10. LIFE AFTER DEATH :
We have seen that Freedom of Will is
a necessary condition for the realisation of morality and the moral ideal. We
have also seen that the Holy Qur’an affirms Freedom of Will.
But, although affirmation of the
Freedom of Will, taken by itself, may render morality possible, the realisation
of the moral ideal remains inconceivable without, among other verities,* belief in Life-after-Death, or Life-Hereafter.
*The other
verities are: belief in the creation of the world essentially as moral order,
and belief in the existence of God.
This is so, because it is common
experience that virtue is not adequately rewarded during the short period of
human life on earth. Nay, quite often the virtuous actually suffer. And in many
cases it is observed that the evil minded persons do not suffer the
consequences of their evil acts.
Now, the appearance of
incompatibility with the moral ideal which the world thus gives, especially in
those instances where even the most disinterested moral efforts are frustrated
by persons who possess violently devilish motives, is likely to unhinge the
moral faith. But moral consciousness revolts against the very idea of virtue remaining frustrated or inadequately rewarded and evil & crime escaping their nemesis wholly or partly.
Therefore, to meet the consummation
of the moral struggle and to realise the reciprocity of virtue and success, and
of vice and punishment, the moral consciousness demands that man must survive
after his death.[1]
Moreover, utmost effort for the
realisation of the moral ideal cannot be invited from the human beings without
faith in life-after-death. If survival after death is believed in, it will be
easier not only to preserve the morals but also to lay down one’s life for the
sake of the ideal.
Life-after-death is also the
requirement of human nature from four other angles:
- Firstly, the love of life [2] and
the yearning for self-preservation, which are ingrained in human nature, refuse
to admit the cessation of life in death.
-
Secondly, denial of life after death
engenders nihilistic attitude, and nihilism is wedded to despair.
-
Thirdly, confining the reward or
punishment of actions to immediate execution in this life amounts to a negation
of the world being a moral order, because the individual is deprived of the
chance of exhausting the possibilities of improving himself. And if the world
is not accepted as a perfect moral order, moral struggle becomes a meaningless
idea.
-
Fourthly, no human action—good or
evil—can mature as regards its consequences until the present human world
endures, because every action gives rise to an endless chain reaction. This
renders the fulfillment of the principle of just and adequate reward and
punishment in the present life impossible.
Hence final and full reward and
punishment should be conceived to be deferred to the Life-Hereafter, where,
according to the Holy Qur’an, Heaven and Hell exist for this purpose;[3]
though, in this life also, virtue does bear fruit, even if not adequately and
in all cases, and, as regards evil, the individuals cannot escape in acute
cases the nemesis of their evil actions.
It may be observed here in passing
that it is only in the nihilistic attitude, which emerges in the present-day
conjectures of materialistic approach to human life, that we come across a
denial of life-after-death. Modern Materialism objects, without any conclusive
proof, to the concept of Personality, and teaches, again, without any
conclusive proof, that the human being is only an embodiment of the interplay
of mechanical forces—emerging as an accident and dissolving finally into
oblivion. This is a subjective and fallacious judgment born of temperamental
despair, and it is a challenge to human nature as well as to human history,
wherein belief in survival after death has been held by almost all the human
communities in one form or the other.
One of the most brilliant exponents
of the philosophy of Nihilism is Bertrand Russell, who, with all his academic
genius, has spoken more as a poet than as a scientific thinker. In his Essay on
“Free Man’s Worship”, he projects his belief about Man thus:
“… Man is the product of the causes which had no
prevision of the end they were achieving, that his origin, his growth, his
hopes and his fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of
accidental collection of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of
thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave, that all
the labours of ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday
brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of
solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be
buried under a debris of ruins …”[4]
Then, side by side with that
arbitrary verdict, he lands himself in contradiction when he proceeds to
project, with all his poetic fancy and with passionate idealistic fervour, all
the grace and beauty of freedom for the ‘slave of blind forces’ that Man is in
his estimation! He says:
“The life of Man, viewed outwardly, is but a small
thing compared with the forces of Nature. The slave is doomed to worship Time
and Fate and Death, because they are greater than anything he finds himself,
and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour. But, great as
they are, to think of them greatly, to feel their passionless splendour, is greater
still. And such thought makes us free men; we no longer bow before the
inevitable in Oriental subjection but we absorb it, and make it a part of
ourselves. To abandon the struggle of private happiness, to expel all eagerness
of temporary desire, to burn with passion for eternal things— this is
emancipation, and this is free man’s worship. And this liberation is effected
by a contemplation of Fate; for Fate itself is subdued by the mind which leaves
nothing to be purged by the purifying fire of Time.
