DEATH IS NOT THE END

Every self will taste death. We test you with both good and evil as a trial. And you will be returned to Us. (Sura al-Anbiya': 35)

Death, which is certain to happen to all of us, is a very important fact in one's life. We can never know exactly what we will experience in an hour or even in the next moment. This being the case, it is obvious how wrong it would be to plan our lives based on events that may never happen. Death, on the other hand, is the only thing that is certain to happen. Only the recognition of this basic truth makes us understand that we must found our lives according to it. Death is also a part of the trial of man. God informs us in the Qur'an that He created death and life to try man:

He Who created death and life to test which of you is best in action. He is the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving. (Sura al-Mulk: 2)

Death is the end of merely the life of this world-thus the end of the trial-and the beginning of the next life. For this reason, believers have no fear of death. The thought of death does not distress them, because, every moment of their lives is spent in the pursuit of good deeds as preparation for the hereafter. For disbelievers, however, fear causes them great distress, because they consider it a complete annihilation. Thus, they avoid all thought of death. But it is futile. No soul can escape death when the predetermined time for it has come. This, in a verse, is stressed as follows:

Wherever you are, death will catch up with you, even if you are in impregnable fortresses...(Sura an-Nisa': 78)

To avoid the thought of death is to avoid the truth. As death will eventually catch up with man sooner or later, it is wise to conduct oneself with a mind busy with the thought of death. This is the rational disposition by which believers abide. Until death comes upon them, they engage in good deeds, as God commands us in the Qur'an:

And worship your Lord until what is Certain comes to you. (Sura al-Hijr: 99)

Thinking about death strengthens one's spirit and will. It prevents one's lower soul from leading him astray, by being lured through the false temptations of this world. It instils him with the resolve and determination to avoid all forms of behaviour unpleasing to God. It is for this reason that a believer must often think about death, never forgetting that all people, including himself, will someday die.

From the Qur'an, we learn what really happens to someone who dies, and what he or she actually experiences and feels. When we see someone dying, we only observe his "biological death." The truth is, however, the dying person, though in a totally different dimension, confronts the angels of death. If he is a disbeliever, his death causes him great pain. The angels of death, after extracting his soul, beat and torment him. A disbeliever's trauma is described as follows:

...If you could only see the wrongdoers in the throes of death when the angels are stretching out their hands, saying, "Disgorge your own selves! Today you will be repaid with the punishment of humiliation for saying something other than the truth about God, and being arrogant about His Signs." (Sura al-An'am: 93)

How will it be when the angels take them in death, beating their faces and their backs? That is because they followed what angers God and hated what is pleasing to Him. So He made their actions come to nothing. (Sura Muhammad: 27-28)

On the contrary, death promises great joy and bliss for the believers. Contrary to disbelievers, whose souls are torn from them violently, the souls of believers are drawn from them gently. (Sura an-Nazi'at: 2) This experience is similar to the case of the soul in sleep, which leaves the body and moves into a different dimension (Sura az-Zumar: 42).

Gardens of Eden which they enter, with rivers flowing under them, where they have whatever they desire. That is how God repays those who have fear for Him: those the angels take in a virtuous state. They say, "Peace be upon you! Enter Paradise for what you did."(Sura an-Nahl: 31-32)

BELIEF IN THE HEREAFTER

The life of the world is nothing but a game and a diversion. The abode of the hereafter-that is truly Life if they only knew. (Sura al-'Ankabut: 64)

Either reward or punishment awaits man at the end of the trial that is the life of this world. Those who engage in good deeds, and have faith in God, earn the good pleasure of God, and are rewarded with an eternal Paradise. The wicked, those who deny God and transgress His limits, however, deserve Hell, where they will encounter eternal punishment.

Man never actually disappears. From the very moment we are created, our eternal life begins. That is, we have already started our eternal life. Once our trial has ended, and immediately following the moment of transition, which we call death, we will live on into eternity. Whether that time will be spent in torment or in bliss depends on one's commitment to the Word of God, the Qur'an, and his fastidiousness in observing His limits. This entire system, the universe, the world, human beings, and everything created for human beings, have been designed for an ultimate purpose; the life in the hereafter. God informs us that man's existence in this world is not without a purpose and that, in the hereafter, after his short life in this world, man will have to offer an account of his deeds:

Did you suppose that We created you for amusement and that you would not return to Us? (Sura al-Muminun: 115)

Eternal life is an enormous blessing in comparison to the very short life of the present, which is no more than a "moment". It is truly a great mercy that, in return for following those basic inclinations that are natural to a human being-such as having faith and seeking God's approval-, God bestows upon him the reward of eternal life in Paradise:

