When People Will Beg for Death
Signs Before the Day of Judgment: Understanding Hadith About Spiritual Trials and the End of Times
Summary
This lecture discusses a hadith narration found in both Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim regarding signs before the Day of Judgment. Sh. Ali Mashhour explains a hadith where the Prophet describes how people will wish for death due to the intense spiritual trials (fitna) affecting their religion and character near the end of time. The lecturer clarifies that while the hadith mentions people wishing for death, this doesn't necessarily permit asking for death during hardship, as that ruling is discussed elsewhere. The core message is about depicting the severity of spiritual corruption and difficulty in maintaining faith during the final times.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Yeah.
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Alhamdulillah. Continuing.
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In the book of authored In the chapters regarding the signs and events just before the day of judgment. Fore! Foreign! Foreign!
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Abu Huray narrates here a narration which is in both Bkari and Muslim on the authority of Abira. or Abua narrates on the authority of Abi. Is that what I just said? Okay, I'm I'm just saying extra words right now. So the narration is on the authority of and it's reported by Bkari Muslim that the messenger of Allah said I swear by the one in whom my life is in his hand. So I swear by the one whom my life is in his hand. He's swearing by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. His life, his nephs is in the hand of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is a common phrase that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam used in his wording of very important matters and something really important would come up or something that he wished that the listeners would take particular note. He would use words this. So he swears by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that the dunya the life of this world will not cease to be until a man will cross a grave and find himself almost wrestling on top of the grave. in the Arabic language.
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And so what is meant here is that a person will pass by a grave and stop to appreciate and wish that he was in this grave that he was in the place of this person who is in the grave. and he will say either verbally or to himself, I wish that I was in this person's place in the grave. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam then tells us why he is wishing for death or wishing that he had passed away or that he was in this grave. It is not because of anything except for the fitan the fitan or the fitna not being that he's having a hard physical life. His physical life is okay. There's no problem with his physical well-being. He's comfortable physically. The problem is is that he his dean and his character and his religion and his dutifulness to Allah. These things are being constantly challenged as the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us that at the end of the time a person holding to his religion, holding to what the prophet and his companions were upon will be as difficult and strenuous as holding on to a lit ember, a lit coal, and a person's hand, trying to hold on to it and keep hold of it. And so in this narration we have that this man is wishing for death. What grave is it that we're talking about? It's not the point. It's not any specific grave. And what person is the one who's going to be making this wish? Again, not important. This is just an example of how times will be. Now does this mean that it is permissible for a person to ask for death? The answer is that our prophet sallallah.aii wasallam tells us also in Bkari Muslim he says.
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He said, "None of you is to ask for death because of a a difficulty that he is going through. If you must say something, then you are to say, "Oh Allah, give me life as long as life on this earth is good for me and take me in death if you know that death is good for me." We have this narration here in which the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam says do not wish for death because of some kind of difficulty that you are afflicted with it'll pass you have to be patient it'll pass we have here she's afflicted with the hardship in Allah tells us that she said.
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How how before this? Isn't there a difference between that and oh Allah make me die right now?
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And so there's two types of fitna here. We have fitna because of a hardship. The scholars agree it's not permissible to ask for death because of that. Then we have fitna that puts a person's soul and dean at hazard. Is it permissible to make dua for death in that instance? This is a point of difference, a point of contention amongst the scholars of Islam that if a person is faced with a a fitna that places their dean a hazard, is it permissible to make dua for death at that point? It's a difference of opinion amongst the scholarship of Islam. But this narration that we just read, the narration of here, a man will pass by the grave of another is a very weak evidence in that argument for either way. Why? Because it's not the point of the narration. When a story is told, when a story is told, the point is to be looked at the overarching point and purpose that the reason that the story is being told, not the individual rulings that may be derived from the story. That's a different topic entirely. So for instance, we have Yuisam. He's in prison. He's got two men that come to him and ask him to interpret his dream, their dreams. And he mentions that one of them is going to start to he's going to get out and he's going to be a trusted a trusted slave or servant for the king and he's going to crush his grapes for his wine. But alcohol is haram. Is that the point of the story? Is the point of the story the ruling of alcohol in Islam? Is that the point of the story? No. Point of the story is that two men had a dream and he interpreted them. That's the point of the story. The details of the story. When a story is told in order to give an overarching u point or to drive home an overarching theme, the details of the story are not to be taken in detail out of the context of that story. And so for this reason when we have a story of a prophet, a story of a messenger, a story of something that happened in Bened, something that will happen in the future, the details, the individualized details in that story are not to be taken as evidences for halal and haram because that's not the reason why the story is being related. Understood? So for instance let's say if if if we found let's say we wanted to speak about the dangers of you know the dangers of of not having a a lock on your door ju just you know hypothetically. So, I wanted to tell you guys a story, a cautionary tale about someone who failed to have a proper lock on his door. And then in the story, let's say here in Tucson, someone was able to easily break into his house and harm him while he was sleeping, him and his girlfriend and his children. Do we derive from a story that that it is permissible for a person to have children out of wedlock? Think about it. Do we derive from a story that, a cautionary tale that the ruling of a person having a girlfriend or having a boyfriend? Are those details the point of the story? No. The point of the story is the general theme. The specific details they are not to be hung on because that's not the center thrust of the story. That's not the reason why the story is being told. We come back to a narration this. The prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam is telling us that the day of judgment will be near when people when good people will be making dua for death because the fitna on their dean will be so tremendous. What's the point of this narration? What is the prophet trying to say with this narration with this story? What point is he driving home? He's trying to paint a picture of the of the intensity of the fitna near the end of time on a person's dean. He's trying to paint a picture of how godless people will be and how difficult it will be to be a good person in a bad world during those times. That's the point of the story. the details of how that point are expressed is not the reason why he's telling the story. And this is why a narration this doesn't even really belong in the debate of whether it is permissible or not to ask for death when faced with the calamity. It is one of the weakest types of evidences in that kind of debate because it is not the center thrust of the reason why the story is being told. We could find that in the story of Sleman the he was given control of them. Correct? And they used to make statues for him. They used to fashion statues to correct. Do we derive from this that it is permissible or impermissible for us to make statues of living creatures? Is that a strong evidence for yes or no in that particular issue? No. Why? Because that's not the purpose of those details. What are the overarching purpose or what is the overarching purpose of why Allah tells us that detail? to show and to give us an an idea of just how much authority was given over a and how skilled these were. That's the reason why the story is being told to us. It's not to tell us whether fashioning is permissible or impermissible. That's not even part of the story really. That's just a a passing detail. And that is why the scholars of they refer to these types of details as.
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Subhanahu.
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This is how they're supposed Just look. means it's too much.