“United with his fellow-men by the strongest of all
ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds that a new vision is with
him always, shedding over every daily task the light of love. The life of Man
is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by
weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none
may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight,
seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in
which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided …
“Brief and powerless is Man’s life; on him and on all
his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil,
reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for
Man, condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the
gates of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the
lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day; disdaining the coward terrors of
the slave of Fate, to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built;
undismayed by the empire of chance, to preserve a mind free from the wanton
tyranny that rules his outward life; proudly defiant of the irresistible forces
that tolerate, for a moment, his knowledge and his condemnation, to sustain
alone, a weary but unyielding Atlas, the world that his own ideals have
fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power.”[5]
With the above preliminary
discussion, we may turn to the guidance of the Holy Qur’an.
Belief in Life-Hereafter—an Article of Islamic Creed:
We may start by noting that belief in
the Life-Hereafter forms an article of Islamic Creed in the Holy Qur’an.
Namely, it is a basic truth without active belief in which it is impossible for
anyone to be a Muslim. Indeed, the Qur’anic Guidance can benefit only him who,
among other religious verities, believes in the Life-Hereafter, as, for
instance, the following verse, which is to be found in the very early part of
the holy book, clearly proclaims:
“This Book, whereof there is no doubt, is a guidance
unto the god-fearing (or, Pursuers of Righteousness with Faith in God)—(namely,
those) who believe in the Unseen (Reality), and establish prayer, and out of
what We have provided for them spend (for the well-being of others); and who
believe in the Revelation sent to you (O Muhammad!), and (sent) before your
time, and of the (life-) Hereafter they have firm conviction. These are on the
right path guided by their Lord, and these are the successful (in this life as
well as in the next).” (2:2-5).
Indeed, belief in the Life-Hereafter
is so important in the estimation of the Holy Qur’an that it has been mentioned
therein at many places conjoined with belief in God[6],
which indicates that, according to the Qur’anic evaluation, it stands
immediately next to belief in God in importance for human success, which
depends, in its turn, on proper approach to life.
For those who do not believe in the
Life-Hereafter, the Holy Qur’an has emphasised the wrongfulness of their
attitude and its consequences thus:
“Verily you call them unto a Straight Way (—the Way of
Balanced Life). And verily those who believe not in the Hereafter are deviators
from that Way (and cannot, therefore, enjoy balanced life and, as a result, cannot
attain genuine success). And though We have mercy on them and We may remove the
distress which is on them, they would obstinately persist in their
transgression, wandering perplexed. We inflicted torment on them, but they
humbled not themselves to their Lord, nor do they submissively entreat
(Him)!—until We open on them a gate leading to a severe torment: then lo! they
will be plunged in despair [7]
therein.”[8]
(33:73-77).
The following verses are also of similar import:
“Nay, it is those who believe not in the Hereafter,
they are in a torment and error far-reaching.
“Behold they not [9] that
which is before them and that which is behind them of the heaven and the
earth.” (34:8-9).
Qur’anic Arguments in favour of Life-Hereafter:
The error (referred to in verse 8
above), whose evil consequences are far-reaching in so far as it deprives human
beings of genuine success in this life and brings them grievous failure in the
Hereafter, is rooted in a wrong philosophy which has been referred to in the
Holy Qur’an thus:
“And they (i.e., the deniers of Life-Hereafter) say:
there is nothing (i.e., no other life) but our life of the world, we die and we
live (of ourselves, with no reference to the Creator);1* and
nothing destroys us save Time.2* And they have no knowledge
thereof: they do but guess (i.e., their denial is not based on any sound
logical argument or any rational facts, but on mere superstition). And when Our
Clear Signs (which affirm Life Hereafter) are rehearsed to them, their argument
is nothing but this: they say: ‘Bring (back) our forefathers, if what you say
is true’.” (45:24-25).3*
1* As to the pagan Arabs’ materialistic outlook and indifference to
spiritual values Hitti observes: “The hedonistic Arabian character was too much
absorbed in the immediate issues of life to devote much thought to the
Hereafter. In the words of an old bard:
‘We spin about, whirl our own way through life, then,
rich and poor alike, at last seek rest below the ground in hollow pits
slate-covered, and there do we abide’. (History of the Arabs, p. 102).
