell.”

On the Day of Ashura, when Imam Al-Husayn (‘a) was in a grand trial, some of his friends talked with each other about Imam in the thick of the battle. They said that his demeanour was different from other people, particularly, when the battle had intensified. Some people had showed a degree of anxiety on their faces, while, Imam and some of his other companions were calm with a gleam on their faces, a relaxed body and satisfied hearts. At that instance, Imam’s friends were conversing with each other, about how carefree Imam was about the death. Listening to their conversation Imam (‘a) replied:

“O The Progeny of the Noble people! be patient, death is like a bridge that will take you away from these adversities into the bliss of eternal Paradise. Who is among you that doesn’t want to be freed from this prison and relax in the comfortable palaces of the Paradise? The example of your enemies is like a man who has exchanged his cozy residence with a narrow prison and horrifying retribution. My father has told me the Hadith of the Prophet that world is like a prison for a believer and paradise for an unbeliever. Death is an overpass for the believers and unbelievers to enter Paradise and Hell respectively. Neither me nor my father ever told a lie (means this Hadith is true).”

Somebody asked Imam Zayn Al-’Abidin (‘a) about death. He replied that death was like a man who had removed his dress filled with parasites or a person whose neck had been released from his metal chains and then he had redressed himself with scented cloths, and rode a speedy vehicle, to live in comfortable palaces. On the contrary for a kafir, it was like a man whose expensive clothes have been exchanged with a rotten dress, and then expelled from his luxurious apartment into a horrible confine, and then subjected to hideous punishment.

Our fifth Imam, Al-Baqir (‘a) was asked the same question. He replied, “Death is like a sleep, which overcomes you every night, but its duration is very long and its subject will not open his eyes before the Day of Judgement. Many of you see beautiful things in your dreams, which please you more than your expectations and the others see horrible things that make them sad and grieving, beyond their anticipation. You must imagine now how that person will feel (state of his happiness or sorrow) when he faces those things in reality at the time of his death? This is death and you must prepare yourself for it.”

Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq (‘a) replied to a similar question, “For a Mu’min (faithful) death is like a pleasing fragrance that makes him sleep and allays his tiredness completely. For an unbeliever death is like a person who has been bitten by snakes and scorpions or even more.”

Some people approached Imam As-Sadiq (‘a) and said that they had heard that sensation of death was like a person whose body is being dissected with scissors or pulverized with stones or the eyes are used as a pivot for a grinder. Imam replied in affirmative and said that some people observe their state of punishment and it makes it worst in comparison to the mundane sentence.

Imam was asked to explain the reasons for death to become effortless for some unbelievers and they die happily, while talking to their friends and relatives, and the same happens with some faithful as well. Contrary to this some believers (Mu’minin) and unbelievers, undergo very painful experience at the time of their death. Imam replied that those believers who feel relaxed at the time of their death, their reward starts earlier from this world and those who suffer their distress is to pay for their last sins, so that they may reach their Lord nice and clean on the Day of Judgement to receive their eternal recompense, without any hindrance.

This ease, which is sometimes provided to the kafirs at the time of their death was to reward (from the Just God) them for their good deeds that they have performed in this world, so that there should be nothing for them, other than punishment on the Day of Judgement for their wrong beliefs and ill deeds. Similarly, the unbelievers who suffer at the time of their death are those whose punishment has started from this world, and their good deeds (if any) have already been paid in this life. This was because God did not do injustice to anyone.

Imam Musa Al-Kadhim (‘a) went to see a person who was undergoing death, and was sweating with the signs of his demise. He was not answering the queries of those who addressed him. Some of the attendants asked Imam to find out his state of affairs at the instant of death. Imam replied, “Death is a cleaner for the believers for their sins, and this is the last pain they will ever undergo, and it is a repayment for their previous short comings. At the same time, it empties unbelievers from their intrinsic worth, and a little pleasure which they receive at the moment of death, is the final settlement of their previous good deeds.”

He then said, “Your friend is now free of sins; the way sins should be rightfully moped. He is now liberated from the leftover dirt and grime of his sin in the same way that soiled clothes are washed. He is now capable of residing with us in the everlasting abode of Paradise.”

