Belief in the 'Hereafter'
By Jafar Wafa
Belief in God and in the Day of Judgment and noble deeds are the three prerequisites of reward from the Lord - immunity from any kind of fear and all kinds of sorrow (Quran 2:62 & 5:69). Thus, belief in the Hereafter is second only to belief in God.
According to Muslim theologians, belief in the life hereafter rests on five articles of faith: (1) human beings are a responsible species and, thus, accountable to the Creator for all actions - good, bad and indifferent; (2) The present world is ephemeral, destined to end with a few bangs on the 'last day' known only to the Creator; (3) another universe will come into being in place of the present one and the entire race of mankind that had once lived on the earth from the inception of human life till its end will be recreated and assembled at one place for accountability of every individual soul, in a transparent, fairest and most judicious manner.
(4) Those adjudged as good will be ushered in a delightful, pleasurable and permanent resort called Heaven and those adjudged as bad will find themselves in a place of torment, called Hell; (5) acquisition of luxuries or inability to acquire them in earthly life is, in the final analysis, not the criterion of real success or failure.
Belief in resurrection and accountability predates the Abrahamic faiths that originated in the land of the Syriac Semites, the land known as the 'cradle of civilization'. The ancient Egyptians, having no association with the Semitic people, buried their dead monarchs in huge pyramids with all their precious jewels and other belongings to be used by them after resurrection.
The ancient Greeks believed in an underworld called Hades, the abode of the dead as well as a dark purgatory. The Zoroastrians of Persia who were of Aryan stock held similar beliefs of reward and retribution as the Semitic people had. The South Asians believed in transmigration of soul, an unending chain of birth and rebirths till attainment of Salvation or Mukti.
Coming to Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - the Jews believed in Heaven and Hell with the stipulation that, being God's chosen people, they will suffer the torment of Hell for a limited period ranging from three days to a few months.
Christianity's Book of Revelations, included in its New Testament, contains a graphic description, in symbolic language, how six angels will blow the trumpet, one after another, signalling the destruction of the universe and finally the seventh angel's trumpet heralding the completion of "God's secret plan" and proclamation of power being dedicated to the Messiah, and so on.
The way the Quran presents the idea of the Hereafter is entirely different from the mythological approach of other faiths. It argues the main points that arise in one's mind as to why the life hereafter is necessary, who the sceptics are, who are inclined to disbelieve resurrection for reckoning and accountability and on what grounds they reject this idea.
The Quran offers three cogent reasons for life hereafter: (1) Those who realize, after pondering over the creation of galaxies after galaxies, all studded with planets and stars gliding safely on their defined orbits without deviation, that this complex universe was not created in vain but with a purpose - [3.190] (2) Such rational human beings also have no doubt that the Being that produced the existing creation can re-produce it for satisfying the purpose of creation, i.e., judging the performance of the best of His creations - the human kind - [10-4]; (3) life hereafter is necessary "to explain to mankind as to wherein they differed among themselves and to show to the unbelievers that they were liars" - [16:39].
Similarly, the Book categorises the main objectors of Hereafter. One is the group of those who opine, "without sound knowledge and on mere guess work" that "there is nothing beyond our life of this world - we die and we live and nothing destroys us except Time" (45:24). The second group comprises those who consider resurrection of the dead as a scientific impossibility, saying "who will revive those bones when they have rotted away?" (36.78).
The answer to both the groups of 'intellectuals' who are inclined towards incredulity is provided in words meaning that such persons do not ponder over their own creation or have forgotten the fact of their own creation "from a drop of seed" and yet graduating into "open opponents" of the Creator.
As to who will resuscitate the rotted bones, the doubter should be told that "He will revive them (the bones) who produced them in the first instance." (36: 77-79). There is no effort to dictate from a high pedestal but to furnish argument against a wrong notion and flawed impression.
Muslim mystics (Sufis) and those who are disposed to be swayed by their reasoning, mostly based on their muraqiba or contemplation in search of hidden truth, visualize three abodes, not two - the present world and the world hereafter.
They interpose an abode called Barzakh (which begins from the grave till doomsday) between the present world and the Hereafter. They base their judgment on two verses of the Quran: One is in regard to the last wish of repentant agnostics in the throes of death to be given a respite and sent back to earth so that they could then do right kind of deeds. God's answer to their last moment prayer is, "Nay behind them is a barrier ('barzakh') until the day when they are raised." (23:99-100).
So, there is a buffer zone between earthly life and eternal life after resurrection. The second verse from which the mystics derive support is God's words: "We know them (the hypocrites and agnostics) and we will chastise them twice thereafter they will be relegated to the painful doom" (9:101).
This two-time chastisement before 'painful doom' meaning torment in Hell after the Day of Judgment, suggests chastisement in the earthly life and in the buffer zone after death and before resurrection.
They further suggest that in this world physical body is prominent while the soul is hidden and whatever pleasure or pain affects the soul is through the medium of the body. In the second abode (Barzakh) the pleasure and pain will be experienced by the soul directly, the body being non-existent.
In the third and final abode, the world after the Day of Judgment, both the soul and the body will become prominent, but the body will be quite different from this world's physical mould; they will be in accordance with the nature of deeds performed by every soul during life on earth.