2* We may quote here the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics: “Time in the
abstract was popularly imagined to be the cause of all earthly happiness, and especially
of all earthly misery … The poets are continually alluding to Time (dahr,
Zaman), for which they often substitute ‘the days’, or ‘the nights’. Time is
represented as bringing misfortune, causing perpetual change, as biting,
weaning down, shooting arrows that never miss the mark, blowing stones and so
forth. In such cases we are often obliged to render ‘time’ by ‘fate’ which is
not quite correct, since time is here conceived as the determining factor, not
as being itself determined by some other power, least of all by a conscious
agent.” (vol. 1; pp. 661, 662).
3* Cf. 23:37.
Verse 9 of chapter 34, quoted prior
to the above verses, gives an argument against disbelief in the Life-Hereafter
which is sound; but it may not be properly graspable by the common folk. On
other occasions, however, the argument has been stated in simpler terms. For
instance, in reply to the argument of the disbelievers in the Hereafter, in
45:24-25, the holy book proceeds to state the counter-argument thus:
“Say! ‘It is Allah Who gives you life, then gives you
death; then He will gather you for the Day of Judgment about which there is no
doubt’: but most of humankind know not.”(45:26).[10]
At another place, the argument has
been stated in terms of Evolution. Thus we read:
“Does man think that he will be left uncontrolled
(without purpose and without moral responsibility)? Was he not a drop of sperm
emitted (in lowly from)? Then did he become a leechlike clot; then did (Allah)
make and fashion (him) in due proportion. And of him He made two sexes, male
and female. Is not That One then able to quicken the dead?” (75:36-40).[11]
Another form of the Qur’anic argument in support of the Hereafter is in terms
of the revival of the dead earth. For instance, we read:
“Know that Allah quickens the earth after its death.
We have made clear Our Signs to you, that haply you may be able to understand
rationally (the phenomenon of future Resurrection).” (57:17).
“And We send down from the sky rain charged with
blessings, and We produce therewith gardens and grain for harvest; and tall
(and stately) palm-trees, with shoots of fruit-stalks, piled one over
another;—as sustenance for (Our) servants;—and We give new life therewith to a
land that is dead: thus will be the Resurrection. Before them (i.e., pagan
Arabs) was denied (the Hereafter) by the people of Noah, the Companions of the
Russ, the Thamud, the ‘Ód, Pharoah, the Brethren of Lot, the Companions of the
Wood, and the People of Tubba‘; each one of them rejected the Messengers, and
My warning was duly fulfilled (in them). Are We then weary with the first
Creation, that they should be in confusion about a new Creation (in the
Hereafter)?” (50: 9-15).[12]
The Qur’anic conception of Life Hereafter related in all its
steps to the concept of the World being a Moral Order:
Having seen that the Qur’an affirms
the Life-Hereafter, we may now proceed
to note that, in the Qur’anic system of meaning, Life-Hereafter is grounded in
the Qur’anic teaching that the world is a Moral Order, wherein every action of man,
however insignificant, is accountable and must meet its reward or punishment.
The first point that has been
emphasised in this connection is that all our actions, including our most
hidden thoughts and motives, are known to God at all times, and that instead of
becoming relegated to oblivion—as might be thought by the ignorant, every human
action, whether virtuous or vicious, is recorded and preserved by Divine
Arrangement. We are told:
“He (i.e., Allah) knows the unseen and that which is
open: He is the Great, the Most High. It is the same (to Him) whether any of
you conceal his speech or declare it openly; whether he lie hid by night or
walk forth freely by day. For each (one) there are angels in succession, before
and behind them: they guard him with Allah’s command.” (13:9-11).
“And assuredly We have created Man and We know
whatsoever his soul whispers unto him, and We are nearer to him than his
jugular vein.” (50:16).
“Verily We shall give life to the dead (on the Day of
Resurrection), and We record that which they send before (i.e., their own
deeds, good or bad), and of all things have We taken account in a clear Book
(of evidence).” (36:12).
The recording and preservation of
human words and deeds is done by the angels [13]
appointed by God for this purpose. Thus says the Qur’an:
“By no means! But, you belie the Requital. But verily
over you are appointed (angels) to protect you,—kind and honourable— writing
down (your deeds). They know whatsoever you do.” (82:9-12).
