The New Year 2025 has started rolling and all of us are adding another year to our life here on terra firma. However, we are all inexorably marching closer to our grave. For every minute, hour, day, week, month, and year that we add, there is a corresponding movement towards the grave. Everyman born of a woman must taste death. Quran 3:185 “Every soul shall have a taste of death:”
What lesson do we get from this realization? In the not too distant future, we would leave all our amazing wealth, results of our accumulation and gathering and descend into the grave or rise up to heaven or hell alone without any accompaniments. Remember the gold, ornaments and other worldly goods buried with the Egyptian and Aztec kings, none left the earth with them.
We search the world for the renowned men of old like Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658) who built the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world, commissioned in 1632, to house the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. People don’t even remember him anymore.
With the advance in civilization and the growth of religion, burial and other acts, concern has centered on the Hereafter, retribution, and the possibilities of punishment for our earthly transgressions.
The thinking man has also reflected on his actions and the possible legacies he would leave behind, its enduring nature or the obliteration of all he had worked for in life. There is a constant need to visit these concepts to reassure ourselves that we are walking on the right path and not going in the other direction.
As the years roll by, one day, one after the other, we will take our exit from this earthly plane. What is expected of each human being, where does his path lead him after the sojourn on earth?
The answer to this is exemplified in Ecclesiastes 3, the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book contains philosophical speeches by a character called ‘Qoheleth’ “the Teacher”; composed probably between the fifth and second centuries BC. Targum, and Talmud attribute the authorship of the book to King Solomon.
The points below are relevant to today’s discourse. The Teacher said:
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
There is no doubt many of us are not intellectually equipped to fathom the questions of death and the beyond. Fortunately, concepts such as inevitability of death and legacy are not too much to understand. However, few understand the importance of legacy in the life of man. Many supposedly rich and great men have had their legacies tarnished and obliterated shortly after their demise. Some even had their life efforts destroyed in their lifetimes by their progenies.
As for the grave, we are told the life of the deceased in the grave is different from his life in this world. It is a special kind of life in al-barzakh (the interval between death and the Day of Resurrection) which is not like life in this world. To this end we often pray for our dead to be spared the punishment of the grave.
A view from the grave: Life in the World Unseen, first published in 1956: The words of an ex-Catholic Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, who discovered that life after death is completely different to that which he spent his life teaching.
Two important concerns of a good Muslim are his legacy and the grave. There is always the fear that his progeny would obliterate whatever good he has spent his life to build. It is a real and founded fear. May Allah give us children who will preserve our legacies. Amen.
“O Prophet! Truly We have sent thee as a Witness, a Bearer of Glad Tidings, and a Warner, And as one who invites to Allah’s (Grace) by His leave, and as a Lamp spreading Light. (Quran 33:45-46)
The Prophet left a legacy of a political system that was the embodiment of guardianship and care of the people and whose distinctive qualities were justice and accountability in governance as acknowledged by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
A system fashioned upon the words of Allah in Surah an-Nisa: “O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: For Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well acquainted with all that ye do.” (Quran 4:135)
The prophet said: “Each of you is a guardian and each of you is questioned over his subjects, the Imam is responsible over the people and he is questioned over his responsibility.”
Leaders such as Khalifah Umar bin Al Khattab who during the famine in Medina refused to eat anything but coarse food, saying; “If I don’t taste suffering, how can I know the suffering of others?”
Can we say these about our leaders? Do they even understand what it means to leave a legacy of service? Legacy is fundamental to what it is to be human. Being reminded of death is a good thing because death informs life. It gives you a perspective on what is important.
In this New Year, there is a need to realize that for each new hour, new day, new week, and new month, there is a corresponding movement towards the grave. This is the mathematics of death. The grave beckons with the ticking of time. It cannot be halted or reversed.
“I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” Stephen Grellet 1773–1855
Inna lillah wa ina ilehi rajiun. In one of the first deaths of the New Year, the death occurred last Wednesday 1st January 2025, of Alhaja Adewale, amiable wife of our brother Alhaji R.O. Adewale, our former National General Secretary of Anwar-ul-Islam Movement of Nigeria. May Allah grant Alhaji Rafiu Adewale, the fortitude to bear the loss. May Allah grant our Alhaja Jannatul Firdous. We will miss her annual catering during the Ramadan Tafsir they host every year.
Barka Juma’at and a happy New Year.
