A person may have premonitions about his imminent death
Fatwa No: 312019

Question

My mom told me that one of her grandmothers died while saying that she was going to die that day and that she died that very same day while supplicating. Can this story be believed. Please answer my question directly because I am a bit confused about the links to various fatwas that u have sent previously.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

No human being knows when he would die because this is a matter of the Unseen of which Allaah has kept the knowledge to Himself. It has been narrated on the authority of ʻAbdullaah ibn ʻUmar that the Prophet said, "The keys of the Unseen are five." He then recited the verse that reads (what means): {Indeed, Allaah (alone) has knowledge of the Hour and sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allaah is Knowing and Acquainted.} [Quran 31:34]" [Al-Bukhari]

However, a person may have a feeling or experience some sort of a premonition of his own death shortly before his death. This is not the case with each and every person. Some may have a premonition that they will soon die and inform others of it but continue to live. Sometimes such premonitions of death are mere illusions or the work of the Devil with the aim of instilling fear within the person's heart or the like.

Such premonitions of one's death may be based on a dream about imminent death, but not the exact time of his death. ʻUmar said, "I saw in a dream that a cock pecked me thrice, and I feel that it means that my death is near..."

Allaah knows best.

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