Page 34 - Before You Regret

32 Before You Regret

The Regret of Unbelievers at the
Moment of Death

Throughout their lives, people are reminded many
times of the existence of the Garden and the Fire and that
they have to get prepared for the afterlife. Yet unbelievers
turn a deaf ear to these reminders. Upon facing death,
one of the main sources of their regret is the fact that they
have led themselves to their own destruction. Nobody
forced them; they, by their own will, chose this dreadful
end for themselves. By the moment of death unbelievers
start to suffer from grief. The dreadful fear felt at the time
of death is the initial grief of this torment, which Allah

illustrates in the Qur'an as follows:
... and one leg is entwined with the other: that Day he
will be driven to your Lord. He neither affirmed the
truth nor did he pray, but rather denied the truth and
turned away and then went off to his family, swagger-
ing. It is coming closer to you and closer. Then closer to
you and closer still. (Surat al-Qiyama: 29-35)
Yet, one needs to keep in mind that only unbelievers
suffer from this fear. Believers spend all their lives work-
ing to gain the good pleasure and love of Allah. For this
reason, they are full of hope. Unbelievers, on the other
hand, experience great belated regret when death over-
powers them. Nevertheless, this regret by no means
keeps them safe from the punishment because it is too