Commentary ~ How come we hate death?

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

A story related to Suliman ibn Abdel Malek, a Muslim Caliph, during a golden era of Islam when the Muslim Ummah was expanding, the wealth of the world was coming to the Islamic nation and Allah was giving this Ummah rizk (provisions) so much so that the Ummah was living an extravagant lifestyle. Damascus, the capital of the Muslim Caliphate at the time was the greatest city in the world, the most luxurious city in the world and Beni Oumaya were living a life that no one else in the world would dream of.

Suliman ibn Abdel Malek was accompanying a scholar from al Tabiyeen (second generation after the companions), so he asked this scholar a question: “How come we hate death?”, so the scholar responded and said: “Ya Emir Al Moumineen (O Leader of the Believers), you have constructed your dounia (this present world) and you have destroyed your ekhira (the hereafter). So you would not want to think of leaving what is constructed to what is destroyed.”

The scholar is saying that all you have done is prepare for yourself a good life for this world but you haven’t done much for the hereafter. You built a palace here but you didn’t build a palace there. You made for yourself an easy lifestyle here but you didn’t make sure that you will have a similar one in the hereafter and that is why you don’t like death. But for somebody who is investing all of their money, their effort and time in building for themselves a better life in the hereafter, for these they would love to go from this world to the hereafter.