Two: Once It Reaches the Throat, There Is No Extension
As for the other edge, it cuts clean: no second chance, and not one second added to the time. The period of testing ends all at once with no warning given first; the paper of a life is drawn out from under the hand; the record of deeds is folded up; the door of turning back and of making a will is locked; a man's way back to his family to make good what he missed is cut off; and the sorting begins. And the first thing the man who fell short says at that moment is a request to be sent back:
حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءَ أَحَدَهُمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ قَالَ رَبِّ ٱرْجِعُونِ لَعَلِّىٓ أَعْمَلُ صَٰلِحًۭا فِيمَا تَرَكْتُ ۚ كَلَّآ ۚ إِنَّهَا كَلِمَةٌ هُوَ قَآئِلُهَا ۖ وَمِن وَرَآئِهِم بَرْزَخٌ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ
Until, when death cometh unto one of them, he saith: My Lord! Send me back, That I may do right in that which I have left behind! But nay! It is but a word that he speaketh; and behind them is a barrier until the day when they are raised.
And see how the answer comes in the same verse: it is a word he says, and no more than that; nothing follows from it, no reply and no return; and behind them is a barrier until the day they are raised. Nor is this request confined to the man who went to excess in wrongdoing; even a man who fell short in one thing only wishes for a short delay in which to finish what he left:
وَأَنفِقُوا۟ مِن مَّا رَزَقْنَٰكُم مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِىَ أَحَدَكُمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ فَيَقُولَ رَبِّ لَوْلَآ أَخَّرْتَنِىٓ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍۢ قَرِيبٍۢ فَأَصَّدَّقَ وَأَكُن مِّنَ ٱلصَّٰلِحِينَ وَلَن يُؤَخِّرَ ٱللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِذَا جَآءَ أَجَلُهَا ۚ وَٱللَّهُ خَبِيرٌۢ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
And spend of that wherewith We have provided you before death cometh unto one of you and he saith: My Lord! If only thou wouldst reprieve me for a little while, then I would give alms and be among the righteous. But Allah reprieveth no soul when its term cometh, and Allah is Informed of what ye do.
The request for a delay is raised after the bell has already been rung, and the answer to it is set down in the rest of the two verses: no soul is put off once its hour has come. That is why the Prophet's ﷺ direction about this whole world is the direction given to a man passing through, not to a man settling down:
«كنْ في الدنيا كأنَّك غريبٌ أو عابرُ سبيل»
Be in this world as though you were a stranger, or someone passing through on a journey.
Whoever lives by that is not startled by the bell, because he never spread out his belongings in the first place, and never slept a night thinking the morning was his own property.
A paper taken before the time
The invigilator passes without warning by a seat at the back of the row and draws away a paper whose owner has not reached the halfway mark. He gives him no reason and grants him no review. The hall lifts its head for one moment and then goes back to writing, as though the matter were no concern of theirs.
News arrives in the middle of the day: so-and-so has died. A man who was arranging a journey; a man who had promised a visit at the feast. He is spoken of for a day, or part of a day, and then people go back to their papers, and not one of them notices that the order in which the papers are taken is not the order in which people sat down.
The last bell
The bell rings. The invigilator's voice: pens up. A hand tries to finish one last word, and the paper is pulled out from under it. It is no use for its owner to say: I have one line left. The papers are gathered in the order they came in, and everyone goes out through one door.
A rattle in the throat, and a stare that fixes. The record is folded up and the work stops, except for three things. And in the funeral there walk his family, his money and his deeds; two of them turn back from the grave, and one stays and goes down with him.
«إذا ماتَ الإنسانُ انقطعَ عنه عملُه إلا من ثلاثة: إلا من صدقةٍ جارية، أو علمٍ يُنتفَعُ به، أو ولدٍ صالحٍ يدعو له»
When a person dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: an ongoing charity, knowledge people benefit from, or an upright child who prays for him.
«يتبعُ الميّتَ ثلاثةٌ، فيرجعُ اثنانِ ويبقى معه واحد: يتبعُه أهلُه ومالُه وعملُه، فيرجعُ أهلُه ومالُه ويبقى عملُه»
Three things follow the dead person: his family, his wealth and his deeds. Two of them come back, and one stays with him: his family and his wealth return, and his deeds remain.
Even so, there is a paper whose marking goes on after its owner has left the hall: an ongoing charity, knowledge people benefit from, and a righteous child who prays for him are ink that does not dry when the pen dries. That is the exception named in the report just given, and that is why these are the most valuable things a sensible man sends ahead while he is still in his seat.
| The state | Before the rattle in the throat | After it |
|---|---|---|
| The door of turning back | Open, and nobody who knocks is turned away | Shut, by the plain words of the verse |
| The time | A remainder of unknown length | Spent, with nothing put off |
| The paper | Marked, and what is in it can still be changed | Folded up on what is in it |
| The request to be sent back | An effort still possible on your own two feet | A word he says, and nothing more |
Between the two edges lies a distance whose name is a lifetime, and nobody knows its length or the point at which it ends. The sensible man treats it as time that is being counted, and goes over his own account himself before it is gone over for him:
«الكيِّسُ مَن دانَ نفسَه وعمِلَ لما بعدَ الموت، والعاجزُ مَن أتبعَ نفسَه هواها وتمنّى على الله»
The shrewd person is the one who calls himself to account and works for what comes after death; and the helpless one is he who lets his own cravings lead him and then counts on God for the rest.
«حاسِبوا أنفسَكم قبلَ أن تُحاسَبوا، وتَزيَّنوا للعَرضِ الأكبر، وإنَّما يخِفُّ الحسابُ يومَ القيامةِ على مَن حاسبَ نفسَه في الدنيا»
Call yourselves to account before you are called to account; and make ready for the great presentation. The reckoning on the Day of Rising will be light only for the one who called himself to account in this world.
- 1Start with the heaviest question on your paper today, and do not hang your turning back on some circumstance you hold no guarantee of.
- 2Name what you are turning back from by its name, then cut off what leads to it: the place, the company, and the means that carry you there.
- 3Hand back to their owners whatever you took without right, money or a man's good name, and set down in your will what nobody but you knows about.
- 4Follow regret with a good deed on the same day, and weigh that deed before you write it on two scales: whom you are doing it for, and on what foundation you are doing it.
- 5Put something in place that will run on after you, however small: an ongoing gift, knowledge you are good at and pass on, and a child you raise to pray by letting him hear you pray for your own parents.
- 6Live your day as a traveller passing through and do not spread out your belongings, and at the end of every night go over the paper of your day with yourself, question by question.
The door of turning back is open as long as the breath still comes and goes in the chest, and no kind of sin is left out of that and no size of it; rather the places of the mistakes turn into marks added on, for the man who felt regret, resolved, followed his regret with work, and handed back to people what was theirs. But the width of the time is the most deceiving thing in the whole sitting, the length of it is not known, and no paper is taken up except with a pure intent and agreement with the way the Prophet brought. Then, when the matter reaches its limit, the time is cut off all at once, the record is folded up, and the request to be sent back becomes a word that nothing follows from. What is left after you have gone out is whatever goes on being marked: an ongoing gift, knowledge people benefit from, and a child who prays. Both doors are real: a door that is open now, and a door that shuts at an hour nobody knows. So go over your paper while the pen is still in your hand.