Chapter 65: Remembering Death and Shortening Worldly Expectations

Allah the Exalted says: “Every soul shall taste death, and you will be paid in full your rewards only on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever is kept away from the Fire and admitted to the Garden has triumphed indeed, while the life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion.” (Aal ʿImran 3:185)

Explanation

The compiler, al-Nawawi—may Allah have mercy on him—entitles this section in Riyad al-Salihin “Remembering Death and Curtailing Hope.” Here he teaches that a rational person ought to keep death in mind and to rein in his hopes—that is, the hopes connected to this world, not the hope placed in Allah’s reward and the vast recompense He has prepared for whoever performs righteous deeds.

As for this worldly life, do not let your expectations in it grow long, for how many a person nursed distant ambitions only for his appointed time to pounce upon him unexpectedly! And how many a person plans and schemes, saying, “I will do this, and I will do that,” only for death to overtake him, the rope of hope to snap, and his term to arrive!

Thus whenever a sensible person senses within himself a surge of worldly ambition, a preoccupation with the world, or an infatuation with it, he should remember death and reflect on the Hereafter, for that is the certain end. What a person looks forward to in this world may come to pass—or it may not. Allah the Exalted says: “Whoever desires what is immediate, We hasten for him therein whatever We will for whomever We will; then We appoint for him Hell, wherein he will burn, disgraced and banished.” (al-Israʾ 17:18) Not what he himself wills, but what Allah wills. And He says: “But whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it as it should be striven for, while he is a believer, those are the ones whose striving shall be appreciated.” (al-Israʾ 17:19)