In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

The Final Words (In the Light of Hadith)

“Sayyiduna Mu‘adh ibn Jabal رضي الله عنه narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Whoever’s last words are لَآ اِلٰهَ اِلَّا الله will enter Jannah (Paradise).’” (Sunan Abi Dawud)

“Sayyiduna Abu Sa‘id رضي الله عنه and Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Prompt your dying ones to say the kalimah لَآ اِلٰهَ اِلَّا الله.’” (Sahih Muslim)

There was a great muhaddith (Hadith scholar) who spent his entire life teaching Hadith. When his final moments arrived, his students were seated around him. The students observed that their teacher was nearing death, yet he was not reciting the kalimah. Out of deep respect, they hesitated to directly advise him.

Finally, one student devised a method: he began reciting the sanad (chain of transmission) of the above Hadith. A sanad refers to the list of narrators through whom a Hadith has been transmitted. When the student reached the point in the sanad where it ended with “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,” he stopped and looked at his teacher, but there was no response. Then another student began reciting the sanad and similarly stopped at the Hadith.

The teacher’s mind then became alert; he realized they were reciting the sanad but not the Hadith itself. He said, “Why do you not recite the Hadith?” Then he himself recited the sanad and then the Hadith. As soon as he completed the Hadith, he recited لَآ اِلٰهَ اِلَّا الله—and with these words, his soul departed from his body. Thus, his final words were the kalimah, and at his last moment he was also blessed with the honour of narrating Hadith.

The purpose of relating this incident is that from the books of Hadith and from the scholars, it is understood that whatever a person spends his life engaged in, he is granted tawfiq (divine enablement) for the same at the time of death. This is not merely within one’s control; it is a matter of tawfiq from Allah.

Today, we have become so absorbed in worldly life that we scarcely find time even for Salah. In the evening, a tired person may watch a film at the insistence of friends, yet he lacks the strength for prayer. Some days ago, a man narrated an incident: his relative met with a car accident. He was in the vehicle behind and rushed to pull him out of the wreckage. He said that although the car’s speaker was destroyed, it was still playing—and his relative, in the throes of death, was singing a song even as he was dying. Can a person sing in the agony of death? This is nothing but a punishment. Since that had been his habitual practice in life, the same was granted to him at the time of death.

Therefore, I earnestly appeal to everyone: repent from all past sins and strive to avoid them in the future. There was a man who used to cheat in weights and measures. When his death approached, those around him prompted him to recite the kalimah, but he could not. Someone asked, “Why do you not recite the kalimah?” He replied, “Whenever I try to recite it, the needle of the scale pierces my throat, and I am unable to utter the kalimah.”