|
|
|
LIFE AFTER DEATH
The question whether there is a life after death does not fall under
the jurisdiction of science as science is concerned only with
classification and analysis of sense data. Moreover, man has been busy
with scientific enquiries and research, in the modern sense of term,
only for the last few centuries, while he has been familiar with the
concept of life after death since times immemorial. All the prophets of
God called their people to worship God and to believe in life after
death. They laid so much emphasis on the belief in life after death
that ever a slight doubt in it meant denying God and made all other
beliefs meaningless. The very fact that all the prophets of God have
dealt with this metaphysical question of life after death so
confidently and so uniformly - the gap between their ages being
thousands of years- goes to prove that the source of their knowledge of
life after death as proclaimed by them all, was the same, i.e., Divine
revelation. We also know that these prophets of God were greatly
opposed by their people, mainly on the issue of life after death as
their people thought it impossible. But is spite of opposition the
prophets won so many sincere followers. The question arises what made
those followers forsake the established beliefs, traditions and customs
of their forefathers notwithstanding the risk of being totally
alienated from their own community? The simple answer is: they made use
of their faculties of mind and heart and realized the truth. Did they
realize the truth through perceptual consciousness? Not so, as
perceptual experience of life after death is impossible. Actually God
has given man besides perceptual consciousness, rational, aesthetic and
moral consciousness too. It is this consciousness that guides man
regarding realities that cannot be verified through sensory data. That
is why all the prophets of God while calling people to believe in God
and life after death, appeal to the aesthetic, moral and rational
consciousness of man. For example, when the idolaters of Makkah denied
even the possibility of life after death, the Quran exposed the
weakness of their stand by advancing very logical and rational
arguments in support of it:
And
he has coined for us a similitude, and has forgotten the fact of his
creation, saying: who will revive these bones when they have rotten
away?
Say:
He will revive them who produced them at the first, for He is the
knower of every creation. Who has appointed for you fire from the green
tree, and behold! you kindle from it. Is not He who created the heavens
and the earth, able to create the like of them? yes, and he is indeed
the Supreme Creator, the All-knowing. (36:78-81)
Another occasion the Quran very clearly say that the disbelievers have
no sound basis for their denial of life after death. It is based on
pure conjectures:
They
say, 'There is nothing but our present life; we die, and we live, and
nothing but Time destroys us'. Of that they have no knowledge; they
merely conjecture. And when our revelations are recited to them, their
only argument is that they say, 'Bring us our fathers, if you speak
truly.' (45:24-25)
Surely God will raise all the dead. But God has His own plan of things,
A day will come when the whole universe will be destroyed and then
again the dead will be resurrected to stand before God. That day will
be the beginning of the life that will never end, and that Day every
person will be rewarded by God according to his or her good or evil
deed.
The explanation that the Quran gives about the necessity of life after
death is what moral consciousness of man demands. Actually if there is
no life after death, the very belief in God becomes irrelevant or even
if one believes in God, that would be an unjust and indifferent God:
having once created man not concerned with his fate. Surely, God is
just. He will punish the tyrants whose crimes are beyond count; having
killed hundreds of innocent persons, created great corruptions in the
society, enslaved numerous persons to serve their whims etc.. Man
having a very short span of life in this world, and this physical world
too being not eternal, punishments or rewards equal to the evil or
noble deeds or persons are not possible here. The Quran very
emphatically states that the Day of Judgement must come and God will
decide about the fate of each soul according to his or her record of
deeds:
Those
who disbelieve say: The Hour will never come unto us. Say: Nay, by my
Lord, but it is coming unto you surely. (He is) the Knower of the
Unseen. Not an atom's weight, or less than that or greater, escapes Him
in the heavens or in the earth, but it is in a clear Record. That He
may reward those who believe and do good works. For them is pardon and
a rich provision. But those who strive against our revelations,
challenging (Us), theirs will be a painful doom of wrath. (34:3-5)
The Day of Resurrection will be the Day when God's attributes of
Justice and Mercy will be in full manifestation. God will shower His
mercy on those who suffered for His sake in the worldly life, believing
that an eternal bliss was awaiting them. But those who abused the
bounties of God, caring nothing for the life to come, will be in the
most miserable state. Drawing a comparison between them, the Quran says:
Is
he, then, to whom we have promised a goodly promise the fulfilment of
which he will meet, like the one whom We have provided with the good
things of this life, and then on the Day of Resurrection he will be of
those who will be brought arraigned before God?(28:61)
The Quran also states that this worldly life is a preparation for the
eternal life after death. But those who deny it becomes slaves of their
passions and desires, make fun of virtuous and God- conscious persons.
