and to seek al-ʿutbā—that is, to plead for pardon.

Someone might ask, “How can a person say, ‘O Allah, keep me alive as long as life is good for me, and cause me to die when You know that death is better for me’?”

We answer: he may say it, for Allah alone knows what lies ahead, whereas the human being does not. The Almighty said, “Say: ‘None in the heavens or on earth knows the unseen except Allah’ ” (Qur’an 27:65); and He said, “No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die” (Qur’an 31:34). You simply do not know—perhaps continuing to live is better for you, and perhaps dying is better for you.

For that reason, when you pray that someone enjoy a long life, you should qualify it by saying, “May Allah prolong your life in obedience to Him,” so that the length of his life will indeed be a blessing.

Another objection might be raised: Mary, daughter of ʿImrān, wished for death when she said, “Would that I had died before this and been forgotten, utterly forgotten” (Qur’an 19:23). How, then, did she utter something that our legislation forbids?

The reply is as follows:

First: A law revealed to earlier communities is not binding on us whenever our own law differs from it, for the revelation given to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has abrogated all previous dispensations.

Second: Mary did not wish for death in itself; she wished she had died before facing the present ordeal—even if she had lived a thousand years—so that she might die without undergoing such a trial. The same sense is found in Joseph’s words: “You are my Guardian in this world and the Hereafter. Cause me to die a Muslim and join me….”