IMAM ALI (A.S.), ABOUT DEATH

 

The Commander of the Faithful, the “Nafse Rasool”, The Gateway of Knowledge, The Conqueror of Khyber, Imam Ali (a.s.) advised the people about death. Man is lost in the magnetic attractions of this transient world, but death is that whose incidence is definite for whoever is born must die. The important thing is the timing of death which is unknown.

The Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali (a.s.) had stated in the famous collection called “Nahjul Balaghah” Sermon 109:

“Whatever they (human beings) were ignoring has befallen them. Pangs of death and grief for losing (this world) have surrounded them. Consequently, their limbs become languid (lacking vigor) and their complexion changes. Then death increases its struggle over them. In someone, it stands in between him and power of speaking although he lies among his people, looking with eyes, hearing with his ears, with full wits and intelligence. He then thinks over how he wasted his life and in what (activities) he passed his time. He recalls the wealth he collected when he had blinded himself in seeking it and acquired it from fair or foul sources. Now the consequences of collecting it have overtaken him. He gets ready to leave it. It would remain for those who are left behind. They would enjoy it and benefit by it. It would be an easy acquisition for others but a burden on his back, and the man cannot rid of it. He would thereupon bite his hands with teeth out of shame for what was disclosed to him about his affairs at the time of his death. He would dislike what he coveted during the days of his life and would wish that the one who envied him on account of it and felt jealous over him for it should have amassed it instead of himself.

Death would continue affecting his body till his ears would behave like his tongue and lose functioning. (Incidentally, after the birth, an infant’s faculty of hearing starts working before his eyes and tongue). So, he would lie among his people, neither speaking with his tongue nor hearing with his ears. He would be rotating his glance over their faces, watching the movements of their tongues, but not hearing their speaking.

The death will spread its sway over him, and his sight would be taken by death as the ears had been taken and the spirit would depart from his body. He would then become a carcass among his own people. They would feel loneliness from him and get away from near him. He would not join a mourner or respond to a caller. Then they would carry him to a small place in the ground and deliver him in it to (face) his deeds. They abandoned visiting him.”

 

                Source: Nahjul Balagha Part 1, The Sermons Compile by Ayatullah Sharif Razi (r.a.)