Title: Is the Fear of Death Contrary to True Faith? Question: When a person is thinking about his death, may be because he has seen someone dying, he is not thinking about hell or sins; he is actually fear for his life. Does the fear of death represent weakness in faith (Belief in God)? If yes, then how one can strengthens his belief in God in that particular situation; and also in general? After all it is about a Belief in an Unseen God. Thanks. Jazzakallah khairun Nauman Ilyas Pakistan Answer: One of the most potent ways of exercising restraint in one's life is by remembering the inevitability of death. It is a reminder for us that our stay in this world and its pleasures are temporary and achieving success in the hereafter should be the overarching goal of our lives. The Quran wants us to etch this truth in our minds that the life to come is immeasurably superior to our present life and therefore all our efforts should be directed towards achieving excellence in the hereafter. The Quran says: 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. (3:185) Though our fear for death is a natural outcome of our love for life and a natural acknowledgement of God's great blessing upon us (of giving life), yet a person who has truly appreciated the relative significance of the life of this world and that of the hereafter is more likely to have overcome this fear and has it replaced with a longing to meet the great blessings of the life hereafter. Nevertheless, Islam wants us to value our own life as well as that of others. The fear of losing anything that we value is quite natural and is not condemnable, likewise our fear of death. A reflection on our general attitude towards life would reveal that death can be feared for two reasons. One can either fear death because of an inordinate love of this world and its pleasures and the fear of losing them, or because of the fear of standing before one's Lord with the heavy burden of sins. A true believer would not harbor the first kind of fear because he would never allow the love of fleeting pleasures to overpower his thoughts and keep him from the remembrance of his Lord. The second kind of fear would be a natural outcome of a believer's psychology, for despite doing his best in the way of Allah, he would always be fearful of facing Him, never being over confident or complacent about his level of piety. If you reflect on this second kind of fear, it is actually a state between immense hope and fear wherein a true believer remembers the day of meeting with the Lord of Mercy. It is this very state of mind which Umar (ra) is reported to have described aptly in a statement. It is something to the effect: If on the Day of Judgment, only one person is called out to be sent to paradise, I hope that that person would be me, and if on the Day of Judgment, only one person is called out to be sent to hell, I fear that that person might be me [1] . Thus it is one's preference of the life of this world over the hereafter that is condemned and should be viewed as a weakness in one's faith. Jesus' (pbuh) saying adequately describes this phenomenon: for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6: 21). The love for life and the fear for death itself cannot always be the result of such a weakness. The Quran says: But for such as fear the time when they will stand before (the Judgment Seat of) their Lord, there will be two Gardens. (55:46) We can strengthen our belief in Allah by learning a lesson from the deaths we are made to witness, by realizing the insignificance of this life when compared with the hereafter, by consciously appreciating the fact that this life is a means to an end and not an end in itself, by remembering death with the fear of standing before Him, and by recognizing the permanence of our deeds. The following narratives in this regard are ascribed to the prophet (sws): Narrated Mujahid: Abdullah bin 'Umar said, "Allah's Apostle took hold of my shoulder and said, 'Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler." The sub-narrator added: Ibn 'Umar used to say, "If you survive till the evening, do not expect to be alive in the morning, and if you survive till the morning, do not expect to be alive in the evening, and take from your health for your sickness, and (take) from your life for your death." (Volume 8, Book 76, Number 424) Narrated Anas bin Malik (ra): Allah's Apostle said, "When carried to his grave, a dead person is followed by three, two of which return (after his burial) and one remains with him: his relative, his property, and his deeds follow him; relatives and his property go back, while his deeds remain with him." (Sahih Bukhari: Volume 8, Book 76, Number 521) By developing and maintaining a relationship of love, trust and reliance on the Lord of Mercy, and by constantly reminding ourselves of death, we can nurture patience and fortitude for trying times. As for your assertion that our belief is in an unseen God, kindly take a look at one of the earlier responses to a related question: ' Belief in Unseen '. Regards, Razi Allah November 30, 2002 [1] The statement is reported in 'Kanzal-Ummal' . At the time of writing the response, I did not have access to the book to give a more detailed reference or the exact words.