How People Die
One type of death is that of hearts. The Quran refers to those who are unkind and indifferent to the plight of others as dead, saying to the Prophet (PBUH): “You do not make the dead hear.” (Surah An-Naml, Verse 80)
Imam Ali (AS) says about one who is attached to the world that the world has made his heart die.
We also read in Nahj al-Balagha that those who see corruption and vice but show no reaction and are not even sad in heart are like dead among the living.
We can also have the death of a society. Just as a person who does not move and is indifferent to what happens around him is called a dead person, a society that does not grow and in which people are indifferent to corruption and vices is a dead society.
The Holy Quran says: “O owners of minds, for you in retaliation is life, in order that you be cautious.” (Verse 179 of Surah Al-Baqarah)
A society in which the rights of the oppressed cannot be upheld in the face of oppressor, is a dead society. So is a society in which there is no Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
Imam Ali (AS) says: “Real death is in the life of subjugation while real life is in dying as subjugators.” (Sermon 51 of Nahj al-Balagha)
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) also said in a Hadith that poverty is the big death.
So a society whose members are passive, indifferent and powerless is a dead one.
In Islam, the best kind of death is martyrdom on the path of God. The value that Islam attaches to martyrdom is not seen in any other religion or school of thought.
There are many verses in the Quran about the greatness of martyrs and important status of martyrdom. For example, God says in Verse 169 of Surah Al Imran: “Do not think of those slain for the cause of God as dead. They are alive with their Lord and receive sustenance from Him.”
According to Verse 74 of Surah An-Nisa: “Those who want to buy the life hereafter with this life should fight for the cause of God. We will give them a great reward whether they are killed or whether they are victorious.”
All great leaders of Islam were martyred in one way or another and the companions and devotees of our Imams (AS) have all loved to get martyred.
In the Battle of Karbala, when Imam Hussein (AS) asked his nephew what he thought about martyrdom on the path of God, the 13-year–old boy replied that it is sweeter than honey for him.
The Holy Prophet (PBUH) said that for every virtue there is a better one except for martyrdom because when a person is killed on the path of God, there is no virtue better than that.
It should also be noted that when a person remains on the path of an infallible leader without life’s sweet and bitter events causing him to deviate from the path, will die a martyr even if he is not killed.
Imam Ali (AS) says when one dies in his bed while he is steadfast with regard to the rights of God, the Prophet (PBUH) and the Infallible Imams (AS), he has died a martyr and his reward is with God.
