Because everyone is old enough to die

Someone crossing the street is unaware that he will be hit by a car and killed or crippled for life one minute later. Someone who visits the doctor is unaware that his internal organs are riddled with cancer cells. A baby opening its eyes on this world is unaware that it will be taken to Paradise by angels in a few minutes’ time. Someone sitting quietly in his chair is unaware that he will suffer a heart attack in the very next second. A family returning from dinner at a restaurant and thinking about so many different things are unaware that they are about to have a traffic accident and lose their lives.

Death is no recognizer of age, position  or wealth. If a person’s time has come, absolutely nobody can halt the angels of death because the angels obey the commands given them by our Lord and will come and take away that person’s soul. Someone who is so proud and boastful and spends hours thinking about the most unimportant things is actually entirely helpless. He has no idea that the very next step he takes will see him pass to a very different world in which he will be unable to establish any contact with this one. The things he was so preoccupied with will remain here, while he steps into the eternal life of the hereafter.

and you are at that moment looking on –

and We are nearer him than you but you cannot see –

 (Surat al-Waqi’a, 84-85)

In the same way that nobody in the world can know the hour  of his death, neither can he postpone it or bring it forward.  Allah has appointed a moment of death in the destiny of every person He creates and destiny operates down to the tiniest detail at every moment. A person carries on quietly living, goes about his daily business, talks and laughs with his friends and eats and drinks and has fun. Yet that very day may possibly be his last in this world. After that, all contact with this world will be cut off, and everything to do with the life of this world will be left behind him.

We have decreed death for you and We will not be forestalled (Surat al-Waqi’a, 60)

Wherever you are, death will catch up with you, even if you are in impregnable fortresses. If a good thing happens to them, they say, ‘This has come from Allah.’ But if a bad thing happens to them, they say, ‘This has come from you.’ Say, ‘Everything comes from Allah.’ What is the matter with these people that they scarcely understand a single word? (Surat an-Nisa’, 78)

So if everyone is old enough to die, should not people never forget about death? After all, the angels of death are waiting as we sleep, walk along the road,  preoccupied with work or while we're talking with our friends; we cannot see or hear them, but they can see us and they record all we do. If the person that died was a believer in life, if he filled his earthly ledger with good deeds, worship, patience and submission to Allah, if he lived and died for Allah, then he will see the angels in all their beauty and will be rewarded with Paradise. There will be no more fear for him, because for all time now he is one of the people of Paradise with whom Allah is well pleased.

those the angels take in a virtuous state. They say, ‘Peace be upon you! Enter the Garden for what you did.’ (Surat an-Nahl, 32)

If death is waiting just one step away, then one should not waste a day, a minute or even a second; every new awakening in the morning is a fine opportunity given one by Allah to earn further merit. One must live for His approval on that day too, and adorn it with prayer, worship and good deeds. Everything on that day, from the believer’s smiling face to his humility, from his training of his lower self to the moral values he exhibits at every moment, is of the greatest value because they are all recorded and will earn him merits for the Hereafter. A believer will be rewarded many times over in Paradise for his good deeds in this world. While he spends with fervor and passion in this world, the finest mansions are being prepared from him in Paradise.

The life of this world is literally no longer than a single breath. The best thing to do before that last day comes is to know “that one is always old enough to die” and live in the light of that awareness.

Every self will taste death. You will be paid your wages in full on the Day of Rising. Anyone who is distanced from the Fire and admitted to the Garden has triumphed. The life of this world  is just the enjoyment of delusion. (Surah Al ‘Imran, 185)

Adnan Oktar's piece onTaqwa & Hiba Magazine:

http://www.taqwamagazine.com/because-everyone-is-old-enough-to-die/