The Day of Judgement
As Asim Mehboob entered into his life after death on earth, he awaited meeting God on his Day of Judgement. Asim was comfortable and relaxed. He had lived his 48 years of life as a citizen of Bangladesh. Although short, Asim's life had considerable action. He'd owned a small retail store in the suburbs of Dhaka, run his business and personal life as per Islamic law and had been a pious and religous individual. He regularly went to the Mosque and was a good friend of the local Imam. And that's not all. There was more to Asim's life that he was proud of. In fact, Asim had fought for 'God' on earth. It hadn't been easy, but Asim was counting on the reward of Heaven that would more than make up for his hardship on earth.
Asim was still thinking about how he'd pulled off all this when suddenly a light so bright appeared before him that Asim couldn't look into it. In a thunderous voice that followed, someone spoke to Asim. Here is the conversation.
God: Asim, I am God. You know me as Allah. I am the creater of the Universe. I am all powerful, all knowing and omnipresent.
Asim: Allah-u-Akbar. Allah-u-Akbar. Glory to thee. I am Asim, your faithful servant.
God: I know who you are Asim. After all, I am God.
Asim: Please forgive me my Lord. I have waited so long for this day, my Day of Judgement.
God: Indeed you have. I know you are anxious to know where you will go today - to Heaven wth me, or to Hell for damnation.
Asim: Yes Almighty I am. I am eager to hear your verdict as I have been waiting for Heaven. I have served you in every way I could and obeyed your orders.
God: Yes, I have your verdict. But before I start, I want to ask you what do you know about Heaven to wait for it. Although I am all-knowing and know your thoughts , I want to have a dialog with you for your understanding.
Asim: Thank you my Lord. You are so gracious. I know heaven is where I can be in your presence with rivers flowing and wine and pretty chaste women for me.
God: And what do you know about Hell?
Asim: Oh Hell is damned with fire and boiling water to drink. It is for the infidels who have refused to recognize Islam. They have refused to accept your book and your orders.
God: Okay Asim. You will know where you go. Think of me if you need me. Good-Bye.
Almost instantly Asim saw something. But instead of seeing the sparkling waters, Asim saw visions of boiling water and fire and suffering. He grew nervous, his legs began shaking and he desperately remembered God.
God appeared again and they had this conversation:
Asim: Oh Almighty God. Where am I? What level of Heaven is this?Why does Heaven look like the visions of Hell to me?
God: Asim, you are right. You are in Hell. I have especially made your experience match your beliefs and imagination. It should be just like you described it to me and others on earth.
Asim: But oh Lord, I have always done as you have ordered. I have believed in your book and done as it said.
God: No Asim. That is your misconception. You have not done as I ordered. You have done as was ordered by the man you call Prophet Muhammad.
Asim: But he was your messenger. You gave him your orders through the Angel Gabriel.
God: Asim. How do you know that? Did you see it with your eyes? Did I tell you that personally?
Asim: No, that is what the Holy book, your book the Quran says.
God: How do you know that the Quran is my book? Who told you it is holy?
Asim: Because the Prophet (pbuh) said that you had revealed the book to him.
God: Asim. Humans claim many things. Every day, people claim that they speak to me. That does not mean that they actually spoke with me.
Asim: Almighty, I agree with you that I don't believe such claims, whoever the person may be. But I believed the prophet because he was your messenger and you gave mankind the Quran through him in which you say he is the final prophet.
God: Asim, I just explained to you the difference between what is true and what people claim to be true. I just explained to you how so many people claim to talk to me but are like everyone else.
Muhammad claimed to be my messenger. That does not mean he was my messenger. Muhammad claimed that the Quran was from me and not from him. That does not mean that the Quran was from me.
The Quran claims that Muhammad was my final messenger. That does not mean that he was the final messenger, or even a messenger. Unless I told you the Quran was mine, you don't know that it is.
There is a difference between what is a claim and what is the truth.
The truth is that you blindly believed a man's claim to be my messenger and as a consequence blindly believed his book to be my book. And because the book that you now thought was my book (but was actually not) said that Muhammad was my final messenger, you reinforced the belief you started with.
