Where We Die, and Who Will Bear Witness for Us or Against Us

Occasion: Transcript of an Isha khatira delivered on October 2, 2024.Source: Transcript of a recorded khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abou Seif, watch the original video on YouTube

I wanted to speak about the places where the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ passed away: how many of them died in Egypt, how many in Baghdad, and so on, everywhere. SubhanAllah, we do not know where we are going to die.

Take an example. A few weeks ago we announced the passing of one of our doctors. Four days before he died he had left his job and his place. He had just rented a home, moved his belongings and arrived in a new place, with a new job and a new career; everything was new for him. Yet he did not know what Allah had in store. And the day before yesterday, one of us came to visit his son in New Jersey and passed away there.^[1] We do not know where we will be laid to rest. Allah, glory be to Him, is the only One who knows that.

Every place is a witness

For this reason, we should regard any place we go to as Allah's place, and the place itself will be one of the witnesses we face on the Day of Judgment. We will be asked: what did you do in Sachse? What did you do in Plano? What did you do in Murphy, in Texas, in New Jersey, in Atlanta? It does not matter where. What matters is whether we finish our time in faith, or end it with something wrong.

The first witness: our spouses

There are also people who will stand as witnesses beside us or against us on that Day. The first I consider, all the time, is our spouses. When we stand before Allah and the question is put, the first to be asked about me may well be my wife, because she is supposed to be the closest one to her spouse, and she will tell the truth.

That is why the Companions, when they wanted to ask about the manners of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, went first to his wives. Whatever a wife says about you, people will trust, because she knows you more than anyone else. She knows you in situations nobody else sees you in. She sees your mercy and she sees your harshness, your toughness. She sees the real you at home more than anyone outside that home.

I say these words only to remind myself. If we die anywhere, the place is not what matters. What matters is that we die in a good state. I ask Allah to guide all of us to the right path.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The automatic transcript is garbled in places. Administrative remarks and the announcement of the next meeting were omitted, along with unclear numbers and names (such as the age of the late doctor) and sentences that could not be fully made out.