Page 81 - Sincerity Described in the Qur'an

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Ways To Attain Sincerity

the All-Wise Qur’an like, ‘Every soul shall taste death.' (Surah
Al ‘Imran: 185) they made the contemplation of death fundamental
to their spiritual journeyings, and dispelled the illusion of eternity,
the source of worldly ambition. They imagined and conceived of
themselves as dead and being placed in the grave. Through
prolonged thought the evil-commanding soul becomes saddened
and affected by such imagining and to an extent gives up its far-
reaching ambitions and hopes. There are numerous advantages in
this contemplation. The Hadith the meaning of which is,
“Frequently mention death which dispels pleasure and makes it
bitter” teaches this contemplation.

However, since our way is not the Sufi path but the way of reality, we
are not compelled to perform this contemplation in an imaginary and
hypothetical form like the Sufis. To do so is anyway not in conformity
with the way of reality. Our way is not to bring the future to the
present by thinking of the end, but to go in the mind to the future from
the present in respect of reality, and to gaze on it. Yes, having no need
of imagination or conception, one may look on one’s own corpse, the
single fruit on the tree of this brief life. In this way, one may look on
one’s own death, and if one goes a bit further, one can see the death of
this century, and going further still, observe the death of this world,
opening up the way to complete sincerity." 21
With these words, Bediuzzaman recommends people to
evaluate death with a clearness of mind and maturity as if
they had really been put into their graves, seen their own
deaths and funerals, and observed the death of the world
from the hereafter. He also accentuates the fact that thinking
about death can constitute an important means to purify
oneself from all kinds of behavioral and moral weaknesses
appropriated in the life of this world.