Maut(death)

I want you guys to imagine hanging out with your friends on a Friday evening. The school week has been hectic, the work load at the office has been incredible, and now you just want to chill out with your friends and forget all your problems. Can you imagine talking about death at such a time? Why would anyone do that? Who would want to ruin a perfectly good evening? Brothers and Sisters, at every free moment we are blessed with we must remind ourselves that we have a scheduled appointment with our Creator.
The Certainty of Death
How many of you have witnessed the death of a loved one? How many have seen an old person die? A teenager? A baby? How many of you have met an immortal person? (Obviously nobody has). The fact of the matter is that death is the most certain thing in our lives. Every soul will taste death (Al Imran 3:185). Not only is death itself inescapable, but the place and the very day and hour of death have been forever fixed: No soul may die except with God’s permission at a predestined time. (Al Imran 3:145).
Now it is amazing to see how we can forget this ultimate reality once we have initially realized it. Though it is human nature, there are practical ways to prevent ourselves from forgetting.
Keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of Allah
Keep good company and let go or try to improve those who are set on doing nonsensical things.
Attend funeral prayers and visit graveyards.
The Reality of the Hereafter
For those who sat and listened to the Prophet Muhammad (S), the Hereafter became almost a living reality to the extent that they could almost visualize it with their own eyes. On some occasions, during the Prophet’s descriptions of the Hereafter, they observed him going forward as if to grasp something while on other occasions he would withdraw as if to save himself. When questioned about those unusual movements, the Prophet (S) explained that as he spoke, he saw the fruits of Jannah in front of him. He reached out wanting to seize some so that he could show them. He said that, had he done so, it would have provided enough food for the entire world in all times to come. Similarly, when he withdrew, he saw the Hell-fire in front of him and wanted to save himself from it. It was this and other similar experiences witnessed by the Companions which were responsible for reforming their lives so completely that all their morals, manners, activities, goals in life – indeed, their entire purpose of existence – was determined by their awareness of their meeting with Allah. [In the Early Hours]
Self Evaluation
Self Evaluation is a key part of remember our final destination. Umar ibn al-Khattab (R) once said, “Judge yourself before you are judged, evaluate yourself before you are evaluated and be ready for the greatest investigation.” Take small moments in your day (preferably after Salah) when you are alone to remind yourself that though school, work, family, and friends are important our ultimate goal in life is to prepare to meet Allah (SWT). Constantly seek his forgiveness and remember him with even simple phrases such as SubhanAllah, Alhumdulillah, and Allahu Akbar.
[end 1st khutbah]
Conclusion
Now go back to the scene depicted in the introduction. There is absolutely no crime in playing videogames or going out with your friends (do it in a permissible manner of course). However, I urge you to take every chance you have to remind yourself and your friends of that scheduled appointment with Allah. Simply share and Hadith or verse from the Qur’an and you will find your minds enlightened and your hearts softened.
Death is something healthy to think and talk about. Death is something that makes religion worth discussing. Think about it, has anyone in the history of man come back from the dead and revealed the truth? Death is something this IS going to happen to you. No human has ever been able to escape it. Death does not discriminate regardless of race, gender, or age. Go to graveyards and give yourself a wakeup call every now and then. You will find the graves of people who died in their 80s-90s and right next to them there is a person who died within 6 days after birth! It isn’t our job to find out when our scheduled appointment with our Lord is but what we have done to prepare for it.
I pray that Allah makes us of those who constantly remind each other of death and who encourage one another to all that is good