Death and Islamic Understanding of Afterlife

Death is built into God's plan for his creation. God alone determines and knows the time and manner of each person's death and of Judgment Day. Tradition holds that an angel implants in the womb of each expectant mother a speck of soil from the place where that child is eventually fated to die. While God retains authority over death, he delegates oversight of individual deaths to an angel named Izra'il. Orthodox Sunni theology recognizes God's total omniscience and omnipotence. Thus God appoints not only each person's day of death but also the individual actions for which one is judged. This view is balanced by a recognition of God's infinite justice, a sense that humans choose and deserve their ultimate fate. The apparent paradox is addressed in the complex theological formula of "acquisition" (iktisab), which holds that while God authors human acts, people "acquire" them as products of free will. This doctrine is buttressed with an appeal to divine mystery, a belief that God's ways are beyond human comprehension. In the end, most Muslims display a firm commitment to both predestination and free will, holding themselves accountable for their deeds while acquiescing to God's power. If intellectually untidy, such a view is emotionally rich and satisfying for many.

Rather than "fear," Muslim sources prefer to counsel the "remembrance" of death, the awareness that it may come at any time, and the need to be always prepared. Al-Muhasibi (c. 781–857) advises that

You need only know that death has no hour known to the servant that he might fear that particular time but be secure at other times.… If it does not come down at any particular period of life, one cannot be secure from it in childhood or maturity, in youth or in old age. Since it has no particular cause, one cannot be secure from it in health or in illness, in city or in desert, on land or on sea.… When he is watchful for death, he hastens to be prepared for it and races to complete good works before the angel of death can reach his spirit. (Sells, pp. 181–182)