Hazrat Amirul Momineen, Khalifatul Masih Vaa was asked about the authenticity of a hadith in which the Holy Prophetsa is reported to have said, “Do not harbour the wish to die!” The person also wrote that this hadith was not found in our Jamaat’s literature.
Huzooraa, in a letter dated 4 April 2019, gave the following reply:
“The hadith that you have referred to in your letter has been recorded in various books of hadith. Hazrat Imam Bukharirh and Hazrat Imam Muslimrh have also included it in their books. The precise wording of the hadith is as follows:
عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ رَضِيَ اللّٰهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لَا يَتَمَنَّيَنَّ أَحَدُكُمْ الْمَوْتَ مِنْ ضُرٍّ أَصَابَهُ فَإِنْ كَانَ لَا بُدَّ فَاعِلًا فَلْيَقُلْ اللّٰهُمَّ أَحْيِنِيْ مَا كَانَتِ الْحَيَاةُ خَيْرًا لِي وَتَوَفَّنِيْ إِذَا كَانَتْ الْوَفَاةُ خَيْرًا لِيْ
“Hazrat Anasra bin Malik narrates that the Holy Prophetsa said, ‘None of you should wish for death because a calamity has befallen them, but if a person cannot help doing so, they should say: “O Allah! Keep me alive as long as life is better for me, and let me die if death becomes better for me.’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Mardaa, Bab tamanni al-mareed al-maut)
“In the Jamaat’s literature, this hadith is mentioned in the commentary of Sahih al-Bukhari by Hazrat Syed Zainul Abidin Waliullah Shah Sahibra. I have also narrated this hadith during the Friday Sermon of 17 August 2012, stating that the Holy Prophetsa had said, ‘Let no man desire death.’ The reason for this is that if he is good, he may increase in good deeds and inherit the bounties of Allah the Exalted, and if he is wicked, he may be able to repent.”