At the time of death

This is a story of a Muslim police officer in Saudi Arabia. Since he dealt with traffic accidents, it became his path to return to Allah Almighty. The officer writes:

"Very often when there's a traffic accident and there's no time for the ambulance to come, we would know that the person's going to die. As a rookie officer, my senior and I once came across an accident while we were on patrol. One of the two cars had gone into the opposite lane with the head-on collision. In one of the cars were two youth and in the other car we had found that the other person had died. We took the bodies of those youth one by one, gently, away from the car and we sat there until we realised that they were going to die. The senior officer who had experience with this took the advantage of helping those youth say "La ilaha illallah..." And he would say softly to them, "Say La ilaha illallah." So that it would be the final words they would say before they died. As the Holy Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam) said: "Whoever's last words are 'La ilaha illallah...' shall enter paradise."

"And as I sat there, I saw something very horrific and what it was is that those youth, every time they were told to say "La ilaha illallah..." all they would reply is they would continue to sing the song that they were listening to in the car. And they kept on singing it and they wouldn't acknowledge "La ilaha illallah..."

You may have heard of this in the past because it's not something that happens once and never happens again. People, during their last moment, when their tongues are sealed, only their hearts begin speaking. And so those youth, who didn't live the life of "La ilaha illallah..." they didn't die upon it. When it came down to what's in their hearts, what came out was the songs that they were listening to.

That incident helped the officer to come back to Allah Almighty. But as time passed, he forgot, until six months later another incident happened that changed him for the rest of his life. He narrates this incident:

"There was a young adult who was driving on the outskirts of Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia and while he was driving through one of the tunnels, he had a flat tire. The car was handicapped to the shoulder and as he turned to get the spare tire from the back of his car, another car came whistling by from behind, from around the corner and smashed into his car with the boy in the middle. When we were called to the scene, we immediately saw the horrific collision that had taken place in the tunnel. We blocked off the tunnel, took the boy and while carrying him, we heard him humming something. In our effort to get him to the hospital quickly we weren't paying attention to what he was saying but when we got into the car, we started understanding what he was saying. The boy, in the sweetest recitation, was reciting the Holy Qur'aan."

He was reciting the Holy Qur'aan that he had memorised in the car. The officer said, "I never heard a more beautiful recitation than that. And you have to realise that he's on his death bed now and he's going to meet Allah Almighty in a few moments; the only thing that came back to him was the life that he had lived--the Holy Qur'aan that he learnt came back to him and he started reciting."

The officer continues: "I was going to do my best and help him say "La ilaha illallah..." like I've seen my other brother try to help those other people say the 'shahada' (the testimony of faith that there is no one to worship except the one and only Allah and Prophet Muhammad is His Messenger). The recitation continued until it went quiet and then I turned around and looked at the boy. The boy had his hand raised to the heavens and he was saying "La ilaha illallah Muhammad-ur-Rasul-ullah."

"He didn't need any help from someone, he knew it in his heart and he lived it. He followed what Allah Almighty taught him and he followed the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (Sall Allaho alaihe wasallam). And in those last moments it came out, and then he put his hand down. He had stopped reciting, he had died. I started crying but I tried hiding my tears. I then told the other officer, who was driving, that he had died and then he started crying. When I saw him crying I couldn't' stop crying and the entire scene was just so emotional. We took the boy inside the hospital and he was pronounced dead on arrival. When everyone saw us crying we told them what had happened to this boy.

"When we later phoned the boy's home, his brother picked up the phone and we told him about the accident. The brother then started telling us about this young man: Where he was going out to was a town where his grandmother lived, on the outskirts of Riyadh. He would go to visit his grandmother every week and would make sure to visit the orphans in that town. He would also make sure that he would spend time with all the little children that were playing in the street. The entire town knew him because he would bring Islamic books and tapes for them and give Dawah to those children. In this town there were many poor and needy Muslims and for them he would fill up the back of his car with rice and sugar, so that the poor people could share from the wealth of the people of the city. People would try discouraging him from going to do that, saying that it was such a long trip out. He would say, "I don't mind the trip, because it gives me a chance to review my Qur'aan in the car, otherwise I'd listen to an Islamic tape in the car on my way there and on my way back."

This is how this brother lived his life and this is how Allah Almighty chose to take his life. And this is how Allah Almighty brought life to other people that saw, heard and followed the story of this boy and were all guided because of him (Insha-Allah).

Stop for a moment and reflect! Ask yourself, "Am I living the life of 'La ilaha illallah?" If not, how do I expect to die upon it?

May Allah Almighty bless all of us.