| Life
after Death The question of whether there is life after death does not fall under the jurisdiction of science, as science is concerned only with classification and analysis of data. Moreover, man has been busy with scientific inquiries 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 from time immemorial.  |
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| 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. |
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| 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 in some
cases, 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. |
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| 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 many sincere followers.
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| 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.
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| It
is this consciousness that guides man regarding realities that cannot be seen. 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.
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| For
example, when the idolaters of Makkah denied even the possibility of life
after death, the Noble Qur-an
exposed the weakness of their stand by advancing very logical and rational arguments
in support of it: "And he makes comparisons for Us and forgets his own (Origin and) Creation: he says 'Who can give life to (dry) bones and decomposed ones (at that)?' Say (O Muhammad) 'He will give them life Who created them for the first time! For He is well-versed in every kind of creation!' The same Who produces for you fire out of the green tree, when behold! Ye kindle therewith (your own fires)! Is not He Who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like thereof? Yea indeed! For He is the Creator, Supreme in skill and knowledge (infinite)." (Qur-an, 36:78-81) |
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| On
another occasion, the Noble Qur-an
very clearly says that the disbelievers have no sound basis for their
denial of life after death. It is based
on pure conjecture: "And they say: 'What is there but our life in this world? We die and we live and nothing but time can destroy us.' But of that they have no knowledge; they merely conjecture. And when Our clear signs are rehearsed to them, their argument is nothing but this: they say 'Bring (back) our forefathers if what ye say is true!' Say: "It is Allah Who gives you life, then gives you death. Then He will gather you together for the Day of Judgment about which there is no doubt. But most men do not know." (Qur-an, 45:24-26) |
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| 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 the dead
will be resurrected stand before God. That day will be the beginning of
the life that will never end, and on that Day God will reward every person
according to his or her good or evil deeds. |
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