What it Feels Like to Die | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 8
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What happens when you die?
There is no greater pressure in life than the moment of death. The angels will come. Your soul will be pulled from your body, with ease or with force. And you will face the greatest test of your existence. But if you held firm to faith in this life, you will answer with certainty:
My Lord is Allah. My religion is Islam. My Prophet is Muhammad ﷺ.
So hold on tight. The test will come when you least expect it. Will you be ready?
NOTE: All depictions of Barzakh are purely conceptual and only vocals were used in the making of the soundtrack.
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References
- Qays ibn Abbad said: “I was in the Masjid when a man whose face showed signs of humbleness came and prayed two rak’ahs that were modest in length. The people said, 'This is a man from among the people of Paradise.’ When he left, I followed him until he entered his house, and I entered it after him and spoke with him. When he felt at ease, I said to him, 'When you entered the masjid, the people said such and such things.’He said, ‘All praise is due to Allah! No one should say what he has no knowledge of. I will tell you why they said that. I saw a vision during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I narrated it to him. I saw that I was in a green garden, and he described the garden’s plants and spaciousness, and there was an iron pole in the middle of the garden affixed to the earth and its tip reached the sky. On its tip, there was a handle, and I was told to ascend the pole. I said, “I cannot.” Then a helper came and raised my robe from behind and said to me, “Ascend.” I ascended until I grasped the handle and he said to me, “Hold on to the handle.” I awoke from that dream with the handle in my hand. I went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and told him about the vision and he said,
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Hold on tight. Your world is shaking, pulling you away in every direction. No matter how hard you try to stay steady, the obstacles keep knocking you down. Temptations tugging on one side, trials pressing from the other. Exhaustion and frustration weigh you down and at times it feels like you can't take another step. But look closer. There's a rope stretched out to anchor you, unbreakable and firm. And it's on you to keep your grip steady. Qais ibn Abbad says, one time I was in the masjid and this beautiful, humble, righteous man walked in and he started to pray two rak'ahs. So as he was praying, the people said, that's Abdullah ibn Salam, a man from the people of Jannah. So he said, I went up to him afterwards and I said, is it you that they say is a person of Jannah? And he said, subhanAllah, people should not say what they're not sure about. But I had this dream in the time of the Prophet (ﷺ). And remember Abdullah ibn Salam was the chief rabbi in Medina who became one of the greatest scholars of Islam. So he said, I had this dream at the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) where I entered into a garden. And in the middle of this beautiful, spacious
garden was this pole. And as I looked at that pole, at the top of that pole was a grip. So I was told to ascend and to grab that grip. But I said, how am I supposed to get up there? And then suddenly an angel came beneath me and ushered me to the top like a strong wind. And I was able to grab onto it. And I woke up from my dream in the middle of that garden, holding onto that grip at the top of the pole. So I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and I asked the Prophet (ﷺ), what was that? And he said, amma al-rawda fa-rawdatu al-Islam. He said, as for the garden, that was the garden of Islam. And as for the pole, that was the pillar of Islam. And he said, as for the handhold, he said, that is al-urwatu al-wuthqa, the trustworthy handhold that Allah describes in the Qur'an. And he said to me, anta ala al-Islam hatta tamoot. You will be upon Islam until you die. I want you to think about the many ways that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us to hold on. He tells us to hold on to the trustworthy handhold, al-urwatu al-wuthqa, so that you may find salvation because this world will deceive you and take you to all sorts of places. He says to us as a community, hold on to the rope of Allah, wa-a'tasimu bi-hablillahi jamee'an, because this world will divide you and remove you from the favor of Allah, which is always upon the community. He says, hold on to the covenant that's been given to us with strength, khudhu ma ataynakum bi quwwah, take it with strength, because this matter of Islam is serious and deception with the law emanates from a dead heart. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said that there would come a time where patience is like holding on to a burning hot coal, because desires are all around you and so easily accessible. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, hold on to my sunnah, like a man biting down onto it with his molar teeth, because you will live in an age of deception and you could easily find yourself drowning in deviation if you leave the sunnah
of the Prophet (ﷺ). The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) mentioned the man who is called to zina by a woman of beauty and status, and in that moment he holds himself and says, inni akhafullah, verily I fear Allah. And for not buckling under the heat of that moment, Allah gives him the coolness of the shade of the throne. Think about when the Prophet (ﷺ) said that the greatest jihad is when you speak a word of truth in the face of a tyrant. I want you to imagine the likes of Abdullah ibn Hudhafa (رضي الله عنه) and other companions who stood in the courtyards of the most powerful tyrants and spoke that word of truth. Or think of the brave men and women of Gaza who stand up to their tyrants every day and never seem to fold in the moment. They might lose their lives because they're not intimidated by the pressure of that throne in front of them. But what happens is that their souls quickly ascend to the throne of the most merciful in the heavens to roam paradise forever. It's all but a moment of pressure and there's no greater pressure in this life than the moment of death. And that's why the most frequent du'a of the Prophet (ﷺ) was what? يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ O Turner of hearts, make my heart firm on your path. Think about the word ثبات, firmness. Allah says يُثَبِّتُ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِالْقَوْلِ الثَّابِتِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ
Allah makes firm the believers with this firm word of لا إله إلا الله in this life and the next. Because as you're facing the fleeting moments of this life with all of the pain of death and all of the devils that are prompting you one last time to disbelieve you still utter لا إله إلا الله But notice that the Prophet (ﷺ) didn't restrict his du'a to dunya because the time that you're going to need ثبات most is when the angels enter upon you to question you in your grave. At that point they're scarier than any tyrant and that situation is far more overwhelming than anything you're ever going to face here. So that's why the Prophet (ﷺ) said when you bury your brother or your sister سَلُوا اللَّهَ لَهُ الثَّبَاتَ ask Allah to grant him firmness because he's going to be put through the hardest test of his existence. And the thing is you have no idea when these tests are coming. Just like every day you rehearse life and death by sleeping and waking up you rehearse the pressure of death with لا إله إلا الله with every moment in which you're pressured with your faith وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ مَاذَا تَكْسِبُ غَدًا وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ بِأَيِّ أَرْضٍ تَمُوتُ And then you have no idea when you're going to die and where you're going to die. So you can't get ready for this test in the days or moments before death because you have no idea at what point the examiner is going to surprise you with that exam. And the moment of the departure of the soul is an appointed time known to Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى and not you. And the person has no idea when they will deliver their soul into that بَرْزَخ.
