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Aafaaq Al-jaam'h
Mountain Top Newsletter
Death, be not proud: A Critical Study
An appraisal from an Islamic point of view
Submitted by Dr. Akhter Jamal
“Death, be not Proud” is one of many religious sonnets
by John Donne. The speaker begins the poem with a
stream of arguments to undermine man’s greatest fear and
apprehension of death. After all, who has not questioned
the nature of his or her existence after dying? People are
curious and tend to fear the unknown. Donne ends his
admonishment very boldly: “Death thou shalt die.” By
introducing the spoken voice, Donne broke new ground in
the realm of English poetry. Here, too, the poet seems to
have favored apostrophes and dramatic monologue that
lend immediacy and urgency to his rhetoric. In a typical
metaphysical approach, Donne castigates the power and
negates the dread of death.
Adept at religious concepts, Donne says: “rest and sleep
‘are pictures’ of death”, since “rest and sleep” refresh and
relieve us. Death, being something akin to sleep, would
certainly be more salubrious. The argument, however
spurious, re-enforces, his point of view and allays the fear
of death:
The argument is also something contradictory to Islamic
belief. The Hadith, thus, records:
“And you should know that if the nation gathered together
to benefit you, they will benefit you only with something
Allah has decreed for you. And if they gather together to
harm you, they will harm you only with something Allah has
decreed for you.”
“From sleep and rest, which but thy pictures be
much more pleasure– then, from thee much more
must flow.”
“O you who believe! Be not as those who
disbelieved and said of their brethren who went
abroad in the land or were fighting in the field: If
they had been (here) with us they would not have
died or been killed; that God may make it anguish
in their hearts. God gives life and causes death;
and God is the Seer of what you do.”
( Donne. Death, be not proud, 226)
The comparison made between sleep and death echo’s
the words of the holy Koran:
“ God receives (men’s) souls at the time of their
death, and that (soul), which dies not (yet) in
its sleep. He keeps that soul for which He has
ordained death and dismisses the rest till an
appointed time.”
( Musnad, Al-Imam, 307)
These words of the Prophet (PBUH) evidence Allah’s
control and power over everything. At the same time, it
disestablishes Donne’s opinion regarding anyone’s control
over death.
Furthermore, it is a known fact that death does live in
poison, war and sickness, but it would be wrong to say these
things have the power to kill a man by themselves except
without Allah’s order. Here I would like to quote a verse from
the holy Koran, which particularly relates to war and the
battlefield, where Allah says:
The words of Allah here establish the fact that only Allah,
the Creator, causes death. Battles and wars can never harm
a person unless Allah decreed it to be so.
“And it is He, Who makes night a covering for you,
and sleep repose, and makes day a resurrection.”
The words of the holy Koran substantiates that sleep,
indeed, alleviates stress and strain.
( 25. Al-Furqan: The Criterion, Verses: 47, 378)
Once again the holy Koran says:
“And We have created you in pairs, and have appointed
your sleep for repose, and have appointed the night as a
cloak and have appointed the day for livelihood.”
( 78. An-Naba: The Tidings, Verses: 8-11, 603)
The holy sonnet X, thus, illustrates quite a few mystical and
oriental concepts that run parallel to Islamic views.
Some of the thoughts, however, related with Christianity are
contradictory to Islamic belief. In the opinion of the speaker,
death is merely functionary: “a slave to fate, chance, kings
and desperate men”. Furthermore, the speaker argues that its
habitat is amongst “poison, war and sickness”. Here it could
be noted that the arguments mentioned above run contrary
to Islamic views. It’s pertinent to note here that all these things
are the creation of God. Hence, these things are but slaves
of the Maker, Allah. In the holy Koran it has been said that
nothing can harm or kill a man without the order of Allah:
“He is the Omnipotent over His slaves. He sends
Guardians over you until, when death comes to
one of you, Our messengers receive him, and they
neglect not. Then they are restored to God, their
Lord, the Just. Surely His is the Judgment. And He
is the most Swift of reckoners.”
(6. Al-An’am: Cattle, Verses: 61-62, 156)
SUBMITTED BY:
Mr. MOHSIN KHAN
Seminar by
Dr. Akhtar Jamal
On Tuesday, 19th April 2011, Dr. Akhter Jamal
addressed a seminar organized by Academic Research
Center on a poem by John Donne, “Death be not
proud” It was “A Critical Study (An appraisal from an
Islamic Point of View)”. Dr. Jamal said, “John Donne
seems to be very close to Islam by writing such a poem.”
