The Fiqh of travelling from the Flight Home to the Enduring Home (16)

- Question 4/19: The agonies of death are very difficult.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) suffered the agonies of death like other Muslims. During his dying illness, there was a container between his hands in which there was water, so he would put his hand in water and wash his face saying: “None has the right to be worshipped except Allah. Death has its agonies”[1] The most honorable soul (the soul of the Prophet) said so, how about other Muslims; may my parents be ransomed for him! How terrible moments you suffer in these agonies!

Some of reasonable people described the agonies of death when they experienced it and among them was the great Companion, `Amr ibn Al `Aas (may Allah be pleased with him). When death came to him, his son said to him: O my father! You say: I wish I could come across a reasonable person to describe death for me, could you describe it for us? He said: O my son! By Allah, it is as if my side is in agony, as if I am breathing from a needle eye, and as if a thorny branch is pulled out from my feet to my head. Then he started reciting poetry:

Before what I have known, I wish I had been in hills herding mountain goats.[2]