Just like the 38-week pregnant mother doesn't know when she's going to get her contractions and go into labor Imam al-Qurtubi رحمه الله writes something so poetic. He says We walk the paths that fate has drawn and those destined to walk shall carry on Our sustenance is scattered wide but what is ours will not be denied If death is written in a land in no other place will one have their last stand We all have a land where our souls will be birthed into the next world and we don't know where it is and the Prophet (ﷺ) says that when the time comes Allah will place a need for us in that exact spot and when we arrive there the angel of death will be waiting to deliver our souls And Imam al-Qurtubi رحمه الله narrates a fascinating story about Sulaiman عليه السلام He says that one day he was with a man who said to him Ya Nabi Allah, O Prophet of Allah I have a need to fulfill in India So can you ask to have the wind commanded to carry me to India in a moment So Sulaiman looked at the angel of death and he saw that he was smiling He said, why are you smiling? The angel of death said, it's astonishing I was commanded to take the soul of this man at the end of this hour in India but I saw him with you So he saw that the winds carried him in that hour to India and his soul was indeed taken from there When your moment of death arrives to you sometimes it comes at the most unexpected of times and in the most unexpected of places And in that moment suddenly you look up and you see angels approaching you either in excitement or rage They once breathed your soul into your body and now they're here to take it out No matter who else is around you you only notice them now The Prophet (ﷺ) said that you'll either, if you're a believing soul see the angels descending with light at the end of your sight, just at the horizon And the angel of death approaches and he comes with a kafan
smelling like the musk of paradise And they say to you, Salam Don't be afraid, O pure soul Come out to the mercy and the pleasure of Allah You smile and your soul jumps out of your body as your eyes see it go into that kafan longing to meet a Lord that is pleased with it ready to ascend through the heavens and ready to receive its reward It comes out as smooth as the last drop of water from a jug painless and without trauma On the other hand a wicked soul sees angels coming to it with rage smiting it and so the soul hides into the body and the angel pulls it out with a hook as if it's ripping through cotton Come out to the anger of a Lord you ignored and to the consequences you hoped wouldn't be real So hold on tight with La ilaha illa Allah the word of thabat, the word of firmness For this is the most disrupting moment in your existence before the day of judgment An angel once breathed your soul into your body and you went through a few months in labor until you came out with one difficult squeeze This time, the angel took your soul and it went either through the heavens to experience all the comfort and reassurance it needed just as the tender baby in the womb or to sijjin the lowest places where spiritual miscarriages will be discarded But then you have to transition to the barzakh Your rebirth is beginning and every soul will have to come back to the grave for delivery as Allah promised us He would return us to the earth as He brought us from it in the first place The Prophet (ﷺ) mentioned the squeeze of the grave and it's different from the punishment of the grave Not even the righteous Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh was spared from it Though his death shook the throne of Allah nor a pure baby who never had the chance to sin to be punished in the first place But when the deceased is placed in his grave he is squeezed in a manner from which no one, great or small
righteous or immoral can escape But there's the difficult and the inevitable And then there's the added difficulty of sin You see Sa'ad (رضي الله عنه) had a relatively easy labor with just one squeeze Others have their ribs crushed in the process And now the exam It was two angels who wrote down your deeds raqeebun ateed And it was two angels that will now test you munkar and nakir And it is two angels that will be with you when you rise sa'iqun wa shaheed And even the way those angels look when they come to you is based on your deeds munkar and nakir come in good form to a person of goodness and ugly form to the ugly You literally even make the image of your angels And that unbelievable pressure is on as they say in a booming voice man rabbuk ma deenuk man nabiyuk Who is your lord? What is your religion? And who is your prophet? And the only way you'll be able to answer in that moment of great pressure is if you knew how to answer under pressure here Otherwise you panic and are rendered speechless But if you hold on tight the labor will pass the test will pass and your soul will start to settle in its new world as it was settled throughout this life with the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So that I may do good in that which I have left Nay! It is but a Word He is the One Who says it And behind them is a barrier until the Day when they will be raised from the dead to the living and to the living and to the living
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