Once a companion of our eighth Imam, Imam Ar-Ridha (‘a) fell ill. He went to find out his welfare and asked him how he felt? He replied that he had nearly died and faced a horrific time. Imam said that what he had faced was not death, but it was a state to remind him about death, and then explained few more things about that condition. He then said, “There are two types of men - those who find peace and tranquillity in death and there are others, whose death provides comfort for the others. You should now renew your covenant by accepting the Unity of God, Prophethood of (Muhammad) and our Wilayat, so that you may be soothed. He followed the instructions and...” This was a long tradition and we have reported only a part of it in this discussion.

It was mentioned to Imam Muhammad At-Taqi (‘a) about what had happened to those Muslims who disliked death. Imam replied, “These people dislike death because they are unaware of the true nature of it. Had they known the reality of death, while they were true friends of God, they would have definitely liked it, and lived in the certainty that hereafter was better than the life of this world.”

Imam asked (one of his companions sitting with him), why children and mentally sick people refused to take medicine, while they were ill, when it relieved them from the ailments of the body? The companion replied that because they were unaware of the benefits of the medicine. Imam replied that he swore by Almighty God, Who sent Muhammad (S) as His messenger, that if a man was prepared and ready for death then it would prove it to be more beneficial than any medicine that was recommended for a patient, and they would be more forthcoming in accepting death like a patient, who vies for medicine.

Imam At-Taqi (‘a) went to one of his companions who was crying at the horrible sight of death. Imam addressed him and said, “O servant of God! you are only crying at the prospect of death, because you are not aware of its reality. What is your feeling when a dress that gets badly soiled, and its filth causes boils and pimples on the body by continuous scratching of the skin, while you had the knowledge that a shower in the bathroom could relieve you from all those troubles? Would you not prefer (the recommendation) that you should go to the bathroom and clean up yourself, and would you not abhor remaining away from the bathroom and continuing to suffer from the pain of the ailment?

He replied that he would prefer to wash himself. Imam replied that death was like a washroom of last resort, wherein one goes and gets remainder of sins cleaned up. And, when one reached its embankment and went across it, they would find freedom from all kind of adversities and a place of abode, which is full of perpetual enjoyment and tranquillity ahead of them. Listening to the words of Imam, his fear of death vanished and he felt a moment of relief and closed his eyes to embrace death.

Imam Hasan Al-’Askari (‘a) was asked about the state of death. He replied, “Death is related to confirm the presence of those things, which have not yet happened.” He said that his father has told him a Hadith of Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq (‘a) on the authority of his elders. The Imam said, “When a faithful (Mu’min) dies, he is in fact not a dead corpse, whereas, a Kafir is a corpse as described in the Qur’an that Allah is the one who creates life from dead and an inert thing from a living object i.e. He brings forth a faithful from the (family of) Kafirs and identifies a Kafir among the faithful.”

وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ

“Thou bringest the living out of the dead and Thou bringest the dead out of the living” (3:27; 6:95; 10:31; 30:19).

The same Imam - Hasan Al-’Askari (‘a) also said that a man approached the holy Prophet and asked him the reasons for him not liking death. The Prophet replied by asking him if he owned any wealth. He replied, yes. The Prophet asked him if he had sent any of his wealth to the next world. He said: no. The Prophet then said, “This is the reason, you do not appreciate death. Go and spend something in the way of God and transfer its credit to the next world, you will then start loving death.”

It is also related from the same Imam that someone approached Abu Dharr Al-Ghifari and asked him, why people do not appreciate death? He replied that they have decorated their world and destroyed their hereafter, and they did not like to abandon the glamour of cities to the peace of graves. Another person asked, “What would we feel when we are presented to God”. Abu Dharr replied that an abstinent would feel like a wayfarer, who had reached his family with joy, but corrupt and wicked would be presented like a vagrant slave who reached his master in a fearful state.

The group listening to Abu Dharr asked about their own condition in front of God. Abu Dharr replied that they should present their acts to the Qur’an, as God had said that the virtuous would enjoy a pleasurable life under the shadow of God’s blessing, while the immoral and sinful would be detained in the Hell.

إِنَّ الْأَبْرَارَ لَفِي نَعِيمٍ

“Surely amid delights shall the righteous dwell” (82:13).

وَإِنَّ الْفُجَّارَ لَفِي جَحِيمٍ

“And verily the impure in Hell-fire” (82:14).

Someone asked him where God’s grace would be? Abu Dharr replied, shadowing the blessed.

إِنَّ رَحْمَتَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ مِنَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ

"Verily the mercy of Allah is closer to the righteous" (7:56).