Living & Dying

Talk by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - 3 March 2009 - 56 mins 41 secs

In this talk, the sheikh discusses God's Divine Attributes as the Living (al-Hayy) and the Giver of Life (al-Muhyi), and how they relate to mankind. Although of course we only do so through Him and by His Mercy, we can if we choose attempt to conform ourselves to these Divine Qualities as far as our limited nature allows. The sacred law (shar'iah) is a means to do this; the ethical system enjoined by God through it is based firstly on His Name of al-Muhyi (the Giver of Life), so that the right to life (of all categories of creation) is one of its fundamental principles. Another means is prayer: as the sheikh reminds us, the verb in the adhan (call to prayer) normally translated as 'come to' (prayer/success) actually has the root meaning to be or come alive. However, the modern world has manifested an excessive attachment to this quality and the life of this world - with the paradoxical but clear effect of actually bringing about its opposite. In other words, in our longing for life in the limited modern sense, mankind now more frequently manifests the Divine Quality of al-Mumit (Bringer of Death), but a disproportionate and misguided fashion. The sheikh discusses some means to overcome this, and perceive our journey through this world in the true light. It is not from life to death as materialist philosophies assume, but just the opposite: from the dead matter of this world from which we are given temporary physical form, to the world which God calls in the Qur'an the truly living (al-Hayawan, i.e. al-Akhira)

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