The moment I saw her dead body...

My knees felt weak, my head started spinning and my sight went blurry - but I couldn’t shed a single teardrop out of sheer shock and disbelief.

Last month, somebody very dear to me passed away and I had volunteered to wash her body. The first few minutes of seeing her face was the hardest. All the loving memories flooded back: the fun laughter, the warm hugs and all the good times.

But the weirdest thing was that this initial period of “shock” only lasted a few minutes. We had a job to do. Within minutes, I was dotting around the room, collecting water, moving her body from side to side and lathering soap all over.

The reality was, this was JUST A BODY. It wasn’t the woman I knew. It was simply something she left behind that will waste away, just like her wealth and possessions.

We spend our time from morning until night, busy in our lives and working hard to make money. In the midst, we often forget that with every breath we take, we are getting closer to our death. Indeed, death is something inevitable which will reach us all.

This remembrance of death should help us to

>>> Purify our intentions and work for the sole purpose of pleasing Allah.

>>> Spend our time wisely because life is too short.

>>> Focus on the actions which bring about the most fruitful rewards. Rewards that we can reap, even after we die.

At the end, we wrapped her up in a simple white shroud and the assistant started sprinkling white powder all over the body. When i asked what’s the powder for, she replied “It’s to keep away the creatures from the body for a short while.”

SubhanaAllah! This is where we all will end up, under the earth amongst the mud and its creatures. We will rot away. Hardly anything of us will remain. By that time our wealth and possessions would have been distributed and we would have been totally forgotten about on Earth

>>> What will you be remembered for after you die?

>>> What have you prepared for this day?

At the graveyard, my husband lowered her into the deep, dark grave. Soon her questioning will begin and according to her answers, she will either be rewarded or punished. May Allah have mercy upon us and all the Muslim inhabitants of the grave.

When I called him up later to ask how the burial went, the first and last thing he said was, “She’s gone.” We shared a moment of silence. A silence of disbelief. A silence to remember that this will one day be US.

“Every soul will taste death” [al-Qur’an 3:185]

Nabila Sara Ahmed 
#entrepreneurialmuslim