Question:
He asks about videos circulating on social media. In those videos people show CCTV footage of sudden deaths and say that the Angel of Death is seen taking the soul. They compile such videos and spread them as religious reminders. He asks about the authenticity of such things and what the Islamic view is.
Answer:
What happens is that people collect clips of sudden deaths. For example, a news reader sitting in a studio suddenly collapses while speaking, or someone dancing happily suddenly falls down and dies. Such unexpected deaths are captured on cameras and then compiled into videos.
These are then shown to people with the message: “Look, death can come at any moment, so live correctly.” If those videos show real events, there is no problem in using them as reminders. Even without showing videos we already say that death can come at any time. A person may die while eating, while sleeping, while speaking, while traveling, while celebrating. There are countless real incidents of sudden death.
When people see such a real event, it may make them reflect deeply. It may increase their awareness that death can come at any moment and that they must live with humility before Allah. In that sense there is no harm in mentioning such incidents.
But there is another side. Some people create fake videos using graphics or editing. Nowadays technology allows someone to create a scene showing a person suddenly dying even if it never actually happened. If someone fabricates such scenes and spreads them as real, that is falsehood. Islam does not need lies to promote its message.
There are already countless real examples of sudden death happening every day. Why invent false ones? If a fabricated video is later exposed as fake, the fear of death that the viewer felt may disappear and people will start mocking the message. Therefore, one must be careful. Real incidents can be mentioned and used as reminders, but fabrications and edited graphics should not be spread as if they were real.
Showing a real event may make people reflect on death and become more conscious of Allahﷻ . Even without video, scholars always remind people that death can occur anytime. So, if it is a real event, using it as a reminder is not necessarily wrong. Islam does not need lies to promote its message. There are already countless real examples of sudden death.
So, the rule is:
Real incidents → can be mentioned as reminders
Fake or edited videos → should not be spread
