Selections from The Lives of Man

Selections from The Lives of Man

The Lives of Man

by Imam Abdallah Ibn Alawi Al-Haddad

The Lives of Man by Imam Abdallah Ibn Alawi Al-Haddad. Translated from the Arabic by Mostafa Al-Badawi. Editor's preface by Abdal Hakim Murad, London 1411 and Foreword by Shaykh Hasanayn Muhammad Makhluf, Formerly Grand Mufti of Egypt Member of the Senior Ulema Council. 

The Prologue bears the caption: The Way to Remember and Learn from the Lives of Man that Wane and Perish and consists of the following five chapters: 

1. The First Life: Life before conception.
2. The Second Life: Dunya –the Lower World, divided into: In the Womb, Youth, Maturity, Seniority, Decrepitude, Sickness and Death. 
3. The Third Life: The Intermediate Realm (barzakh), divided into: The torment of the Grave, How the Living may help the Dead, Visiting Graves. 
4. The Fourth Life: Judgment Day, divided into: The Balance and the Bridge, The Hawd, The Intercession. 
5. The Fire and the Garden, divided into: The Fire, The Garden with an Afterword captioned The Vision of God, and His Overwhelming Mercy.

The following is related on the authority of Anas ibn Malik, Allah is pleased with him: The Messenger of God, blessings and peace upon him said:

"For a newborn child until he reaches the age of discretion, his good deeds are written to the credit of his parents, while his bad deeds are written neither against him nor against his parents. Once he reaches the age of discretion and the pen begins to write [his acts], God the Exalted issues His command to the two angels who accompany him and guard and counsel him. 

When he reaches forty years in Islam, God gives him security from three [things]: madness, leprosy and vitiligo. 

When he reaches fifty, God makes his reckoning lighter

When he reaches sixty, God grants him to revert to Him as pleases Him.

When he reaches seventy, the inhabitants of Heaven love him

When he reaches eighty, God records his good acts and is lenient with his bad ones.

When he reaches ninety, God forgives him his bygone sins and those to come, allows him to intercede on behalf of his family, and he becomes God's prisoner on the earth .

Then should he be returned to the worst age, so that after having had knowledge he knows nothing, God continues to record as good acts for him those which he used to do knows nothing. God continues to record as good acts for him those which he used to do when he was well, and if he commits an evil act it is not recorded."

This hadith is mentioned by Shaykh Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Abil Qasim al Yamani among the forty hadith has collected regarding the forgiveness of sins that had gone by and sins to come.

A man dies in accordance with what he had lived in, and is resurrected in accordance with what he had died in. [Hadith]

When God wishes good for His servants, He wishes him up. They said: "How does He wish him up?" and he replied: "He blesses him with success in doing good before he dies."

And when a funeral procession once passed by him the Prophet, blessings and peace upon him, said: "Delivered or delivered from!" They asked: "O Messenger of God! What is delivered, and what is delivered from?" He replied: "God's believing bondsman is delivered from the hardship of the world and its harm into His mercy. As for a depraved person: people, town, trees and animals are delivered from him."

And he said to Abu Dharr: "O Abu Dharr! The world is the prison of the believer, the grave his place of safety, and the Garden his end. O Abu Dharr! The world is the Garden of the disbeliever, the grave is his torment, and the Fire his end."

Ibn Abbas, Allah is pleased with him, said: "If you see death nearing a man, give him good tidings, so that he may meet his Lord thinking well of Him, and if you see him well and alive, put fear into him."

Ali, is pleased with him, said: "When a believer dies the place where he used to pray weeps for him, and so does the place from which his deeds used to ascend to Heaven." Then he recited: The heaven and earth wept not for them. [44:29] 

And [the Prophet] said, blessings and peace upon him: "Someone whose death coincides with the close of Ramadan enters the Garden, and someone whose death coincides with the close of Arafat enters the Garden, and someone whose death coincides with the close of his charity enters the Garden."

And he said: "Someone who dies on a Thursday night or on a Friday is given protection against the torment of the grave, and shall arrive on the Day of Rising with the marks of the martyrs."