Such persons realize their folly only at the time of their death and
wish to be given a further chance in the world but in vain. Their
miserable state at the time of death, and the horror of the Day of
Judgement, and the eternal bliss guaranteed to the sincere believers
are very beautifully mentioned in the following verses of the Holy
Quran:
Until,
when death comes unto one of them, he says, 'My Lord send me back, that
I may do right in that which I have left behind!' But nay! It is but a
word that he speaks; and behind them is a barrier until the day when
they are raised. And when the Trumpet is blown there will be no kinship
among them that day, nor will they ask of one another. Then those whose
scales are heavy, they are successful And those whose scales are light
are those who lose their souls, in hell abiding, the fire burns their
faces and they are glum therein. (23:99104).
The belief in life after death not only guarantees success in the
Hereafter but also makes this world full of peace and happiness by
making individuals most responsible and dutiful in their activities.
Think of the people of Arabia. Gambling, wine, tribal feuds, plundering
and murdering were their main traits when they had no belief in life
after death. But as soon as they accepted the belief in the One God and
life after death they became the most disciplined nation of the world.
They gave up their vices, helped each other in hours of need, and
settled all their disputes on the basis of justice and equality.
Similarly the denial of life after death has its consequences not only
in the Hereafter but also in this world. When a nation as a whole
denies it, all kinds of evils and corruptions become rampant in that
society and ultimately it is destroyed. The Quran mentions the terrible
end of 'Aad, Thamud and the Pharaoh in some detail:
(The
tribes of) Thamud and 'Aad disbelieved in the judgement to come. As for
Thamud, they were destroyed by a fierce roaring wind, which He imposed
on them for seven long nights and eight long days so that you might see
the people laid prostrate in it as if they were the stumps of fallen
down pam trees.
Now
do you see remnant of them? Pharaoh likewise and those before him, and
the subverted cities. They committed errors and they rebelled against
the Messenger of their Lord, and He seized them with a surpassing grip.
Lo, when the waters rose, We bore you in running ship that We might
make it a reminder for you and for heeding ears to hold. So when the
Trumpet is blown with a single blast and the earth and the mountains
are lifted up and crushed with a single blow, then on that day, the
Terror shall come to pass, and the heaven shall be split for upon that
day it shall be very frail. Then as for him who is given his book in
his right hand, he shall say 'Here take and read my book! Certainly I
thought that I should encounter my reckoning.' So he shall be in a
pleasing life in a lofty garden its clusters nigh to gather. 'Eat and
drink with wholesome appetite for that you did long ago, in the days
gone by.'
But
as for him who is given his book in his left hand, he shall say:' Would
that I had not been given my book and not known my reckoning! Would it
had been the end! My wealth had not availed me, my authority is gone
from me.' (69:4-39)
Thus there are very convincing reasons to believe in life after death. Firstly, all the prophets
of God have called their people to believe in it. Secondly, whenever a human
society is built on the basis of this belief, it has been the most
ideal and peaceful society, free of social and moral evils. Thirdly, history bears
witness that whenever this belief is rejected collectively by a group
of people in spite of the repeated warning of the prophet, the group as
a whole has been punished by God even in this world. Fourthly, moral, aesthetic
and rational faculties of man endorse the possibility of life after
death. Fifthly, God's
attributes of Justice and Mercy have no meaning if there is no life
after death.
|
|
Source:
WAMY SERIES On Islam
World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY)
|
|
|
Copyright © ourdeen.net All Rights Reserved.
For
more information contact: contact@ourdeen.net
|
