21:35 Al-Anbiyaa (The Prophets)

بل كل من عليها فان، ولهذا قال: { كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ ْ} وهذا يشمل سائر نفوس الخلائق، وإن هذا كأس لا بد من شربه وإن طال بالعبد المدى، وعمّر سنين، ولكن الله تعالى أوجد عباده في الدنيا، وأمرهم، ونهاهم، وابتلاهم بالخير والشر، بالغنى والفقر، والعز والذل والحياة والموت، فتنة منه تعالى ليبلوهم أيهم أحسن عملا، ومن يفتتن عند مواقع الفتن ومن ينجو، { وَإِلَيْنَا تُرْجَعُونَ ْ} فنجازيكم بأعمالكم، إن خيرا فخير، وإن شرا فشر { وَمَا رَبُّكَ بِظَلَّامٍ لِلْعَبِيدِ ْ} وهذه الآية، تدل على بطلان قول من يقول ببقاء الخضر، وأنه مخلد في الدنيا، فهو قول، لا دليل عليه، ومناقض للأدلة الشرعية.

ولهذا قال تعالى " كل نفس ذائقة الموت " وقد روي عن الشافعي - رحمه الله- أنه أنشد واستشهد بهذين البيتين: تمنى رجــــــال أن أمـوت وإن أمت فتلك سبيل لست فيها بأوحد فقل للذي يبغي خلاف الذي مضـى تهيأ لأخــرى مثلها فكأن قـد وقوله " ونبلوكم بالشر والخير فتنة " أي نختبركم بالمصائب تارة وبالنعم أخرى فننظر من يشكر ومن يكفر ومن يصبر ومن يقنط كما قال علي بن أبي طلحة عن ابن عباس " ونبلوكم " يقول نبتليكم " بالشر والخير فتنة " بالشدة والرخاء والصحة والسقم والغنى والفقر والحلال والحرام والطاعة والمعصية والهدى والضلال وقوله " وإلينا ترجعون " أي فنجازيكم بأعمالكم.

No One has been granted Immortality in this World

وَمَا جَعَلْنَا لِبَشَرٍ مِّن قَبْلِكَ

(And We granted not to any human being immortality before you;) means, O Muhammad.

الْخُلْدَ

(immortality) means, in this world. On the contrary,

كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍ - وَيَبْقَى وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلْـلِ وَالإِكْرَامِ

(Whatsoever is on it (the earth) will perish. And the Face of your Lord full of majesty and honor will remain forever.) 55:26-27.

أَفَإِيْن مِّتَّ

(then if you die) means, O Muhammad,

فَهُمُ الْخَـلِدُونَ

(would they live forever) means, they hope that they will live forever after you, but that will not happen; everything will pass away. So Allah says:

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَآئِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ

(Everyone is going to taste death,)

وَنَبْلُوكُم بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً

(and We shall test you with evil and with good by way of trial. ) Meaning, "We shall test you, sometimes with difficulties and sometimes with ease, to see who will give thanks and who will be ungrateful, who will have patience and who will despair." `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported from Ibn `Abbas:

وَنَبْلُوكُم

(and We shall test you) means, We will test you,

بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً

(with evil and with good by way of trial.) means, with difficulties and with times of prosperity, with health and sickness, with richness and poverty, with lawful and unlawful, obedience and sin, with guidance and misguidance.

وَإِلَيْنَا تُرْجَعُونَ

(And to Us you will be returned.) means, and We will requite you according to your deeds.

Every soul shall taste death in this world and We will try you We will test you with ill and good such as poverty and wealth sickness and health as an ordeal fitnatan an object denoting reason in other words for the purpose of seeing whether you will be patient and give thanks or not. And then unto Us you shall be brought back that We may requite you.

What is death?

