In the Qur'an, God discloses a secret about death, which is unknown to many people – what a dying person actually experiences is not what other people outwardly observe. God tells us in the Qur'an as follows:
| Why then, when death reaches his throat and you are at that moment looking on - and We are nearer him than you but you cannot see. (Surat al-Waqi'a: 83-85) | ||
Another secret God reveals about death is the great terror and agony disbelievers experience at the moment of death. The people around are unlikely to witness this terror. God relates this fact in His verses as follows:
| Who could do greater wrong than someone who invents lies against God or denies His Signs, or who says, 'It has been revealed to me,' when nothing has been revealed to him, or someone who says, 'I will send down the same as God has sent down'? If you could only see the wrongdoers in the throes of death when the angels are stretching out their hands, saying, 'Disgorge your own selves! Today you will be repaid with the punishment of humiliation for saying something other than the truth about God, and being arrogant about His Signs.' (Surat al-An'am: 93) Do not let their wealth and their children impress you. Through them, God merely wants to punish them during their life in the world, and for them to expire while they are disbelievers. (Surat at-Tawba: 85) | ||
In accordance with this secret revealed in the Qur'an, a disbeliever may seem to have peacefully died in his bed. It may seem to the people around as if he had by no means gone through any pain or suffering in the course of death, but that his eyes had just closed. However, God informs us that a disbeliever feels a deep agony. How angels take disbelievers in death is explained in the Qur'an as follows:
| How will it be when the angels take them in death, beating their faces and their backs? That is because they followed what angers God and hated what is pleasing to Him. So He made their actions come to nothing. (Surah Muhammad: 27-28) If only you could see when the angels take back those who were disbelievers at their death, beating their faces and their backs: 'Taste the punishment of the Burning! That is for what you did. God does not wrong His servants.' (Surat al-Anfal: 50-51) | ||
Contrary to this trying death of disbelievers, believers experience a very easy death. For example, a believer who fought in a battle next to the prophet and was stabbed with a dagger, relieved from all forms of fear, experiences a peaceful moment of death. As God informs in the verse, believers' souls will be taken in a state of purity and they will be welcomed by angels with greetings and good news. God has described the death of believers as follows:
| ... Those the angels take in a virtuous state. They say, 'Peace be upon you! Enter the Garden for hat you did.' (Surat an-Nahl: 32) | ||
