The normal commute to work was interrupted last Wednesday when one of my fellow passengers suddenly collapsed. I’ve witnessed people faint before in the cattle-truck like conditions when, by the time the morning train eases into a London terminal station, carriages are inevitably crammed with hot and giddy office workers. Unfortunately this time it was clear that the situation was much more serious and that the man had suffered a heart attack. Despite valiant efforts by the ambulance men who tried to resuscitate him, it was clear that he did not survive.

The man was not old. He could not have thought as he left his home in the morning that he would not see his family again. It brings to mind the Quranic verse:

The Almighty says, “When their specified time arrives, they cannot delay it for a single hour nor can they bring it forward,” (16:61)

and Prophetic hadith such as:

Ibn ‘Umar used to say, “In the evening, do not anticipate the morning, and in the morning do not anticipate the evening. Take from your health for your illness and from your life for your death.” [al-Bukhari]

What was interesting was the reaction of the decanted passengers, now waiting on the platform for the next over-crowded train. Other than the odd few who were rubber necking as the dead man was being wheeled away, the majority of the hundreds of fellow travellers contrived to ignore the life and death drama unfolding only a few yards away.

Perhaps it was a form of British stoicism or just a manifestation of a typical London self-centered reaction. Regular tube users are so used to disruption to services due to ‘a fatality on the line’ that the usual reaction now is exasperation at the delay to their journey and inevitable consequences for reaching that important appointment ten minutes late rather than any sympathy or moment of reflection. Within seconds of the announcement of the cancellation of the train, mobile phones were being dialled and emails were sent to offices and work places, “I’ll be late in to the office this morning – the train was cancelled ‘cos a man died – how inconvenient!”

I can’t help feeling that the tragic event should have triggered deeper thoughts and emotions rather than just be the fleeting topic of water-cooler conversations. It should at least remind us about the fragility of life; that we should be in this world as if a stranger or a traveller on the road. Although death is an inevitable and every day occurence, in modern society being reminded about mortality is often skirted. This seems to be one of the remaining taboos although we will all face this most fundamental of realities.

To God we belong, and to Him we shall return.