We know of birth (not ours) of a child few months ahead of time. What if such information with certainty was available to us few months ahead of time for death also?
I know that in case of capital punishment or terminal illness, we are very often aware of the end few months in advance, but those are rare cases. I am talking about life and death in general and knowing about the death of all the individuals, well ahead of time.
We can discuss the logistics of how could that be known, but I am more interested in the consequences.
paidaa'ish meN aurat kaa peT baRhtaa jaataa hai aur phir zindagii kii afzaa'ish ho jaatii hai...to isii taraH marne waale kaa peT sukaRne lage [shrink] aur jab zero ho jaaye to maut waaq'e ho jaayaa kare. :D
i think once we know our imminent/looming death, the remaining life will become miserable for the dying person and life in general for the loved ones. there is a great wisdom in Allah's decision to keep the moment of death a secret.
religiously, a man's repentance and du'aa for forgiveness is acceptable until he/she sees the Angel of Death. this makes him to at least think about leading a pious life. once you know your 'end', this door for repentance will be closed until the death time. this means the incentive to live a pious life will be compromised.
if humans are told about his/her time to depart from this world, he/she will definitely defer his repentance until such time when death process starts.
We know of birth (not ours) of a child few months ahead of time. What if such information with certainty was available to us few months ahead of time for death also?
I know that in case of capital punishment or terminal illness, we are very often aware of the end few months in advance, but those are rare cases. I am talking about life and death in general and knowing about the death of all the individuals, well ahead of time.
We can discuss the logistics of how could that be known, but I am more interested in the consequences.
Phir insaan shayad waqt se pehle hi mrr jata isi khauf se!! :(
Other way round, kuch log shayad khush bhi hotay ke unhe maafi talafi ka mauqa mil jata aur janay se pehle do chaar nek kaam bhi ker dete!! :)
^ I agree with you philosophy. I think that if it did not have the mystery of "when the end would come" associated with it, the death would be less frightening or sad.
Let's say that we knew that an individual will stop to exist at the age of 80, no matter what - life would be simpler with little crime and unrest.
But if it was happening for centuries and centuries, then people would calm down and take is as a fact of life. After all, when one hits 90 for instance, that person knows that his time is almost up, so its not that he or she just gives up. In fact as we speak, we all believe that its very possible that we are not going to see our 100th birthday. Are we panicking? No, right?
do you think it would be easier to deal with and more comprehensible?
Yes, it would be lot more easier then, all of us would know when to do right, when to do wrong, when to feast, when to kill and then when to repent. so game and curiosity over and just a simple life..
The problem with knowing when death arrives is that humans will be able to cheat the system.
Since to repent before death comes to us, will wipe out our sins ...
But if the time of death is known then people may plan to be proper jahils until one month is left of their lives repent and get saved
So to counter this the Mercy that is in place that promises to wipe out sins on repentance, will be lifted and people will be subjected to the strength of their merits alone.
The idea of people knowing when their death comes is already entertained in Greek mythology and philosophy - the Cyclops knew when he died. And to be honest most pious people get strong signs before death actually comes to them, but it comes unawares to the evil people. And it will be no different to how people react with terminal illnesses ... They either become religious and pray more or they party more ...
The problem with knowing when death arrives is that humans will be able to cheat the system.
Since to repent before death comes to us, will wipe out our sins ...
But if the time of death is known then people may plan to be proper jahils until one month is left of their lives repent and get saved
So to counter this the Mercy that is in place that promises to wipe out sins on repentance, will be lifted and people will be subjected to the strength of their merits alone.
The idea of people knowing when their death comes is already entertained in Greek mythology and philosophy - the Cyclops knew when he died. And to be honest most pious people get strong signs before death actually comes to them, but it comes unawares to the evil people. And it will be no different to how people react with terminal illnesses ... They either become religious and pray more or they party more ...
maybe, then these rules would have been different.
maybe, then these rules would have been different.
Yes that is what I am saying ...
That if we think - knowing our time of death is "better" we should think again ... for the doors to repentance will be tightened if we knew the time of our death.
We should have a good opinion of Allah (SWT) - the reason why we don't know our time of death is a Mercy not a burden ...
I kind of disagree that people would die before their death. We human being had a strong desire to live, that is enough to make us learn to live whatever we know about our death.
On one thought, how a person, living a luxurious life would desire to live anymore once he gets disabled by arms or legs in some accident?
On second thought, he would learn to live in situation he used to think was impossible to live in.
That if we think - knowing our time of death is "better" we should think again ... for the doors to repentance will be tightened if we knew the time of our death.
We should have a good opinion of Allah (SWT) - the reason why we don't know our time of death is a Mercy not a burden ...
And, isn’t it an interesting contradiction that, we would die before the time we are destined to die, if we know the time of our death?
And, isn’t it an interesting contradiction that, we would die before the time we are destined to die, if we know the time of our death?
People who don't want to leave this world to see their Lord - I admit it must be heartbreaking for them to hear news of their death ... We should deal with the question everyday ... "Am I ready to see my Lord? If not how can I get ready"
Those people would not have changed their state upon hearing the news … if they were good they would still be good and if they were bad they would still be bad …
We need to behave as though "we are going to die the next moment" that way each moment we live - we appreciate the gift of life and that way having news of our death will make no difference.
I want to add a non religious aspect to the discussion here.
Let's assume that we were to only live till eighty, a hard universal fact for every human ever.
I believe that people would be more productive. They would be getting married earlier, higher education programs would be of shorter length and people would be becoming doctors and engineers at younger age. There might be less greed in the world and more vision of doing something to help coming generations.
Legal system might be different. First of all, there might be less crimes (because of less greed maybe). Second, we would be more of an instance justice society as giving long term imprisonment to older folks would be meaningless, which means that our punishments would be harsher (result of instance justice), which would result in less crimes.
Medical advancement would be there, but people would be more focused towards quality of life vs quantity (living longer).
Of course having to live till specific age coded into human DNA, vs just developing some sign into your body nine months (this could be any number) in advance are two different things and would result in two distinct societies. I just thought that it would be easier for nature to develop a DNA code to halt the process of life at an exact time (auto shut off), then to show us a sign in advance - and that is why I used former hypothetical scenario in my previous post
Humans are resilient and I think with time they would come to terms with it but people would still fear the inevitable. They would want that one second extra to cheat death. Knowing or not knowing the time of death, most would leave unsatisfied.