Allah has said كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ 'Every soul has to taste death'. Here the word soul refers to the living things of the earth, who must all face death, but does not include the angels. There is a difference of opinion about whether the angels will also die or not on the Day of Judgment. Some say that every living thing will die, though momentarily, irrespective of whether they are of the earth or the skies. But others maintain that angels and hurs and ghilman of Paradise are excluded from this general rule. (Only God knows best) (Ruh ul-Ma` ani) Majority of the scholars believe that death is the departure of soul from the mortal human frame, while soul itself is a subtle ethereal living thing which is made of light and resides in human body just as fragrance resides in the rose. Ibn al-Qayyim has convincingly proved this point in his book. (Ruh ul-Ma` ani)

The term ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ means that every individual will feel the pain of death - 21:35, because considering the manner in which body and soul are conjoined together their separation should obviously entail some pain. There are some saintly persons who regard death as a deliverance from the trials and tribulations of the worldly life and a means of bringing them closer to their Supreme love, that is Allah. This pleasure does not negate the agony of death, because where the reward is high, a little pain is easily tolerated.

Worldly comforts and discomforts are a test

وَنَبْلُوكُم بِالشَّرِّ‌ وَالْخَيْرِ‌ فِتْنَةً

And We test you all through bad and good (situations) with a trial. - 21:35

It means that man is tested both by good things and by bad things. شَر (bad) includes unpleasant things such as illness, grief, pain, poverty etc. while خَیر (good) means desirable things, like good health, happiness, comfort and abundance. Man is subjected to these conditions in this world for test and the test is that he should show patience and endurance in the face of adversity and should offer thanks to Allah when his life is peaceful and comfortable. Wise men have said that, it is more difficult to be steadfast and consistent in offering thanks to Allah for His gifts than to persevere and show patience in difficult circumstances. Sayyidna ` Umar ؓ is reported to have said:

بُلینا بالضّراء فصبرنا و بلینا بالسّراء فلم نصبر (روح المعانی)

"We were tested by discomforts and We bore it with patience, but when we were tested by pleasures, we could not observe patience (i.e. we could not offer gratitude to Allah as was due) ". (Ruh ul-Ma'ani)

We have not assigned everlastingness to any mortal before thee. If thou diest, will they be everlasting? Every soul shall taste death. When a speck of truthfulness appears in someone's heart, the reality of passion for death will show its head from his spirit, for the promise of encounter is there. What sort of spirit would forget the promise of encounter? What sort of heart would seek from someplace else the repose that comes only from contemplating the Real? “The person of faith has no ease without encoun- tering his Lord.” O dervish, no good fortune is more precious than death. Those who have the religion place the crown of magnificence and generosity on their heads at the gate of death. Those who reap the fruit of the Shariah will find the sigil of good fortune at the door of death. Death is the sanctuary of “There is no god but God.” Death is the doorstep of the kingdom of the resurrection and the passageway to the visitors of the Real. Death is the center of the exaltation of the recognizers, the place anticipated by the spirits of the proximate. Death is the vanguard of solicitude and the prelude to endless kind favor. In the two worlds no one has the ease that the tawḤīd-voicer has in the grave with the One. He took along with him into the dust the banner of the submission and the kettledrum of faith in the resurrection. At the resurrection he will come out of the dust with the banner of the submission and the kettledrum of faith, just as kings enter into their own city. Dāwūd ṬāÌī was one of the great jurists in outward knowledge. His truthfulness was such that on the night he left this world a call came from the middle of heaven: “O folk of the earth! Surely Dāwūd ṬāÌī has stepped forth to his Lord, and He approves of him.” One of his disciples said that he saw Dāwūd in the throes of death in a ruined house, intense heat, fallen flat on the earth with his head on a piece of brick, reciting the Qur'an. He said to him, “O Dāwūd, what if you were to go out into the open air?” What would happen if you were kind to yourself for an hour and go out into the open air, so this heat would have less effect on you? Dāwūd said, “My friend, I want to do that, but I am ashamed before my Lord-that I should move my feet in that in which my soul is at ease.