A journalist once interviewed a terminally ill woman and tried to ask her in the most delicate manner: "What is it like to wake up each morning knowing that you are dying?"
She replied: "What is it like to wake up every morning and pretend you are not?"
Fact is, death is often the last thing on our minds when we wake up, or go about the rest of our day. A person cannot truly realise that death surrounds them, and awaits them at every corner and still live a life of disobedience.
A reminder to myself first, and to everyone else who reads this: Death is real, and imminent. Until then, we must take every opportunity to perfect our taqwa to the highest degree. An interesting categorisation of the types of taqwa I came across recently from Allamah Majlisi says that there are four types of Taqwa:
Wara at'ta'beeri - abstaining from the prohibited things.
Wara as-saaliheen - abstaining from doubtful things so as to avoid committing haraam acts.
Wara al-muttaqin - abstaining from permissible things so that one is absolutely protected from haraam; and
Wara as-saadiqeen - avoiding everything that is not religious so that precious time is not wasted in useless acts, even though there may be no risk of committing a sin.
May Allah inspire us towards perfect and complete taqwa - immunity from all sin and time wastage.
