Al Mumit | The One who renders the living dead

Bismillah.

We all know the one Name of His which really none make zikr on. It's one Name which we never repeat over our tasbeeh. We just don't do it. So when do we remember Al Mumit then? How exactly are we supposed to remember the One who renders the living dead, the Creator of death? When do we remember death - the thing that cuts off all pleasures? In a hadith by Tirmidhi the Prophet s.a.w said: "remember frequently the thing that cuts off all pleasures" i.e. death.

I think it's ironic. You might think it's weird. But it's true that I am inspired to reflect on Al Mumit after reading the eulogy for Steve Jobs [THE man behind Apple, in case you didn't know]. His last words, according to his sister, were: "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."

I know as Muslims, surely we hope our last words would be la ilaha illAllah. We want to die in tawhid, while proclaiming His Oneness. Remember the one unforgiveable sin is shirik (polytheism). Who knows if indeed we truly proclaim His Divinity, that we are a believer of One God, none other than Allah? Allah is the name of His Essence. There is no God but Allah, that's our belief. Steve had probably called his God by some other name but who knows if Steve might have actually believed in one God?

If you watched Shaykh Hamza's lecture, the one recorded in Makkah and Madina ('Rihla 2008' produced by Sandala), you will see how open Shaykh Hamza Yusuf's thinking is towards "non-believers". I can appreciate his perspective and I completely agree with him that we should not be too quick to label the non-Muslims as kuffar in that we should not easily judge them or make a holier-than-thou verdict, 'oh he is kaffir!' Really we know not! Shaykh Hamza also said that we should appreciate the presence of the non-Muslims because they are part of the Divine plan. They co-exist with the 'believers' for a reason.

Just yesterday, a friend of mine was telling me about a book he read. It's about an experiment where a group of 'religious' people and 'non-religious but good samaritans' being given a certain test to ascertain their true values, so to speak. And the outcome was that not all of those who were 'religious' actually passed the test. The results were in fact quite balanced.

Of course, this reminded me of my own negative experiences with at least four 'shaykhs'. They all had some kind of followings (i.e. students), all carried a religious persona, all had a good degree of Islamic knowledge, Allahu a'lam. But they projected enough negative traits to make people doubt their calibre. So I could relate to Shakyh Hamza when he mentioned spiritual pathologies and people who become victims of their own imbalanced spiritual devotion and/or extremism. 

In any case, Allahu a'lam, but I think when we die, we would want people to remember us for our good actions, not so much our preaching, our image, not our long jubbah etc. You may or may not agree. I think it would be nice if  we are remembered at least as someone who heals, who loves, who gives, who helps, who smiles, who spread happiness, who contributes in a good way.

Many of you have all those traits, I know. So perhaps I should take this opportunity before death comes to me, and you, I say thank you for being you, for being one who heals, who gives, who helps, who smiles and who spread happiness. You have contributed in a good way, in your own way InshAllah. For that I say, O wow, O wow, O wow!

By the way, do you reckon Allah only see your acts and not Steve's acts? Remember, we are just human; death is inevitable; and we all want a good ending, don't we?

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Al Mumit poster credit: Hamid Iqbal Khan
To purchase his art:
http://hamidsart.redbubble.com/works/5705525-al-mumeet