All Muslims should prepare themselves for death by doing good deeds and abstaining from bad ones, and asking Allah to reward them and to avert all evils from them.
It is necessary to stress that death is the inevitable end of every living creature. As Muslims, we must recognize that all of us are born and will die; the importance and significance of this lies in our beliefs and in how we live and die. Muslims must realize that death is simply a passage from this life to the next life; thus they have to prepare themselves for that day.
Allah Almighty says: [Every soul will taste of death. And ye will be paid on the Day of Resurrection only that which ye have fairly earned. Whoso is removed from the Fire and is made to enter Paradise, he indeed is triumphant. The life of this world is but comfort of illusion](Aal `Imran 3:185).
Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, president of the Fiqh Council of North America, states the following: Allah is great and He has power to do all things. Keep your regular Prayers, read the Qur’an, seek Allah’s forgiveness, and recite the Kalimah of Shahadah (“La ilaha illa Allah”) as much as you can. Pray to Allah to take your life in such a way that you have full iman (faith) in Him and that your soul and tongue are engaged in His praise.
Prepare a will, if you have not done so already. Give instructions in your will to your relatives to have your burial in an Islamic manner. Upon death the body should be taken to a mortuary for washing and preparation. The burial should be done as soon as possible. The relatives or friends should make the necessary arrangements for the burial. As soon as the arrangements are done and the time for burial is given, two or three adult Muslim males should wash the body and then put on the shroud (kafan). The shroud for males consists of three pieces of white cloth: a loose sleeveless shirt, a lower garment to cover the lower part of the body, and a long sheet to cover the whole body and be fastened at the head and feet.
Before the burial, the Funeral Prayer should be done. The burial should be in a Muslim cemetery. If a Muslim cemetery is not available in your town, the arrangement should be made to take the body to the nearest town where a Muslim cemetery is available. In case this is not possible because of heavy expenses or the body’s condition, then the burial can be done in any general cemetery.
Also write in the will that your assets be distributed among your relatives according to the portions prescribed in the Islamic law of inheritance. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) has prepared a will kit to help in preparing an Islamic will.