Explanation of the Book of the Hearts-07a

The reciter: Muhammad ibn al-'Ala' narrated to me, Abu Usamah narrated to us, from Burayd, from Abu Burdah, from Abu Musa, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said:

The Shaykh : It is fitting that this hadith follows the previous hadith, "Whoever returns to Me, I will be his wali," because of his saying: Yes, here the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says, "Whoever loves to meet Allah." No one loves to meet Allah except one of His awliya (close friends of Allah), because of the certainty he has of the abundant reward from his Lord (Mighty and Majestic). So how can one say in the previous hadith that he dislikes death, and here say that he loves to meet Allah? This objection was raised by 'A'ishah to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he answered her. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said this hadith, she said: "We certainly dislike death", and he said: So nothing is more beloved to him than what lies ahead of him. Thus, when he is given glad tidings of the mercy and pleasure of Allah at the time of death, he rejoices and loves to meet Allah, because he has been given glad tidings of what is better than the entire world. The non-believer is attended by the angels of punishment, and he is given tidings, may Allah spare us, of the punishment and retribution of Allah, so he dislikes that. And in that case, there is no contradiction between what? Between the two hadiths. The first hadith regarding the dislike of death is a natural matter; souls are created with it, even animals and insects, all of them flee from death. But the criterion is meeting Allah: does a person love it or not? The believer loves it because he is given glad tidings at death of mercy, forgiveness, pleasure, and reward, while the disbeliever is the opposite.