Part 8

I could not have done what he (Anas Ibn An-Nadr) did. We found his dead body with more than eighty sword and arrow wounds. His body was mutilated so badly that no one except his sister could recognise him, by his fingers.' Anas added, 'We used to think that the following verse was revealed concerning him and other men like him: ( Among the muminun there are men who have been true to the contract they made with Allah. Some of them have fulfilled their pact by death and some are still waiting to do so, not having changed in any way at all. ) (33.23)'"29 Abu Hurairah, related, "The Messenger of Allah and his Companions made their way towards Badr and arrived there well before the kafirun (of Makkah). When the kafirun arrived there, the Messenger of Allah said, 'None of you should step forward to do anything unless I am ahead of him.' As the kafirun advanced, the Messenger of Allah said, 'Prepare to enter 26 Muslim, 18/4646. 27 Al-Tirmidhi, 7/161; Ibn Majah, 2799; Imam Ahmed, 4 /131. 28 An-Nisa'i, 4/99. 29 al-Bukhari, 7/354-355; Muslim, 13/47-48; Al-Tirmidhi, 12/80-81. Paradise, which is as wide as the heavens and the earth.' Umair Ibn al-Humam al-Ansari said, 'Messenger of Allah, is Paradise as wide as the heavens and the earth?' He A answered, 'Yes.' Umair exclaimed, 'My goodness!' The Messenger of Allah asked him, 'What made you say that?' He replied, 'O Messenger of Allah, nothing but the desire to be one of its residents.' He said: 'You will be one of its residents.' Umair took some dates from his bag and began to eat them. Then he said, 'If I were to live until I had eaten all of these dates of mine, my life would be too long.' He threw away all the dates he had with him and fought the enemy until he was killed."30 Abu Imran said, "We set out on an expedition from Madina intending to attack Constantinople. Abd'ur-Rahman Ibn Khalid Ibn al-Walid was the leader of our army. The Romans had their backs to the walls of the city. One of our men launched an attack against the enemy. Some of the men shouted, 'Stop! Stop! There is no god but Allah. He is putting himself in danger!' "Abu Ayyub said, 'The following verse was revealed about us, the group of the Ansar, when Allah helped His Prophet and gave Islam the upper hand, and we thought, "Come on then! Let us stay with our property and improve it." Then Allah, the Exalted, revealed: ( Spend in the Way of Allah. Do not cast yourselves into destruction. ) (2: 194) So, the meaning of casting ourselves into destruction was if we had stayed with our property and had busied ourselves with improving it and had abandoned fighting''' Abu Imran continued: "Abu Ayyub continued to strive in the Way of Allah until he (died and) was buried in Constantinople."31 30 Muslim, 13/45-46. 31 Abu Dawud, 2506. THREE REMEMBERING DEATH Praise belongs to Allah Who bows the necks of tyrants and oppressors by inflicting death on them. Their hearts repeatedly refuse to remember death, but when death comes to them they are thrown into their holes, taken from their palaces to their tombs, from light into darkness, from the pleasures of the world and the beauty of women to the pain of worms and vermin, from their enjoyment of food and drink to dirt and dust, from the love and companionship of their family to solitude and loneliness, from the comfort of their beds to the discomfort of the grave. They cannot escape from their miserable destiny — can you see a single one of them or even hear the slightest sound? Glory be to Allah! He has power over all His creatures who shall all die — except Him. Allah humiliates evildoers and redeems righteous people through death and makes the grave a place of constriction for wrongdoers and sinners until the Day of Judgement, when they shall all meet Him and He will judge between them. He A is the Benefactor and the Avenger and all Praise is due to Him — and may His peace and blessings be on His Messenger, Muhammad It who came with clear miracles and proofs. So is it not enough for whoever has death for a destiny, dust for a bed, worms for companions, Munkar and Nakir for visitors, the grave for a shelter, the Day of Judgement for an appointed time and either Paradise or Hell as a final dwelling place, to give much thought and consideration to all of this and prepare for it?