Are you afraid of death?

**جوري** · 09-22-2012

Just curious as to people's attitudes, feelings, general preparedness ...,
I was driving on the highway a couple of weeks ago and was involved with a very heavy conversation when we heard the sounds of car swerving and what seemed like a bomb in the left lane a three car accident which I believe caused one fatality .. It was so surreal a minute in the throes of life and the next death snatches someone a healthy someone instantly.. It's so much different than when you've time to adjust to someone's ailing state to just a casual thing an event seemingly as natural as going to the market or taking a shower!

**joesixpack** · 09-22-2012

My greatest fear regarding death would be for the safety and security of my family. My children are still very young. I suppose you could say that I fear the consequences of my death. But my own death, in and of itself, is not terribly frightening.

**جوري** · 09-22-2012

my greatest fear regarding death truly is for my soul to be entrapped in the body without company in darkness/ or a very bad place and I'd be aware of my state of decomposition.

**TG123** · 09-22-2012

Originally Posted by منوة الخيال

Just curious as to people's attitudes, feelings, general preparedness ...,
I was driving on the highway a couple of weeks ago and was involved with a very heavy conversation when we heard the sounds of car swerving and what seemed like a bomb in the left lane a three car accident which I believe caused one fatality .. It was so surreal a minute in the throes of life and the next death snatches someone a healthy someone instantly.. It's so much different than when you've time to adjust to someone's ailing state to just a casual thing an event seemingly as natural as going to the market or taking a shower!

Of course not.

I am glad to hear that the car did not hit you, that must have been quite scary. I have been in two situations in which I could have ended up dead. One where a car didn't stop on the intersection and slammed into me, I remember flying to the road and it kept coming towards me and I saw the tires get near to my face, but then at the last moment it stopped. I can completely relate to the surreal component. Miraculously, I walked away with only a few bruises.
The other time was when I beaten up by Israeli settlers, and was knocked out by the metal pipe that shattered my nose. As I saw the guys in black masks coming towards me (they snuck up on us and there was no place to run, and I don't believe in fighting) I didn't feel really any fear- probably given that it happened so fast, it lasted a few seconds. I remember thinking "this is it God" and knowing there was absolutely nothing I could do to escape the beating but at the same time feeling at peace knowing that my fate- whatever it was going to be- was in His hands. I had surgery in a Palestinian hospital, the staff there told me that the settlers hit me also across the back when I was passed out, and I also realized that had the pipe hit me just a bit higher (on the temple) or a bit lower (on my neck), I could have been dead.

I'm not afraid to die, whether it happens when I am an old man or whether it happens in a car crash or during volunteering or work- my wife and I hope to serve again in Palestine and if not there somewhere else, and we are involved in the inner city where we live where there is also sometimes quite a bit of violence... or in what other way my life is cut short.

I am thankful to God for my life on earth, as I am able to learn about Him and serve Him and tell others about Him. When it is time to go to be with Him, I will be thankful as well. I am nothing. He is everything. My life and death are in His hands, and there is no better place for them to be.

**Aprender** · 09-22-2012

I wanted to respond to this last night but fell asleep. People have already mentioned what I wanted to say but it's not so much that I am afraid of death itself or leaving people behind. What I am afraid of, is that in this short time that I've been a Muslim, if I have done enough that is pleasing to Allah, if He is satisfied with me.

When I think of all of the things that I could be doing, don't know I should be doing, don't know I am doing wrong, it frightens me. One thing that's different now is that when I was a Christian the teachings gave the impression like, no matter what you did here, as long as you were trying, there was no possibility of you going to hellfire. Now as a Muslim, I am more cognizant of my actions and what I say to people and I don't ever want to get back into a state of believing that I'm such a good human being that I can't go to hellfire. If I start thinking that way again then I know I am doing something awfully wrong because even when I think I'm doing OK it's not as good enough for what I should be doing as a Muslim.

May Allah grant us all a good end. Ameen

**Hulk** · 09-22-2012

I remember the hadith in which the Prophet pbuh said that the difference between this world and the next is like the difference between a drop of water and the ocean. (if I'm not mistaken)

**CosmicPathos** · 09-22-2012

I believe in Al-qiyama and Hereafter and it makes sense to me that Allah swt can raise us up once again as He created us from nothing (sperm and egg). but the belief has not become similar to 3ain al-yaqeen in my heart yet.

And that is why I am scared of death. The thought of becoming nothing, the thought of becoming lost forever in the grand universe, the thought of seeing life slip out of my hands against my will, the thought of never to physically exist again for God knows how many millenia till Al-Qiyama, the doubt if Al-Qiyama will ever come or not, the thought that one day our Sun will gulp up the Earth and with it my grave if I'd have any will be annihilated, the thought that I'd become gases and atoms and debris once again. All of this is scary enough to sometimes give me significant anxiety.

And that is where I try to stop thinking about it and believe that God loves me, and that is why He created me against all odds in this lifeless universe, and that He will forgive my mistakes, and that He will not abandon me lifeless forever and forever, and will give life back to me in the form of witnessing al-qiyama.

**sister herb** · 09-22-2012

Salam alaykum

I voted no.

**PurpleCup** · 09-22-2012

On my way back to my home in another city I was caught in slow traffic and on this route it was not common. There was a 22 year old girl which died while her car fell over the cliff ( where there is no gaurd rails) I always would think to myself why they do not have gaurd rails all the way down because its could happen. I did not know at that time but when I searched online to what had happened on that route I saw there were so many many deaths on our road ways. So many we never hear or read about. People crossing the road and getting hit by cars. I just felt, "WOW!" When I learned it was a young girl I just say the Fatiha. I do not like to travel on that roadway at night but I am forced to. It hurts me to know there is a Mom and Dad out there who lost their daughter.

I think its times like this you really begin to practise much safer driving.

**Serendipity** · 09-22-2012

My thoughts are summed up from all these posts.. my greatest fear is that I die without repenting properly

**جوري** · 09-22-2012

Everyone who dies and everyone shall taste death will have regrets..
If they were good, that they didn't do more good and if they were bad for completely blowing it..
sakarrat al'mawt in and of themselves are a frightening thing.. may Allah swt save us from sakarrat al'mawt wa 3athab al'qabr wa yodkhelina fasee7 jannato.. ameen

and Allah swt knows best,