As for those who believe and do right actions, We will lodge them in lofty chambers in Paradise, with rivers flowing under them, remaining in them timelessly, for ever. How excellent is the reward of those who act. (Sura al-'Ankabut: 58)

The life of the hereafter is important in the sense that it represents the manifestation of God's infinite justice, as well as the provision of His infinite blessings. The hereafter will be the place where everything a man does in this world will be repaid, where justice and compassion will prevail. The absolute justice of the hereafter is described in a verse as follows:

...Say, "The enjoyment of the world is very brief. The hereafter is better for those who have fear. You will not be wronged by so much as the smallest speck." (Sura an-Nisa': 77)

God, Who possesses the might to create everything, can surely create the hereafter:

Does He Who created the heavens and earth not have the power to create the same again? Yes indeed! He is the Creator, the All-Knowing. (Sura Ya Sin: 81)

FAITH IN THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT

"And the Hour is coming without any doubt and God will raise up all those in the graves." (Sura al-Hajj: 7)

The Day of Judgement is the day the duration predestined for this universe comes to an end. That day, the trial placed upon humanity will come to an end, and this world, the arena of this trial, will reduce to nothing. This is the end promised by God in the Qur'an. That the physical life of the universe will come to an end is a fact confirmed by scientific observation. In the Qur'an, a number of verses that depict the Day of Judgement are as follows:

So when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast, and the earth and the mountains are lifted and crushed with a single blow, On that Day, the Occurrence will occur and Heaven will be split apart, for that Day it will be very frail. (Sura al-Haqqa: 13-16)

On the Day of Judgement, God will raise all people who have died:

Then on the Day of Rising you will be raised again. (Sura al-Muminun: 16)

On that day, God will gather the people and raise them all:

God, there is no god but Him. He will gather you to the Day of Rising about which there is no doubt. And whose speech could be truer than God's? (Sura an-Nisa': 87)

The Day of Rising is the day when each one will stand in God's presence, and every single deed each engaged in will be disclosed:

On that Day you will be exposed-no concealed act you did will stay concealed. (Sura al-Haqqa: 18)

That day, everyone will receive the reward for their deeds, and God will carry out His infinite justice:

We will set up the Just Balance on the Day of Rising and no self will be wronged in any way. Even if it is no more than the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, We will produce it. We are sufficient as a Reckoner. (Sura al-Anbiya': 47)

The Day of Resurrection is that time when God will bring an end to the physical existence of the universe, the earth and everything in it. In that moment, God, the Creator of all such laws, will render all physical laws ineffective, unleashing a chain of unprecedented disasters beyond one's imagination.

A series of very delicate equilibriums make life possible for us in this world. The distance of the world to the sun, and the speed at which it spins on its axis, are perfectly determined for the sake of man's survival on this planet. The gravitational force, the atmosphere that serves as a ceiling to protect the earth against celestial bodies that may destruct it, and many other similar systems have been all been specifically created. It is God, the Lord of all the worlds, Who created these finely tuned equilibriums in order to make life possible, before even man existed. It is God Who sustains the universe at every moment:

God keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving. (Sura Fatir: 41)

At that moment when God will disrupt the functioning of these varied delicate equilibriums, everything will perish. That moment will be the Day of Judgement. People whose souls will go through the Day of Judgement will be terrified by the horror of that day:

Mankind, have fear of your Lord! The quaking of the Hour is a terrible thing. On the day they see it, every nursing woman will be oblivious of the baby at her breast, and every pregnant woman will abort the contents of her womb, and you will think people drunk when they are not drunk; it is just that the punishment of God is so severe. (Sura al-Hajj: 1-2)

How will you safeguard yourselves, if you are disbelievers, against a Day which will turn children grey? (Sura al-Muzzammil: 17)

God informs us what other things will happen on the Day of Judgement:

When the sun is compacted in blackness,
when the stars fall in rapid succession,
when the mountains are set in motion,
when the camels in foal are neglected,
when the wild beasts are all herded together,
when the oceans surge into each other,
when the selves are arranged into classes,
when the baby girl buried alive is asked
for what crime she was killed,
when the Pages are opened up,
when the Heaven is peeled away,
when the Fire is set ablaze,
when Paradise is brought up close:
then each self will know what it has done. (Sura at-Takwir: 1-14)

THE RESURRECTION

He makes likenesses of Us and forgets his own creation, saying, "Who will give life to bones when they are decayed?" Say "He Who made them in the first place will bring them back to life." (Sura Ya Sin: 78-79)

The resurrection is a re-creation of life after death. Death is not the cessation of existence. The world, which God has created to put man to test, will serve to determine his lot in the afterlife. After death, every soul will be re-created in a new body, and begin its life in the hereafter, where God will place him either in Hell or Paradise, depending on his deeds in the world. The resurrection of humanity is easy to accomplish for God. In a verse, the rising of the people all together on the Day of Judgement is described as follows:

