Send to your grave before you get there – al Mulk

My mum said the other night, sometimes when we plan a trip abroad, we figure out exactly where we want to be, how our rooms should be, how we would travel and especially what we should take with us. If we’re travelling with young children and plan to visit somewhere for a long duration, then we sometimes even cargo some of their things over beforehand – mostly when we know we might not get the same quality items there. It doesn’t even have to be trips abroad, even within the same country, we make sure we know where the shops are, if we’ll hire a car or take our own or use trains. All in pursuit of a comfortable stay at our destination. The more organised we are, the more comfortable we hope the trip will be. At this point I was thinking why is she telling me all this, I have no trips planned. She then said, “Surah al- Mulk is that preparation you make and send to your graves before you get there!”

Ok, so she got my attention. And I thought I’ll share with you to get your attention. How true an analogy and how very little we plan for a stay that will be very long!?

Couple of months ago, at a Jummah khutbah, it was said, how, many of the blessed and loved slaves of Allah have been in their graves for hundreds of years now, an example of Anas bin Malik (ra) was given, that he lived a very long life, a hundred plus years, yet his time in the grave has been longer, over 1300 years. This was no ordinary man, he was a blessed companion, who committed his life to Islam. Now imagine me, imagine yourself, in the grave for that long or even longer, but do we have the same good deeds he accumulated?

It was narrated that ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood said:

“Whoever reads Tabaarak alladhee, bi yadihi’l-mulk [surah al-Mulk] every night, Allah will protect him from the torment of the grave. At the time of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم we used to call it al-maani’ah (that which protects). In the Book of Allah it is a surah which, whoever recites it every night has done very well.”

(al-Nasaa’i, 6/179)

(Pictured Mus’haf is the Quran Translation by MAS Abdul Haleem, details of where you can purchase it are *here )

There are many more narrations about the virtues of reciting Surah al-Mulk, lets acquaint ourselves with them and make this surah a part of our daily lives. Have you read my post ‘Project Surah Mulk: Memorise it!‘ about memorising surah Mulk over 30 days, find it here.

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