Superstition inDeath
by Harun Yahya

Mankind have found solutions to many kinds of problems that arose throughout the
history, but only death. Every living thing is born doomed to death. Some of them pass
away when they are young, some live a longer life, and some die even older. Nobody's
property, wealth, position, rank, power or beauty keep death away from them.
Without exception, all were obliged to die and will be obliged to die.

A lot of people, don't want to think about death and don't want to remember that it is
certainly going to happen to them. They have developed a defence mechanism that they
will not die if they do not think about it. Whenever someone happens to talk about
death, people consider him to be a 'pessimistic' person and don't let him talk about it.
However, if someone talks about death, with or without any purpose, he is reminding
people of one of the most important signs and manages to wipe the foggy cloud of
heedlessness away a little. Yet, people that chose unawareness as a way of life, get
disturbed by things that draw away their unawareness. But these who run away from
the thought of death in life, will get overwhelmed more when they face the real death.
The greater is their ignorance in this life, the greater is the horror, confusion and pain at
the Day of Resurrection and in the Hell.

You will see no man that can resist ageing and death as time passes. You'll see no man
free from death. It is impossible! Because man does not own neither his body nor his
life. One indication of this, is that he wasn't the one to decide for his life . Another
indication is that he has no solution to stop his death. The Master of his life is the One
that gives it to him. And He, can take away that life whenever He wills. Allah, the
owner of all lives, informs us with the verse :

"We granted not to any man before thee permanent life (here): if then thou
shouldst die, would they live permanently?"

(AL-ANBIYA, 34)

There are about 6 billions of people on earth, there have been numerous people since
the first man. And all have experienced death without exception. Death is the end for all
that lived before us and is living now. Nobody can save themselves from this
unavoidable end. This is what it says in Al Qur'an:

"Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment shall
you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and
admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): For the life of this
world is but goods and chattels of deception."

(AAL-E-IMRAN, 185)


Supposing Death as Coincidence or Bad Fate

Death does not happen by chance. Like all other things, death happens by Allah's
decree. Everybody's time of birth is known, likewise the time of death is also
circumscribed even to its second. People consume their predetermined time and
approach rapidly to their last instant. The place, the time and the type of death is
predetermined in their destiny.

Despite this fact, most people believe that their death is a consequence of the events
which, in fact, Allah created as its cause. Everyday death announcements are read in
the newspapers. They come to some shallow conclusions like "If this precaution would
have been taken or if that thing wouldn't have happened, he wouldn't have died."
However, everybody can live as long as his allowance permits, not one second more,
not one second less. However, people without the consciousness of faith, consider
death as a result of a chain of coincidences. Qur'an makes the believers avoid from
such a totally erroneous belief aroused by the unbelievers:

"O ye who believe! Be not like the Unbelievers, who say of their brethren, when
they are travelling through the Earth or engaged in fighting: "If they had stayed
with us, they would not have died, or been slain." This that Allah may make it a
cause of sighs and regrets in their hearts. It is Allah that gives Life and Death,
and Allah sees well all that ye do."

(AAL-E-IMRAN, 156)

Believing that death is a coincidence is a great ignorance and stupidity. And this gives a
great psychological pain and an irresistible regret, as also mentioned in the above verse.
Unbelievers and also the ones that don't believe the way as per Qur'an describes, feel
this great suffering as a 'a cause of sighs and regrets when someone close to them dies.
They presume that there was a chance for him to recover, however because of bad
luck, incidents or unprecautiousness, he died out of nothing. This thought increases their
grief and pain. In fact this pain is for nothing but their distress of disbelieve.

Though there is a very important mystery; the reason of dying is not an traffic accident,
not a disease, not anything else. All of these reasons are created by Allah. When our
time ends, our souls are taken away with these kinds of false reasons. Man, even
though spends all of his fortune, will not be able to live even one more minute than his
respite. Qur'an describes this divine law as:

"... To every people is a term appointed: when their term is reached, not an hour
can they cause delay, nor (an hour) can they advance (it in anticipation)."

(YUNUS 49)


Misunderstanding destiny

Most people have a misconviction of destiny, especially about death. Irrational
statements like 'to change the destiny' or 'to get over destiny' are quite spread among
public. People with little wisdom, little intelligence and little knowledge suppose that
their expectations and predictions are their destiny, and when they don't get realized
they think that destiny does not happen as it was determined and it keeps changing.
They are in quite a foolish attitude as if they have read their destiny before and it did not
happen as it should happen. These kinds of inconsistent logic mostly originates because
the concept of destiny is not fully understood.

Destiny or fate is, Allah's creation and determination of all the events in the past and in
the future at the timeless dimension, Who created the concept of time and space out of
nothing and Who is independent from time and space. All the chain of events that were
lived and will be lived is planned and created at its very minute.

Time is created by Allah, therefore He is independent from time. Therefore, there can
be no such thing for Him to wait for the results what He Himself created. In His sight,
the beginning and end of everything is determined at its point in the infinity. Everything
has already happened. In a film strip, it is not possible for the images to make changes
on the film, likewise nobody has the power or ability to change anything on the life strip.
Fate has the influence on people, people don't have the influence on fate. Men is a part
of the fate and cannot behave independent from their fate. How can we talk about
changing the fate when one cannot even get out of it. This is like an actor in a film,
getting out of the film, become a physical being and erasing and changing things in the
film which he himself acts. This is a totally absurd and illogical thing.

Therefore, phrases like 'coming over destiny' or 'changing the fate' are totally ridiculous.
When a person says 'I changed my fate', in fact, he is saying something predetermined
in his destiny.

Somebody can be in coma for days and it may seem impossible for him to turn back to
life. But the same person, contrary to expectations, may recover. However this does
not mean that 'he defeated his fate' or 'changed his fate'. This only shows that person
has still not completed the time allowed in his destiny for him to live. Everything is
written and predetermined at Allah's stage. The verse follows:

"... Nor is a man long-lived granted length of days, nor is a part cut off from his
life, but is in a Decree (ordained). All this is easy to Allah."

(FATIR 11)

"Nor can a soul die except by Allah's leave, the term being fixed as by writing..."

(AAL-E-IMRAN 145)

With these examples, Allah shows us the infinite wisdom and abundance in variety of
His creation. These increase the amazement and gratitude of believers and increase
their faith in Him. On the other side, these increase the perversion and confusion of the
unbelievers whose reasoning does not go beyond a first step. This helps the believers
acknowledge Allah for showing them the foolishness and the lack of understanding of
the unbelievers and take lessons from them.

One other common belief in the society is that if a 80-year-old man dies, it would be
the appointed hour of death, whereas a young person's or a child's death is considered
to be 'unexpected painful event'. These people try to consider death as normal if some
conditions are provided. According to them, death after a long-lasting sickness can be
considered natural, however death after a sudden sickness or an accident is a disaster!
Therefore, usually people regard death in a rebellious attitude. This kind of psychology
is a clear sign of disbelieve in fate and consequently in Allah. Everybody with this
mentality which is the result of disbelief, is doomed to live in distress and sorrow and
this sorrow is only the beginning in this world and is to continue in the Hereafter.