It is We Who give life and cause to die and We are their final destination. The Day the earth splits open all around them as they come rushing forth, that is a gathering, easy for Us to accomplish. (Sura Qaf: 43-44)

Some people doubt that God could raise man from the dead. However, it is God Who first created man out of nothing, and therefore, certainly has the power to bring him back to life again. God informs us of this fact in the Qur'an:

Mankind! If you are in any doubt about the Rising, know that We created you from dust then from a drop of sperm then from a clot of blood then from a lump of flesh, formed yet unformed, so We may make things clear to you. We make whatever We want stay in the womb until a specified time and then We bring you out as children so that you can reach your full maturity. Some of you die and some of you revert to the lowest form of life so that, after having knowledge, they then know nothing at all. And you see the earth dead and barren; then when We send down water onto it it quivers and swells and sprouts with luxuriant plants of every kind. That is because God is the Real and gives life to the dead and has power over all things. (Sura al-Hajj: 5-6)

To make an example of this re-creation, God draws our attention to natural phenomena around us. After rainfall, God revives dead, barren soil where nothing could grow so that it becomes productive again. Similarly, bringing man back to life after his death is easy for God:

It He is Who sends out the winds, bringing advance news of His mercy, so that when they have lifted up the heavy clouds, We dispatch them to a dead land and send down water to it, by means of which We bring forth all kinds of fruit. In the same way We will bring forth the dead, so that hopefully you will pay heed. (Sura al-A'raf: 57)

Everything is easy for God. The Qur'an states that the creation or resurrection of humanity is like that of a single person:

Your creation and rising is only like that of a single self. God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Sura Luqman: 28)

THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT

Asking, "When is the Day of Judgement?" (Sura adh-Dhariyat: 12)

What you are promised is certainly true-the Judgement will certainly take place! (Sura adh-Dhariyat: 5-6)

God holds man responsible for his deeds. Every person, who has been tested in this world, will be called to account of his deeds on the Day of Judgement. On that day, he will witness that nothing was kept hidden from God, and his every good or evil deed will be disclosed:

The Day when they will issue forth and when not one thing about them will be hidden from God. "To whom does the kingdom belong today? To God, the One, the Conqueror! Every self will be repaid today for what it earned. Today there will be no injustice. God is swift at reckoning." (Sura Ghafir: 16-17)

Man does not always receive the punishment he deserves in this world. God grants a time to some, though He informs us that He will pay them in full for all their evil deeds in the hereafter. This being the case, it is unwise that those who commit illicit acts should assume they have evaded punishment, simply because they have escaped the law and thus were not punished in this world. On the Day of Judgement, they will see that man can keep nothing hidden from God. By His name "al Hafiz" (He Who preserves all things in detail), God knows man's every deed and commands His angels keep their record. God informs us of this fact in the Qur'an:

When the two Receivers receive (him), seated on the right hand and on the left, He uttered no word but there is with him an observer ready. (Sura Qaf: 17-18)

God, Who knows all things down to their minutest details, Who witnesses every moment of a man's life, whether he utters a word aloud or keeps it in his heart, will judge man justly on the Day of Reckoning, when the attribute of God's justice will be fully known:

We will set up the Just Balance on the Day of Rising and no self will be wronged in any way. Even if it is no more than the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, We will produce it. We are sufficient as a Reckoner. (Sura al-Anbiya': 47)

God, the Just, is infinitely merciful and kind towards His servants. God promises that he who does a good deed will receive ten like it, while he who does evil will be awarded only with what he deserves:

Those who produce a good action will receive ten like it. But those who produce a bad action will only be repaid with its equivalent and they will not be wronged. (Sura al-An'am: 160)

At the time of reckoning, people will be led to either Paradise or Hell, depending on the side from which they receive their books:

As for him who is given his Book in his right hand, he will be given an easy reckoning and return to his family joyfully. But as for him who is given his Book behind his back, he will cry out for destruction but will be roasted in a Searing Blaze. He used to be joyful in his family. He thought that he was never going to return. But in fact his Lord was always watching him! (Sura al-Inshiqaq: 7-15)

PARADISE AND HELL

The Companions of the Fire and the Companions of Paradise are not the same. It is the Companions of Paradise who are the victors. (Sura al-Hashr: 20)

When God created the Prophet Adam (as), the first man on earth, and his wife, He placed them in Paradise. However, as we are informed by the Qur'an, in Paradise, Adam and his wife were tempted to evil and transgressed God's prohibition.

