Lesson by Shaykh Abdul Aziz (may Allah be pleased with him!), the audio can be downloaded at: http://ummualwi.multiply.com/music/item/6

Lesson Three: Reality of death, the torments of death and the death of the Messenger, upon him be peace.
Death is the first of many torments that the disobedient one will have to endure. For the obedient one, it is the last sorrow that one will face and a purification for what went before it. As the Messenger, upon him be peace, said, ‘Death is atonement for every Muslim’. The death throes alone, known as sakarât al-maut in Arabic, are enough to render life miserable and ‘banish heedlessness and distraction’.

The reality of Sakarâtul maut
He says, ‘Know too that the extreme pain of the death pangs is known in its fullness only to those who have tasted it. The man who has not done so may only come to know it through comparing it to the pains which he has actually experienced, or by inference from the violent states of other people during their death agonies, thereby drawing an analogy which bears witness to him.’ (p37-38)
He explains that the pain we feel is experienced according to the amount of spirit (ruh) that is present in the limb or that travels from the limb to the spirit. ‘No extremity from which the spirit is absent can feel pain.’ In the case of the death throes, the pain is direct. ‘The pain felt during the throes of death, however, assails the spirit directly, and engulfs every one of its fractions. The dying man feels himself pulled and jerked from every artery, nerve, part and joint, from the root of every hair and the bottom layer o his skin from head to foot. So do not ask about the suffering which he endures.’ For this reason it has been said that death is crueler than the stroke of a sword or being carved up with saws, or cut with scissors, since to cut the body with a sword only produces pain through its association with the spirit’. (p38-39).
Imam al-Ghâzali then draws on the tradition (hâdith and sayings of the earlier scholars) to graphically describe the death throes.

Other ‘calamities of death’
There are three ‘calamities’ that the wrong doer goes through.
1. The death throes, and this is tasted by all people
2. The angel of death, which is an horrific experience for the evil doer.
3. The witnessing of one’s place in the Fire by the disobedient one.

The Prophet Abraham, upon him be peace, saw the Angel of Death in the form he takes the soul of the wrongdoer and said, ‘were the evildoer to confront nothing but your visage after his death it would quite suffice him!’ (p43)
He also saw him in the form he takes the believer, and said ‘Were the believer to encounter only your form upon death it would quite suffice him.’ (p45)

The death of the Messenger, upon him be peace
In describing the death throes, Ghazali makes reference to the death of the Messenger, upon him be peace. This is a subject that he deals with in depth in Chapter Four along with the deaths of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. In conclusion, he says ‘Such were the agonies of death as they were endured by God’s Saints and dear ones. What, then, shall be our state, we who are engrossed in sins? (p43)

It is related of the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) that upon is death he had by him a vessel of water into which he took to dipping his hand in order to wipe his face, saying, ‘O Lord God! Mitigate for me the agonies of death!’ At the same time , Fatima (may God be pleased with her) was saying, ‘How great is my sorrow at your sorrow, father!’ But he said, ‘There shall be no more sorrow for your father after this day.’ (p42)

The states preferable in the dying man
Imam al-Ghazâli mentions the that ‘the dying man’ should ‘have an aspect of peacefulness and tranquility’.
The preferable state one should be in is with a high opinion of Allah and pronouncing the testimony of faith, lâ ilâha illallâh. It has been related that ‘Whoever dies knowing that there is I no deity save God shall enter Heaven.’
In the narration of Ubaydullah he is reported to have said, ‘While uttering the Testimony’.
As for the one who dies thinking well of God, it is reported that the Messenger, upon him be peace, said that God (Exalted is He) says, ‘I am as My bondsman thinks me to be; so let him think of Me what he will.’

We ask Allah for a good ending sealed with declaration of faith and high opinion of our Creator. Amin. Amin. Amin.