The Meaning of the Trial of Life and Death
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, what is meant by the trial of life and death?
Answer:
The trial of life is the trial of this world with wealth and children, and the trials of desires and doubts. The trial of death is what befalls the deceased at the time of passing, when Satan comes to him and may teach him things, causing him to die upon them as an apostate from Islam. So one seeks refuge with Allah from this trial at the time of death, because some people may die upon other than Islam, as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Sahih Muslim 2643a. This is a description of a bad ending, and may Allah protect us from it. A person asks Allah for a good ending; seeking refuge from the trial of death is part of seeking refuge from a bad ending. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, what is meant by the trial of life and death?
Answer:
The trial of life is the trial of this world with wealth and children, and the trials of desires and doubts. The trial of death is what befalls the deceased at the time of passing, when Satan comes to him and may teach him things, causing him to die upon them as an apostate from Islam. So one seeks refuge with Allah from this trial at the time of death, because some people may die upon other than Islam, as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
that one amongst you acts like the people deserving Paradise until between him and Paradise there remains but the distance of a cubit, when suddenly the writing of destiny overcomes him and he begins to act like the denizens of Hell and thus enters Hell
إِنَّ أَحَدَكُمْ لَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ حَتَّى مَا يَكُونَ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَهَا إِلاَّ ذِرَاعٌ فَيَسْبِقُ عَلَيْهِ الْكِتَابُ فَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ النَّارِ فَيَدْخُلُهَا
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، بداية من باب الصلح — islamhouse.com (10:14)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.