This story allows us to recognize that a human tends to appreciate the beauty and value of something good if he can compare it to something evil. He grasps the wickedness of evil if he knows that which is good. The value of something can be appreciated by comparison. Having been placed in Paradise first, the Prophet Adam (as) and his wife had never been to a place that could be compared to Paradise, and thus failed to appreciate the difference. Therefore, people who would otherwise fail to value the blessings and perfection of Paradise, are given the chance to compare by being first created in this world, a place where good and evil exist simultaneously.

For the purpose of better comparison, on the Day of Judgement, when everyone will be raised, God will gather all people around Hell and then save those people of faith who were attentive in their observance of His limits. Someone who sees Hell with his own eyes will certainly understand, from his own experience, that Paradise is a great salvation and blessing:

By your Lord, We will collect them and the evils together. Then We will assemble them around Hell on their knees. Then We will drag out from every sect the one among them most insolent towards the All-Merciful. Then it is We Who will know best those most deserving to roast in it. There is not one of you who will not come to it. That is the final decision of your Lord. Then We will rescue those who had fear of God and We will leave the wrongdoers in it on their knees. (Sura Maryam: 68-72)

In this world, God promises Paradise, a life of infinite beauty, to those who can appreciate this truth:

But as for those who believe and do right actions, We will admit them into Gardens with rivers flowing under them, remaining in them timelessly, for ever and ever. God's promise is true. Whose speech could be truer than God's? (Sura an-Nisa': 122)

Those who have chosen the way of untruth, although they were warned and guided to the straight path, will be placed in Hell, where an eternal punishment will be inflicted on them. Surely, this is the fulfilment of God's infinite justice:

Those who are disbelievers will be driven to Hell in companies and when they arrive there and its gates are opened its custodians will say to them, "Did Messengers from yourselves not come to you, reciting your Lord's Signs to you and warning you of the meeting on this Day of yours?" They will say, "Indeed they did, but the decree of punishment is justly carried out against disbelievers." (Sura az-Zumar: 71)

The nature of man is inherently disposed to practicing the values and character praised in the Qur'an. This is the model of a believer that pleases God. God makes clear to man what is evil and what is good. In addition, God has given man eyes, ears, a heart and the faculty of judgement, with which to distinguish good from evil. Because, through these qualities, man may easily come to recognize God's existence and greatness, and have faith in Him, it is apparent that those who choose to disbelieve would not deserve to be treated the same as believers. God describes how these two groups will be distinguished in the hereafter as follows:

God calls to the Abode of Peace and He guides whom He wills to a straight path. Those who do good will have the best and more! Neither dust nor debasement will darken their faces. They are the Companions of Paradise, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. But as for those who have earned bad actions-a bad action will be repaid with one the like of it. Debasement will darken them. They will have no one to protect them from God. It is as if their faces were covered by dark patches of the night. Those are the Companions of the Fire, remaining in it timelessly, for ever. (Sura Yunus: 25-27)

God gives an account of life in Paradise. He promises this life to those who believe and conduct themselves righteously in this world. This is the good news communicated to the believers:

Those are the Ones Brought Near in Gardens of Delight.
A large group of the earlier people but few of the later ones.
On sumptuous woven couches, reclining on them face to face.
There will circulate among them, ageless youths,
carrying goblets and decanters and a cup from a flowing spring-
it does not give them any headache nor does it leave them stupefied.
And any fruit they specify and any bird-meat they desire.
And dark-eyed maidens like hidden pearls.
As recompense for what they did.
They will hear no prattling in it nor any word of wrong.
All that is said is, "Peace! Peace!"
And the Companions of the Right:
what of the Companions of the Right?
Amid thornless lote-trees and fruit-laden acacias
and wide-spreading shade and outpouring water
and fruits in abundance never failing, unrestricted.
And on elevated couches We have brought maidens into being
and made them purest virgins, devoted, passionate, of like age,
for the Companions of the Right.
A large group of the earlier people and a large group of the later ones. (Sura al-Waqi'a: 11-40)

While God gives to believers the good news of Paradise, a place of bliss and salvation, with its bounteous blessings, , He also lets the disbelievers know that they will be sent to Hell. The Qur'an provides an account of Hell, a place of unbearable torment:

And the Companions of the Left: what of the Companions of the Left?
Amid searing blasts and scalding water and the murk of thick black smoke,
providing no coolness and no pleasure.
Before that they were living in luxury, persisting in immense wrongdoing
and saying, "When we are dead and turned to dust and bones,
shall we then be raised again or our forefathers, the earlier peoples?"
Say: "The earlier and the later peoples will certainly all be gathered
to the appointment of a specified Day.
Then you, you misguided, you deniers will eat from the tree of Zaqqum,
filling your stomachs with it and drink scalding water on top of it,
slurping like thirst-crazed camels.
This will be their hospitality on the Day of Judgement!" (Sura al-Waqi'a: 41-56)