The Angel of Death

Bawa meets the Angel of Death.  This is his mystical experience with the Angel of Death.

I saw that the Angel of Death had four faces; one face was black, one was the face of milk, one was the face of fire, the other face was looking at a tree all the time.

 I greeted him saying, “May the peace of God be with you.”  When I looked at him, I found that the whole world was within his eyes, every life was within his eyes.

When I looked at the face of milk, it was a beautiful face.  I looked at the face of fire, and it was burning like fire.  The black face was very dark, and the fourth face was turned towards the tree.  As the souls came toward him, he stretched his hand out and grabbed them.  There was a huge mountain of souls.

Then I spoke to the Angel of Death.  He said, “Look at my eyes.  The whole world is within my eyes.  I do the work given to me by Allah.  There is no soul that can escape my eyes, even if it is hiding under a stone.  No one can hide from me.  They cannot live any place where I cannot see.” 

I asked the Angel, “You are always looking toward this tree.  What are those lights?”

And he said, “All souls of all lives are on this tree.  As soon as a light stops twinkling, we know that a life is ending.  The same light that shines here also shines within each creation.  The light represents the light of each individual’s soul.  Within each person it is the soul, and here is the light.  As soon as the light fades here on the tree, it means the person’s allotted food and water in the world is over, and it is time for me to bring him back.  So I stretch my hand in his direction and summon him here.  I have to be looking at the tree every moment to see when a light stops blinking.  That is why I must keep a constant watch on this tree.”

“The souls of jinns are captured by my face of fire.  Evil beings are captured with my black face.  Those good people who have the benevolence of God, His thoughts, and His remembrance, I receive with my face of milk.  Like the newborn baby suckles milk so gently from the breast without any pain to the mother, I will gently draw the soul of those who are good.  I will draw them with the face of milk.”

“I am neither above or below.  You cannot say that I am in a particular place.  The world is within every human being, and all worlds can be seen within my eyes.  I realize everything that is within me.”

Then he motioned to me to go further and look, and I saw that the number of people going to heaven were few and the number of people going to hell were many.

Reference~To Die Before Death The Sufi Way of Life by Bawa Muhaiyaddeen