Renowned Mufti رَحْمَةُ اللهِ تَعَالٰی عَلَيْه added: Severity of agony is something else and grief & affliction of death is something different; everybody will experience the severity of agony of death but grief is for non-believers. (Tafseer-e-Na’eemi, vol. 7, pp. 582)

Listen to four blessed Ahadis about the agony of death

1.      Sayyiduna Hasan Basri عَـلَيْهِ رَحْـمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ الۡـقَـوِی has reported, the Greatest and Holiest Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم while talking about the agony of death stated, ‘This pain is equal to three hundred strikes of sword’.[1]

2.      The most Revered and Renowned Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم has stated, ‘The easiest death is like a thorny branch of a tree caught in the cotton. So, whenever the thorny branch is pulled out from the cotton, some cotton will tear of with it.’[2]

3.      The Blessed and Beloved Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم visited a patient and stated, ‘I know what he feels; every single vein in him has been separately affected by pain of death.’[3]

4.      Sayyiduna Makhool رَضِىَ اللهُ تَعَالٰی عَـنْهُ reported, the Beloved and Blessed Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم has stated, ‘If a single hair of the person undergoing the agony of the pangs of death (at the time of Naza’), is placed on those who are on the earth and sky, it will cause death to everyone with the commandment of Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ; because each and every hair is affected by the terrible unimaginable pain of the pangs of death and anything affected by this painful pang of death also dies.’[4]

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب           صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلٰى مُحَمَّد

Dear Islamic brothers! The state of agony of death and its severity is described in the blessed Ahadis shows that the dying person is subjected to the most awful and extremely intense, unimaginable pain. Ponder upon this; if a mosquito or a bug bites us, we keep rubbing that spot for a while and if we get a slight cut with a knife, we become restless, and moan for days whilst wrapped in bandage. Now ponder upon the attack by a sword; the wound will not just be a mere scratch but a sword-attack with full force can sometimes hack a body in two pieces, the head can be severed off the body; sometimes the leg can be severed off and sometimes the hand; the unbearable pain of just a single strike. No imagine the pain of 300 strikes of sword with full force? A Hadis states:

مُعَالَجَةُ مَلَكِ الۡمَوۡتِ اَشَدُّ مِنۡ اَلۡفِ ضربةٍ بِالسَّيۡفِ

‘Each pang of death is more severe than one thousand strikes (cuts) with a sword.’

(Kanz-ul-‘Ummal, Kitab-ul-Maut, vol. 15, pp. 240, Hadis 42183)

Description of death agonies

Sayyiduna Imam Muhammad Bin Muhammad Ghazali عَـلَـیۡـهِ رَحْـمَـةُ الـلّٰـهِ الۡـوَالِی has described death throes: Agony of death is that painful pang which directly hits the soul and encompassing all the parts of the body; this pang inflicts severe pain to even those internal parts which are set deep inside the body; death targets and affects the soul directly. Then this unbearable pain begins to spread and manifest itself in each and every artery, nerve, part and joint, being painfully torn out even from the root of every hair and the entire layer