The Imam With A Beautiful End

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!

The Prophet Muhammad (saw) said,

 "If Allah loves a servant, he will sweeten him". The Companions asked, "What does sweeten him mean?" The Prophet (saw) replied, "It means that Allah will beautify his actions before he dies, and make him die a beautiful death."

In another Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad (saw) said,

"If Allah loves a servant, He puts him through trials."

Put the two Ahadith together - Allah loves those who go through trials and are patient. 

There was an Imam of a mosque in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. He was from Afghanistan and did not have much wealth. He was very simple and humble. 

In the mosque, they used to rotate between Imams. This Imam was fourth in the rotation. Because he was fourth in the line, he would never really get a chance to lead the prayers.

Once, it was the fourth day of Ramadan. One of the Muslims was late for Fajr that morning. When he reached the masjid, he realised that the congregation had already started their first rakat. They were all in sujood, and the fourth Imam was the one who was leading the prayer.

The first three Imams were not present, so the fourth one had to lead the prayer. The Muslim who came late did his wudu, and when he came to stand in line, he realised that the people had been in sujood for longer than usual. 

The man looked closely at the Imam, and saw that he was slouching a little whilst in sajda. He came closer to him, and saw that the Imam had died. 

Subhanallah, Allah had taken away the soul of the Imam whilst he had been in sajda! 

If Allah loves a servant, he tests them, and if he loves a servant, He beautifies their end.

This story was told by Shaikh Bilal Assad, in one of his speeches.