Telling a Dying Man about God
By Roshan, New Age Islam
29 January 2019
Mr. Wira had been suffering from cancer for several years. Then, one morning his condition suddenly took a turn for the worse and he was rushed to the hospital. There, doctors declared that his death was probably only a matter of a few days.
When Noshi, the son of Mr. Wira’s neighbour, heard about Mr. Wira’s condition, he thought that courtesy demanded that he go to the hospital to see him for possibly the last time. But he immediately shrugged the suggestion off. “The hospital’s so far and the traffic is terrible,” he thought to himself. “It’ll take two hours to get there! And I’ve got so much work today!”
Just then, Noshi’s mind turned to something he had read somewhere some time ago: that the last thought that a person thinks before he dies is of immense significance for him, determining his condition in the life after death. If your last thoughts are loving thoughts about God, it may be that God will bless you with a blissful future in the life after death. But, on the other hand, if your last thoughts are about things like wealth, power, sensual pleasures and other worldly attachments (which is likely to be the case if these are what you’ve spent your life chasing and if you’ve expelled God from your mind), your condition in the life after death may be miserable.
“Stop vacillating! Go at once to meet Mr. Wira and tell him to focus on God and to repeat His Name before it is too late”, a thought came into Noshi’s mind. “Tell him that this is the only thing that matters now. No one in Mr. Wira’s family will do this—they’ve so forgotten God that even in the hospital, where he’s dying, none them has even mentioned the word ‘God’ to him, not even once!”
There was nothing more important that anyone could do for Mr. Wira at this time than to tell him to focus his mind on God, and Noshi decided that he just had to do that. He rushed out of his house and headed for the hospital.
When he entered the ward where Mr. Wira had been admitted, Noshi could hardly believe his eyes. Mr. Wira, once a robust and handsome man, had been reduced to a pale and ugly skeleton! In spite of his condition, however, he recognised Noshi and managed to give him a hint of a smile.
There were half a dozen or so other people in the room—Mr. Wira’s wife and some of his friends. They were busy chatting about this and that in an effort to cheer Mr. Wira up.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get well soon,” one of Mr. Wira’s friends was telling him. “This is the best hospital in town, with top doctors.”
“I hear they use the latest techniques from the UK,” another friend added.
A third friend interrupted the conversation by reminiscing about a funny incident, hoping to get Mr. Wira to laugh. “Remember what a whale of a time we had at the party?”, he guffawed. “And the food was great!”
These were people who prided themselves on their ‘education’ and ‘jet-setting’ jobs. Noshi felt completely out of place in their company.
“This man is dying, and is this the sort of thing that he should be made to hear or think about in his last moments?” Noshi thought to himself, barely managing to control his irritation as the chatter continued. He was appalled at how not a single person in the room had even mentioned the word ‘God’ so far (it was almost an hour now)—just as he had suspected. Such was how completely they had excluded God from their minds—just like vast numbers of others like them who thought of themselves as ‘sophisticated’, ‘educated’, ‘scientific’ and ‘modern’.
After a while, most of Mr. Noshi’s friends departed. “Don’t worry, you’ll get well soon,” they said to him as they left. Mr. Wira’s wife accompanied them to the elevator.
This was just the moment Noshi was waiting for, in order to spend some time alone with Mr. Wira.
Noshi went up to Mr. Wira’s bed and took his hand in his. He stood silently for a while, gazing at Mr. Wira’s tired face.
Mr. Wira slowly nodded his head, conveying to Noshi that it was almost time for him to leave the world.
“Yes Uncle,” Noshi whispered. “You are going back to God soon.”
Noshi kept silent for some time as he stroked Mr. Wira’s limp hand.
“Now, Uncle,” Noshi resumed, determined to tell him exactly what he needed to. “Please listen very carefully. Focus all your thoughts only on God. Don’t let your mind go to matters of this world. Think only of God. Pray to Him—for His forgiveness, guidance and protection. Pray to Him to bless you with a smooth departure from this world. Keep repeating God’s Name. All this is the only thing that will help you now. It may make all the difference to you for your passage from this world and for your life after death.”
Mr. Wira listened to Noshi intently. Then, when Noshi had finished, he tilted his head a bit as if to indicate his agreement with what he had said.
Noshi had accomplished what he had come to do—to inform a dying man about God and to tell him that remembering God at this crucial hour was the only thing that mattered.
“May God bless you with what is best for you, Uncle,” Noshi whispered as he kissed Mr. Wira’s hand and made his way out of the room.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/telling-dying-man-god/d/117585
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