Asim: Forgive me, my Lord. Forgive me. Show me mercy. I have sinned. I have believed blindly. Forgive me.
God: You have failed me Asim. You have insulted me. You have discriminated among those who are mine. You have hated who I loved. You have sinned Asim, against me.
Do you remember reading the Quran Asim? Did you believe that I could be as unjust as it shows me to be? Do you think I could be as cruel as I am portrayed? Did you think I would need mere mortals such as you to do anything for me? Why would I allow a Hebrew or Christian or Buddhist child to be born if I didn't want people who followed those religions to exist? Would I need man's help?
You read a book that has some good but so many flaws, so many ambiguities and so much violence that it is quite inhumane. Your believing that such a book could even possibly be mine is a huge insult to me! Do you think I would have such bad communication skills that you would need tasfirs to understand it? There are several people who have written books that are far better in the message they carry? Those books are good, but still human. You think a book worse than those human written books would be mine? How could you insult me like that Asim?
The truth is that the Quran is the product of men. It is below me.
Asim: Forgive me my Lord. Forgive me Almighty. Please forgive me for my sins. When I was 15 years old and in school, I recall wondering about parts of the Quran. I asked myself why you the Almighty would create us humans to worship you? In my heart I though you would be above all arrogance and narcissism. But then I was reassured in the Quran from my relatives and believed in it blindly. Forgive me for my sins oh most powerful.
God: It is easy Asim sometimes to fall into false belief. The brain that I have given humans is very powerful. No other life form in the world has the ability to reason and think like humans have. You should have used your mind Asim. It was a gift to you.
Asim: Forgive me oh Lord. Everyone around me was telling me to believe in Islam. They were showing me evidence and science and human rights, history and divine knowledge in the Quran.
God: You believed blindly Asim. You were given a mind of your own. You cannot blame others for your sins. You are responsible for your own thoughts and actions. You used many means to reassure yourself on earth that your beliefs were right and that you were safe.
Every day, you would say the Shahadah. Doing that helped strengthen your false belief and made you more confident in it. But in reality, you were repeating a lie and insulting me. When you said that you 'bear witness to the fact that Muhammad was my prophet you were lying Asim. Wasn't that a false testimony? On what basis were you testifying? Were you really a witness? No. You lied Asim.
Not only that, but your testimonial was an insult to me because only I am all-knowing and only I bear witness to everything that has happened and everything that will happen. Nobody else - no plant, no animal, no man nor woman can witness what I witness. In effect, you equated yourself to me Asim.
You should have thought about what you were doing Asim. Instead, you blindly said it and you surrounded yourself by people who said the same thing to feel comfortable. These people, the false facts and flawed reasoning were like drugs or alchohol for your mind to you to give you a false sense of comfort in your belief and your future.
Asim: I am terribly sorry for my deeds and beliefs oh Lord. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I was afraid of the Hell the Quran of Muhammad talked about. Reading that and hearing about Hell from others made me fear and believe blindly.
God: I know Asim. I know you followed out of fear. You became a coward. You failed to stand up for what your heart and your mind told you to do. By doing that you disrespected the two greatest gifts I have given mankind - the abilities to be compassionate and to reason. Your heart and mind are the only two real pieces of evidence that you had of me. They are the only things that you know for sure are true and from me. When you were born into this world, apart from life itself, your heart and mind were my gifts to you. By believing blindly, you rejected my gifts. How would you feel Asim, if you out of great love gave your daughter a gift and she threw it away?
Your faith was so blind Asim that you just refused to realize that. You denied history, biology, geology, reasoning and logic, current affairs, science, mathematics, human rights and instead fell for fallacious reasoning, false news, fake scientific facts, historical fantasies and twisted explanations to feel confident and justify your wrong thoughts and actions.
Asim: My Lord, I know I am at fault. I realize my mistakes. I repent for my sins. You are merciful and forgiving. Please forgive me.
God: Asim, I know you realize your mistakes Asim. But you will still have to go to Hell because above all I am God and I am just and fair. You could believe that your own fellow humans, many of who were very good people, would be eternally damned for Hell.
At that time your cowardice made you lose your mind and your compassion. Now, Asim, it is too late. For today is your day of judgement.
