The words, “O Allah, by Your knowledge of the unseen and Your power over creation, keep me alive for as long as You know life to be better for me, and cause me to die when You know death to be better for me,” express the servant’s entrusting his affairs to Allah and asking Him, Glorified is He, to choose what is best for him in all his circumstances. He seeks nearness to Him through His knowledge, which encompasses all things: He knows the hidden realities and inward aspects of affairs just as He knows what is outward and manifest. He also seeks nearness to Him through His power, which extends over all creation, for none can reverse His judgment or repel His decree.
It is well known that the servant does not know the consequences and ultimate outcomes of affairs. Moreover, he is incapable of securing what benefits him or averting what harms him except insofar as Allah assists him and facilitates it for him. The servant therefore remains in dire need of the All-Knowing, the All-Powerful—Glorified is He—to set all his affairs right and choose for him the good wherever it may lie. Hence he said, “Keep me alive for as long as You know life to be better for me, and cause me to die when You know death to be better for me.” For this reason, the sunnah prohibits wishing for death because of an affliction that has befallen a person, since the servant does not know how matters will ultimately turn out. Al-Bukhārī narrated that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “None of you should wish for death. If he is a doer of good, perhaps he will increase in goodness; and if he is an evildoer, perhaps he will seek to make amends”—that is, seek Allah’s pleasure by abandoning sins and asking for forgiveness.
The words, “I ask You for fear of You in secret and in public,” mean: that I may fear You, O Allah, privately and openly, outwardly and inwardly, whether I am among people or away from them. Some people see themselves as fearing Allah openly and in the presence of others, but the true measure is fearing Allah in private, when one is beyond people’s sight and observation. Allah has praised those who fear Him unseen. He, Exalted is He, says, “Those who fear their Lord unseen and are apprehensive of the Hour” 1, and He says, “Whoever feared the Most Merciful unseen and came with a heart turning to Him” 2.