We’re such an anxious bunch, aren’t we? We tend to focus far too much on the specifics of how we die, forgetting that ultimately, it doesn’t really matter because we all will die. Whether it’s the coronavirus, SARS, political violence, or whatever else that tomorrow brings, we have to remember that this life is just a temporary station we must pass through before we return to our Lord.
إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ خُلِقَ هَلُوعًا
إِذَا مَسَّهُ الشَّرُّ جَزُوعًا
وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ الْخَيْرُ مَنُوعًا
إِلَّا الْمُصَلِّينَ
الَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَىٰ صَلَاتِهِمْ دَائِمُونَ
وَالَّذِينَ فِي أَمْوَالِهِمْ حَقٌّ مَّعْلُومٌ
لِّلسَّائِلِ وَالْمَحْرُومِ
وَالَّذِينَ يُصَدِّقُونَ بِيَوْمِ الدِّينِ
وَالَّذِينَ هُم مِّنْ عَذَابِ رَبِّهِم مُّشْفِقُونَ
إِنَّ عَذَابَ رَبِّهِمْ غَيْرُ مَأْمُونٍ
Man was truly created anxious:
he is fretful when misfortune touches him,
but tight-fisted when good fortune comes his way.
Not so those who pray
and are constant in their prayers;
who give a due share of their wealth
to beggars and the deprived;
who believe in the Day of Judgement
and fear the punishment of their Lord
none may feel wholly secure from it
Quran [70:19-28]
What matters is not the logistics of how we die. What matter is how we live, regardless of how long or short of a life we have. The only thing we should be concerned about regarding death is whether we lived with honour and dignity, standing for principles rooted in a complete trust in the fact that nothing happens without Allah’s permission, and staying true to La Ilaha Illa Allah, Muhammadun Rasūllah.
In his essay On Living in an Atomic Age in his collection Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays, C.S. Lewis offered a great reflection on the concern about living through such a perilous period (he wrote this in 1948). I’ve exchanged the word “atomic bomb” for “coronavirus” in this passage because the core message of it still rings true and I wanted to make it more present and salient as you read it:
In one way we think a great deal too much of the [coronavirus]. “How are we to live in [coronavirus] age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the [coronavirus] was [mutated]: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by [the coronavirus], let that [virus] when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about [viruses]. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
So many of us are so afraid of death despite its absolute inevitability. We need to remember this certainty more often and prepare for it.
- How are you treating your family and friends?
- How much service have you given to your community?
- How many times have you come to the aid of those in need?
- How is your relationship with God?
None of us will take anything to our graves but our actions. Our degrees, money, properties, and anything else we think matters are all social constructs that mean nothing to God if we haven’t been using them to be in service to others.
Whether it’s the coronavirus or any other future threat we may face, while we prepare materially for the worst, we need to make sure we also use this as a reminder to continue preparing for our inevitable final departure from this world.
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