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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 the 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 even 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 in 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 realised the truth. Did they realise 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 aesthetic, moral
and rational consciousness of man. For example, when the idolators of Makkah
denied even the possibility of life after death, the Qur'an exposed the
weakness of their stand by advancing very logical and rational arguments in
support of it:
And he has coined 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)
At another occasion the Qur'an very clearly says 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 Qur'an 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.. Since man has a very short
lifespan in this world, and the physical world too being not eternal,
punishments or rewards equal to the evil or noble deeds of persons are not
possible here. The Qur'an 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 Qur'an 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 arraigned before God? (28:61)
The Qur'an also states that this worldly life is a preparation for the
eternal life after death. But those who deny it become slaves of their
passions and desires, make fun of virtuous and God-conscious persons. Such
persons realise 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 Qur'an:
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
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. (23:99-104).
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 dutifull 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 Qur'an 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 the lightning, and as for 'Aad, 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 palm 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 the 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 has 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. |
