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Bismillahi ar-rahmani ar-rahim

Since childhood, we all know that youth is followed by maturity and old age by death. “Death and taxes” is an English phrase, which means: “the unavoidable”. Death is so certain, that it is almost impossible for us to comprehend that this was not always the case. When the Evil Whisperer (al waswasi) approached Hawa, she opposed him with the truth, which Al Hādī (The Guide) Himself taught her: “Do not even touch it (the tree of life). If you do, you will die.” What comes to your mind when you hear the words “death” or “die”? Maybe an accident you witnessed? Or the memory of a deceased family member you loved? Adam and Hawa had no such memory. Indeed, not even the Tempter did. Death was only a word, only a concept, but not yet an experience. We cannot even imagine how the first people, who knew only the perfection of Janat, must have felt. One inspired writer described it this way: “As they witnessed in the drooping flower and the falling leaf the first signs of decay, Adam and his companion mourned more deeply than men now mourn over their dead.”

Hābīl was the very first human to die. Can you imagine what his death must have meant to his parents, who mourned over withering plants? It was probably only then that they began to more fully understand the truth, of which Allah warned them before, in the happiness of the Garden.

Injil, Romans 6:23

The wages of sin is death.

An Nisā 4:78

أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُوا يُدْرِككُّمُ الْمَوْتُ وَلَوْ كُنتُمْ فِي بُرُوج مُّشَيَّدَةٍ

Wherever you are, death will find you even if you hide yourselves in firmly constructed towers

Adam lived a very long life, as did his descendants.

Tawrat, Genesis 5:5, 27

Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. 

Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.

Still, the truth foretold by Allah proved to be true for Adam and for everybody else in his family – the whole of humankind. Whether good or bad, believers or not, sooner or later we all die, because that is the WAGES of sin. Notice the word used here. Death is the natural consequence of sinning, not an arbitrary punishment. Allah is both Al Khāliq (the Maker) and Al Muqīt (the Sustainer) of all life in the Universe. Nothing can live without Him. Therefore, if we break our relationship with Him by choosing to do what is haram, we are tearing away from the Giver of Life. The wages of that, of course, can be no other than death.

Have you ever committed a sin?

If you have sinned, what is the wages (consequence) of your sin?

Can you name anyone who never sinned and, therefore, never died?