“Behold, two (guardian angels) appointed to learn
(human doings) (and note them), one sitting on the right and one on the left.
Not a word does he utter but there is a sentinel [14] by
him ready (to note it).” (50:17-18).
Man’s deeds, good or evil, are not
only recorded by the angels, but they also hang round his neck. Thus “are his
actions inseparable from him; and it is they that make or mar a man’s fortune.”[15]
The Holy Qur’an says:
“Every man’s deeds We have fastened on his own neck:
and on the Day of Judgment We shall bring out for him a scroll (containing the
record of all his thoughts and actions), which he will see spread open. And it
will be said (to him) ‘Read your (own) record. Sufficient is your soul this day
to make out an account against you’.” (17:13-14).
Verse 14 points out that the
recording of actions is done in order to produce evidence before every human
being on the Day of Final Accountability on which Day God will pronounce the
Judgment in order that every human action, having matured, reaches its full
reward or punishment:
“Verily the Hour (of Final Accountability) is
coming—My design is to keep it hidden—in order that everyone may be requitted
according to that which he has endeavoured.”[16]
(20:15).
That every action must reach its
reward or punishment is the immutable Law of God, ingrained, so to say, in the
very constitution of the universe and in the very destiny of Man:
“Yes, to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and
on the earth: so that He may recompense those who do evil according to their
deeds, and He may reward those who do good with ‘what is best’.” (53:31).[17]
The good and evil fruits of human
deeds become manifest, in accordance with the limitations of man’s earthly
life, even in this world. The Holy Qur’an affirms this fact when it says:
“Verily, your endeavour is (directed to) diverse
(ends) (which may be broadly classified as good and evil). Then as for him who
gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to God, and (in all sincerity) testifies
to the Good,—We will indeed make for him smooth the path to ease (by way of
reward).
“And as for him who is a greedy miser and thinks
himself self-sufficient (not believing in accountability in the Hereafter), and
belies the Good,—We will indeed make smooth for him the path to hardship (by
way of punishment).” (92:4-10).
On the Day of Judgment in the
Life-Hereafter, however, every human action, however insignificant it might
appear to us in this life, shall meet its full and complete recompense:
“When the earth is shaken to her (utmost) convulsion,
and she throws up her burdens (from within), and Man cries (distressed): ‘What
is the matter with her’,—on that Day will she declare her tidings (i.e., will
declare all the events that ever took place on her): for that your Lord will
have given her inspiration. On that Day will humankind proceed in companies
sorted out, that they may be shown their Deeds. Then whosoever has worked good
of an atom’s weight shall behold it; and whosoever has worked evil of an atom’s
weight shall behold it (—i.e., the subtlest form of good and evil will then be
brought to account).” (94:1-8).[18]
Virtue might give the appearance of
being frustrated in this life, and vice might appear in certain circumstances
to gain the upper hand, and this may cause suffering to the virtuous; but on
the Day of Final Accountability in the Life-Hereafter, the virtuous shall be
more than fully rewarded for their righteous life, and they shall have the
upper hand. So says the Holy Qur’an:
“Those who are god-fearing (i.e., cultivate and
practise righteousness out of respect for Divine Pleasure) shall be
(triumphant) above them (i.e., the Unbelievers in Submission to God, or the
unrighteous) on the Day of Resurrection.” (2:212).
As we remarked before, the moral
ideal consists in adequate, nay, full reward of virtue and vice. We have now
seen that the Holy Qur’an ensures it through the affirmation of the Life
Hereafter and Final Accountability, and for that purpose it affirms the
existence of Heaven for the former and of Hell for the latter:
“Then, when there comes the great, overwhelming
Event,—the Day when Man shall remember (all) that he strove for, and Hell-Fire
shall be placed in view for (all) to see,—then, for such as had transgressed
all bounds (in rebellion against Truth and Goodness) and had preferred the life
of this world (in respect of indulgence in the satisfaction of their lower
Desires), his abode shall be Hell-Fire. And for such as had entertained the
fear of standing before their Lord’s (tribunal) and had restrained (their) soul
from (the sway of) lower Desires, their abode will be the Garden.” (79:34-41).
[Note : Basic Principle no: 11,
mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, shall be taken up in chapter 2
under ‘Heaven and Hell’.]
g
to be continued . . . . .
