An appointed hour?
There are two kinds of explanations for the same event in life. One tells us how it happens. The other tells us why it happens. Between these two lies the mystery of human existence, where science describes the visible and faith explains the invisible. Death is perhaps the clearest place where these two languages (science and faith) meet. Science can trace every heartbeat, every molecule, and every cell that stops working, but it still stands silent before the moment itself, the precise instant when life leaves the body. That instant belongs not to laboratories or equations, but to the divine.
Science has made extraordinary progress in understanding life and death. It tells us that death occurs when the organs that sustain life, the heart, lungs, and brain, cease to function irreversibly. It explains the processes that lead to that failure: the lack of oxygen, the breakdown of energy in cells, the collapse of the body’s electrical communication. Medical science can even predict that death is near by observing certain patterns. But what it cannot predict is when and where that moment will strike. A healthy man can die in his sleep, and another can survive after his heart stops for several minutes. Science studies the mechanism, but it cannot unlock the mystery of timing.
In the human body, every breath and every heartbeat depends on delicate systems of chemistry and physics. The brain needs a constant flow of oxygen; the cells need glucose; the heart must contract in rhythm. If one link breaks, the chain of life collapses. In medical terms, we call it cardiac arrest, stroke, or organ failure. Yet even in the most controlled medical environment, doctors can only describe the sequence, not the decree. The instruments can show the means, not the will behind them. The scientist can say what has happened; faith says it was meant to happen.
In Islam, death is not a random event nor an accident of biology. It is a part of the written design of existence. The Qur’an says, “No soul can die except by Allah’s permission, at a term appointed.” (3:145). Every soul’s time, its beginning and its end, is already written in the Lauh-i-Mahfuz. What appears to us as sudden or accidental is only sudden in human eyes; it is scheduled in divine wisdom. A car crash, a heart attack, or even a peaceful death in old age, all arrive exactly when they are destined to arrive. Science may record the immediate cause, but the ultimate cause lies with the One who gives and takes life.
This does not make science and faith enemies. In fact, they complete each other. Science studies the material patterns that God himself placed in nature. It looks at creation through observation; faith looks at it through revelation. The Qur’an repeatedly calls believers to reflect upon the signs in creation: the stars, the alternation of night and day, the creation of life from a drop of fluid, and the return of all things to their lord. Science is one of those reflections, a form of understanding the rules by which life operates. But the rules themselves were made by the same creator who commands, “Be,” and it is.
A believer of both knowledge and faith finds peace in this balance. When a disease strikes, he seeks medicine, because that is part of his duty to preserve life. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ taught that for every disease there is a cure. That is the scientific effort. But the same believer also knows that healing, and life itself, ultimately come from God. Doctors, hospitals, and drugs are means, not masters. When all means fail, the decree takes over. When they succeed, it is still by his will. In this way, science and faith are not opposing explanations, but two levels of the same truth: one horizontal, one vertical.
Modern medicine sometimes gives the illusion of control over life. We transplant hearts, replace joints, and extend lifespans with machines. Yet, despite all progress, death has never been delayed by a single moment beyond its destined hour. When that moment comes, it does not knock, it simply arrives. This realization humbles the human mind, reminding it that not everything measurable is explainable. The Qur’an captures it precisely: “When their appointed time comes, they can neither delay it by a single moment, nor can they advance it.” (16:61). Science measures the seconds; God commands the moment.
Accidental deaths often disturb people most because they appear unjust or premature. A young life cut short by an accident seems to violate the logic of nature. But the spiritual lens tells another story. The accident is only the visible vehicle; the decree is the unseen driver. What science calls coincidence, faith calls purpose. What we call misfortune, the divine may call completion. Each soul departs neither early nor late, it departs when its purpose on earth is fulfilled, even if the world does not understand that purpose.
When scientists study death, they often speak about the loss of function. But for faith, death is not an end, it is a transition. The Qur’an describes it as a meeting with the creator, a return to the source of life itself. Science studies what happens to the body; faith speaks of what happens to the soul. Both are true in their domains. The body returns to dust, following the laws of biology. The soul returns to its maker, following the promise of eternity. Between these two understandings lies the full picture of human existence, physical and spiritual, seen and unseen.
The harmony between science and faith also teaches humility. Science tells us that every cell in our body obeys laws, chemistry, physics, genetics, and yet, no scientist has ever created life from nothing. Faith tells us that the one who set those laws also holds the key to life and death. We can study his signs, but we cannot overrule his will. To recognize this is not to reject science but to ground it in reverence. Knowledge without humility becomes arrogance; humility without knowledge becomes blindness. True wisdom is walking the middle path, to know deeply, but to submit gracefully.
Science continues to explore how we live and how we die. It should. The Qur’an itself honors the pursuit of knowledge. But every discovery that explains the mechanism only magnifies the majesty of the designer. Every heartbeat that machine measures is still a heartbeat permitted to occur. Every recovery that doctors celebrate is still a mercy granted. And every final breath, no matter where or when, leaves exactly as it was destined to leave.
So yes, science explains the means. It maps the process, defines the pattern, and measures the sequence. But the divine decree decides the time. That time does not bend to our machines, our medicines, or our fear. It is fixed in a wisdom that precedes the creation itself.
By : Dr. Ashraf Bhat
Author is a teacher and researcher based in Gowhar Pora Chadoora J&K
