We are all born to die. Death is the greatest and perhaps the most neglected reality of life. Some fleeting moments and then off we go. We may fall to the deception of this transience -- but not for long: the dawn of life relentlessly gives way to the dusk of death everyday only to herald the advent of a new dawn, a new life. The process continues and life goes on under the shadow of death. Inexorable is this practice, unrelenting this law.

And then one day, the glorious sun and the milky moon, the dazzling stars and the stormy seas –would also meet their fate:

At the time [O People!] when the sky is rent asunder, and when the stars are scattered, and when the seas burst forth, and when the graves are opened, at that time each one [of these people who have wronged their souls] will come to know what he has sent forward and what he has left behind. (82:1-5)

And then, as this verse says, man would be made to stand before his Lord. He who was vanquished by death would now forever be free from its claws: ‘Death shall be no more: death thou shalt die’.

But realize he should: Death he may have overcome – but now he would face a dilemma more critical: the blissful life of Paradise or the torment of Hell.

Before such a time comes, would that we all remember that on that fateful day:

The disbeliever would cry out: ‘Would that I were dust’. (78:40)