He thematically explained the poem from an Islamic
point of view. He said, “Before Islam, there was darkness
and with the advent of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), a
renaissance began.” He focused on the Islamic concept
of death; that death is a transfer of the soul from the
mortal world to the immortal world. He said, “Death is
made of fear and unknown things. What will happen
hereafter, nobody knows.” Dr. Jamal pointed out the
verses of Donne’s poem, such as, “Rest and sleep are
pictures of death”, which realized the Islamic point of
view of death.
(3. Aal Imran: The Family of Imran, Verse: 156, 98)
(39. Az-Zumar: The Troops, Verse: 42, 476)
It therefore becomes clear that during sleep the soul
leaves the body and remains in the possession of Allah. The
soul returns to the body by Allah’s bidding, unless Allah has
‘ordained death’ for that person.
With regard to sleep being a state of calm and comfort,
the holy Koran says:
A number of seminars
were presented since
our last publication.
Here follows a
synopsis of two of
the seminars
The last two lines of the sonnet are important from a
comparative Islam-Christian point of view:
“One short sleep passed, we wake eternally, And
death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.”
(Donne. Death, be not proud, 226)
By using the technique of personification Donne puts
“Death” on the same level as himself thereby demonstrating
that death is something mortal and is, therefore, neither
alarming nor frightening.
In Islam as well as in Christianity, physical death serves
as a portal to eternity. Hence, the Arabic word inteqal does
not imply death. It refers to munteqal. It means, in essence,
that when a man dies he is transferred from the transient to
the eternal world. After that, there is no death. It is important
to note that the concluding phrase is of utmost importance
from an Islamic point of view: on the day of Judgment, that
is, yaumul qiyama, Allah will judge everyone and decide his
fate. A virtuous person will enter heaven and an evil one
will be thrown to into hell. After this, as per the bidding of
Allah, death shall be brought in the shape of a ram. Allah
will then address: “O, dwellers of heaven, do you recognize
this?” and they will reply: “Yes, we do”. Similarly, Allah
will address: “O dwellers of hell, do you recognize this?”
And they will answer: “Yes we do”. Finally, as per Allah’s
command, death shall be slaughtered on the borders of
heaven and hell. Allah will declare: “now there is eternal life
for both: the virtuous and the evil”. Thus records the Hadith:
“Death will be brought in the shape of a ram and made
to stand between heaven and hell. Then, it is said: O people
of paradise, they will crane their necks and look, and then it
is said: O people of hell, they will crane their necks and look,
and feel that relief has come. Then death is sacrificed, and it
is said: immortality no death.”
( Al- Albani, Sahih Sunah, Al-Tirmithi, 419)
To conclude the paper I would like draw, here, the
parallel between the hadith and the holy sonnet 10, death
which destroys the body becomes embodied and meets the
same fate it dispenses to others.
Seminar by
Dr. Atef Mustafa Mofeleh Jalubneh
Pushing a step forward, the Academic Research
Center organized a seminar on Tuesday, 3/5/ 2011.
One of the faculty members, Dr. Atef Mustafa Mofeleh
Jalabneh addressed the seminar on the topic of “Current
Trends in Linguistics From 1922-2011.” Pointing out the
major theories of language learning and teaching, he
said that from 1922 to 1957, there was a period of
structural linguistics. De Saussure defined linguistics
as a science and offered four dichotomies when
language is studied: signified vs signifier, syntagmatic vs
paradigmatic, synchronic vs diachronic, and lingua vs
parole. Another significant change occurred in the study
of language when Bloomfield wrote a book: “Language”
in 1933. He proposed the concept of Immediate
Constituent Analysis (IC). Due to shortcomings in this
concept, it was criticized by linguists. Then, in 1957
Noam Chomsky wrote a book “Syntactic Structure” and
introduced a new concept in the study of language, i.e.
‘Transformational Generative Grammar (TG)’. Dr. Atef
said: “Chomsky used synchronic linguistics. Synchronic
linguistics is the study of a language at a particular
time. Chomsky defined competence vs performance.
Chomsky focuses merely on competence or knowledge
of language. He cares about your intuition as a native
speaker.”
Dr. Atef focused on the syntax and defined the
fundaments and sub categorizations of sentence
structures.
The seminar was followed by a lively discussion
session with the audience. Dr. Hamad Aldosari,
Chairman of the English Department, Dr. Abdullah Al
Khatany, Director of the Academic Research Center
and a large number of teachers and students attended
the seminar.