Page 125 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

with justice and truth and not in self-interest, or in the interests
of relations, or out of fear or greed, and who keeps before him the
Book of God like a mirror.”
Fortunately, this subject has acquired a new significance in the
present age, giving rise to the new discipline of thanatology, which
makes a scientific study of the subject of death. Not so long ago,
discussions regarding death formed the subject matter only of
particular kinds of religious books. Suddenly, the topic of death
has become exceedingly popular, and has even become a subject
for academic specialization. The university of Minnesota takes
pride in having established a centre for thanatological studies
and the U.C.L.A. has established a laboratory for the study of life
endangering circumstances. In gatherings, the subject of death as
a topic of conversation has surpassed even the evergreen subjects
of sex and politics. A review which appeared in the American
monthly, Atlantic, says that thanatology has given us a whole new
literary genre. Given these new circumstances, there can be no
better way of calling man to accept God than to warn him about
death and the Hereafter.
The warning about the Hereafter should be considered the
central point in Dawah, for that is man’s greatest problem. The
fact that man, after death, shall have to face the consequences of
his deeds on an eternal time-scale, makes death and the life after
death the most vital of issues on which his attention should be fully
focussed.
Dr. Billy Graham (b. 1918) writes of how a man—one of the
richest men in the world—sent him an urgent invitation to come
to his home. From the letter of invitation it appeared that no time
should be lost. Dr. Graham accepted this invitation and left for his
home immediately. After dinner, his host took him aside and said,
“While at the moment I am in good health, my age tells me that I
do not have long to live. I have never thought much about death
before, but now I find my mind preoccupied with it, and the idea
frightens me. I need help. I am going to take a fateful leap into

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