One Hundred And Fifty Lessons For Life

Lesson One Hundred Two: Worse Than Death

Imam Hasan Al-’Askari (a.s.) said:

خَيْرٌ مِنَ الْحَياةِ ما إذا فَقَدْتَهُ أَبْغَضْتَ الْحَياةَ! وَ شَرٌّ مِنَ الْمَوْتِ مَا إِذا نَزَلَ بِكَ أَحْبَبْتَ الْمَوْتَ!

Translation

Better than life is that which , if you lose it, you would hate life ! And worse than death is that which, if it happens to you, you would welcome death ![^1]

Brief Description

Some people think that the highest worth is the worth of this material life while there are a lot of things more valuable than it. There are some moments in life in which man wishes for death, and there are truths for which he sacrifices himself without hesitation.

The martyrs who lay down their lives for the sake of their religion and justice and other virtues are those who understand the deep truth in the above tradition. When they found life unpleasant and death a window to a wider world, as well as God’s satisfaction, they bade farewell to life and embraced death.

[^1]: Tuhaful Uqul, page 368