toward your Lord—meaning that you labor and will return to your Lord—and you will meet Him. All of us are going to meet Allah, but in what state and under what circumstances will that meeting occur? A person should not worry about where or when he will die. He may wish that Allah prolong his life and let him die in a sacred land, as Moses, peace be upon him, desired; yet the real issue—indeed the entire issue—is the condition in which he dies. We ask Allah to take us and you in a state of faith and pure monotheism; that is what truly matters. If one dies upon goodness, it makes no difference whether death comes here or there, in a consecrated land or an unconsecrated one, in this month, on that day, or at that particular hour. What matters is to die upon goodness.

Therefore, when a person gets into his car or boards an airplane, he ought to say the remembrance reported from the Prophet ﷺ in the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar. He pronounces Allahu akbar three times and then recites: “Glory be to Him who has subjected this to us; we could never have mastered it, and surely to our Lord we shall return.” After that he makes the supplication cited by Ibn ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him.

Reflect upon the phrase in this hadith that points to Allah’s all-encompassing care: “You are the Companion on the journey and the Guardian over the family.” Being “the Companion on the journey” means: accompany me on my travels, make them easy for me, and smooth the way.