A Sermon from the Dying to the Living

Basrah a prolific and profoundly spiritual worshipper whose fear of
the Hereafter caused him to become physicallyweak, and whose constant
crying made him skinny and sick. When he was on his deathbed, his
family gathered around hiim, and they all began to cry.
"Help me sit up." He said He addressed his father first: "O my father,
what is making you cry?"
"My son," began his father, "I remembered that I will lose you, and
that I will be alone after you die."
The worshipper then turned his gaze towards his mother and said, "O my
Mother, what is making you cry?"
"I am crying because I will soon have to taste the bitterness of
losing you," she said.
He then turned to his sister and asked, "what ismaking you cry?"
"Because I will soon lose out on your kindness andwill consequently
have todepend on others for help," she said.
Finally, he looked at his children and asked, "what is making you cry?"
"The prospect of hard and humiliating life of being orphans after you
die," they said. Now it was his trun to cry. "And what is making you
cry?"everyone asked.
"I am crying because I saw that each one of youcried for his or her
own self, and not for me, he said. Is there none among you who cries
for the long, hard journey I am about to embark upon, and the few
supplies (i.e. good deeds)that I have for it? Is therenone among you
who cries because I will be lying down in dirt? Is there none among
you who cries becuase I will be held accountable (andmight have to
endure punishment)? Is there none among you who cries because of when
I will stand before the Lord of all that exists (for judgement)?" He
then rolled over onto his face, when they tried to move him, they
realised that hehad just died.
Source: Al-Mawa'iz Wal Majalis