"How did he die?"

It's really given me big jolt. One of my dear friends back in UTM, Malaysia, and Deeni bro, Abdur Rahman from Gaza passed away last night. He was one of the most selfless characters I've seen among my friends. He's the kind of a guy you would call in any need, any time of the day, any day of the year. He'd be there for you. The kind of a person with a perpetual smile on his face; a companion in all the jokes and jibes friends throw at each other. It's really hard to find such an active, selfless and joyful bro like him. He was about 30 I guess.

I think I know what you're thinking. 'How did he die?'. Yeah, that's what everyone thinks of when he hears of someone else's death. So if I answer that he died in the sea, pulled away from the strong arms of his dearest friends completely out of sight for hours, only to be found floating on the surface the next morning, we feel like 'oh yeah that's why he died'. As if he wouldn't die if he was sitting at his home, drinking a cup of tea, or just sleeping in his own bed. It's really amazes me, and makes me angry too, that despite always saying with our mouths that death could come to us at any moment, at any situation, we really don't mean it do we? When someone dies, we always look for the apparent reason. We can't accept that we will just die. Period.

What we should be more concerned about is what's happening to the person right now. We feel like with his death, it's all over for him. We'll not get him back again, that's what makes us sad. But do we imagine that by this time, the person has already faced the questions of Imaan. He's been raised in his grave bed, he's been asked the most important questions that a person can ever face. So what's his result? Did he pass? The events of the grave that we've always read and heard from The Quran and Hadith, have already come to pass for him. What's it like for him now?? These are the questions that should come to our mind when someone from us passes away. If they don't, isn't it time we re-think our state of Imaan?

May Allah SWT grant my friend His absolute mercy. May Allah SWT give us all death with Imaan.