Question

My question is related to death and is as follow: If a Muslim person dies a horrible death is that in anyway a punishment? For example; someone dies in a car accident or a bombing and his/her body becomes completely mutated; is this kind of death a punishment to that person? 

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Death by fire or by the other ways you mentioned in the question is not evidence that it is a punishment of Allah. Death of every living being is predetermined, as Allah Says (what means): {Every soul will taste death} [Quran 3:185].

The way of everyone's death has already been written. Sometimes a believer dies in a car accident and a non-believer dies while resting on his couch; the fate of a believer is Paradise while the fate of the other one is Hellfire.

The Prophet said:  "The death of a believer through a fire or under falling debris is martyrdom." Once he enquired, "Who do you consider to be a martyr?" They said: "O Allah's Prophet, he who is killed fighting for the cause of Allah." The Prophet said: "Martyrs are seven". Then he mentioned "among the seven categories the one who dies in fire and the one who dies under falling debris (in a disaster)." [Al Bukhari and Muslim]

No doubt, the one who dies in a fire becomes disfigured and the ribs are broken of the one who dies under falling debris and his limbs scatter even though they are considered among the martyrs. Sometimes, a person who is in Jihaad dies due to an explosion and the like; in spite of that, he is a martyr.

In short, what is being asked in the question is not evidence of the punishment of Allah, rather it might be a supernatural event and martyrdom. We beg Allah, The Exalted, to bestow upon us a good end of our lives.

Allah Knows best.

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb