Islam for Non-Muslims

• RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
• 1 The Present State of the World Religions
• 2 Religious System as a Historical Reality
• 3 The Evidences of God across the Universe
• 4 The Absolute Oneness of God
• 5 The Reality of the Afterlife
• 6 The Growth of Irreligious Ideas
• 7 Worshipping Natural Elements
• 8 Worshipping Imaginary Idols
• 9 Worshipping Human Beings
• 10 Inventing Relationship to God
• 11 Inventing the Idea of Reincarnation
• 12 Inventing the Theory of Evolution (Darwinism)
• 13 Inventing ‘Nature’ as the Creator of the Universe
• 14 Importance of Religion in this Secular World
• ISLAM AS A RELIGION
• 15 Addressing the Criticisms of Islam
• 16 Islam as a Magnet for the Non-Muslims
• 17 The Quran as the Original Divine Book
• 18 The Quranic Reality in Archeological Findings
• 19 Muhammad (pbuh) as the Great Prophet
• 20 Islam as the True Religion
• 21 Islam as the Universal Religion
• 22 Islam as the Eternal Religion
• 23 Islam as a Practicable Religion
• 24 Islam as an Enjoyable Religion
• 25 Islam as the Peaceful & Savior Religion
• 26 Islam as the Progressive & Rational Religion
• 27 Islam in Health & Hygiene
• 28 Islam in Promotion of Science
• 29 Muslims in Practices of Science
• 30 Islam & Other Monotheisms: Similarities & Differences
• 31 Islamic Tolerance for Other Religions
• 32 Islamic Rights for Non-Muslim Citizens
• ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
• 33 Islamic System vs. Human Ideologies
• 34 Moral & Social Impacts of Islamic Rituals
• 35 Moral Discipline in Islam
• 36 Sinning of 3 W’s: Women, Wine and Wealth
• 37 Dignity & Equality of Man in Islam
• 38 Human Rights in Islam
• 39 Social Duties in Islam
• 40 Dignity & Rights of Labor in Islam
• 41 Dignity of Women in Islam
• 42 Rights of Women in Islam
• 43 Marriage & Family Life in Islam
• 44 Political Philosophy in Islam
• 45 Economic Principles in Islam
• 46 Islamic Economy vs. Capitalism & Communism
• 47 Patriotism & Internationalism in Islam
• 48 Understanding Controversial Issues in Islam
• 49 Conversion to Islam: Problems & Prospects
• 50 Conclusive Message to the Non-Muslims

5:  THE REALITY OF THE AFTERLIFE

Introduction: The monotheistic religions in original condition have many common factors with regard to their belief in the Afterlife.  Accordingly, the human soul after death is preserved at undisclosed location until the Dooms Day. On this day, everything of the universe will “perish except the Face of your Lord” (55: 26/27) and the gateway to eternal life will open up.  After the great destruction of the Dooms Day, God "will raise all those who are in the graves" and then "they will be turned to Him for the Great Day of Judgment” (22:7; 6:36). The verdict of judgment will determine your placement in Paradise or Hell. This is, in short, the idea about the Life after Death.

(1) Divine Affirmation:  God affirmed that “He did not create the heavens, the earth and all between them except for just ends and appointed term. There is no doubt that the (final) Hour will certainly come” when God will destroy everything (30:8; 40:59).  The prophets also joined His voice, by “proclaiming the Messages of Afterlife” (38:46). You are therefore required to believe in the Afterlife unconditionally and no later than you become a Muslim. Then you can soon realize that your belief is nothing short of a rightful decision, as appears below.  

(2) Invisibleness Is Not Nothingness:  One reason that might make the non-believers hesitant to believe in the Afterlife is that they cannot see it right now and here with their own eyes. This immediate invisibility is, however, not any rational ground for their continued unbelief in the Afterlife.  In fact, on this planet there are plenty of things (like air, virus, gas, electron, mind, soul, love, time etc.) which cannot be seen easily or at all, but these are very much in existence.  If you deny these things only for their invisibility, then you are clearly in the wrong. Everyone by now knows about the dangerous invisible enemy named Covid-19 virus that made the whole world upside down in 2020. In this way, if you choose to disbelieve your own invisible soul, then that would ultimately amount to denial of your own existence.  When the Angel of Death will come to disconnect your soul from the body, it is only then you will have your eyes open to the reality of Afterlife but that would be too late for your gaining wisdom and helping yourself for salvation. Then you will start to clearly “see and hear” everything of Afterlife, without any “doubt about the Day of Judgment” (19:38; 18:21).

(3)  Knowing by Hearing in The Absence of Seeing:  Since you can never see the life after death during your lifetime, you cannot logically dismiss the existence of the Afterlife; at best you can simply admit your ignorance about it.  If you do not know about anything, you ought to learn that from knowledgeable persons.  It is, therefore, wise for you to accept the Afterlife as a reality, after hearing about it from the account of the Prophet, the most reliable and well-informed about the Quran.

(4)  Better Reward for Believing without Seeing:  Accepting the invisible Afterlife and “fearing Him unseen is a test” from God; if you pass this test of faith, you will better qualify for “forgiveness and a great reward"(5:94; 67:12).  Apparently this is in part a reason why God honored mankind as His top creation, probably surpassing the status of the angels who believe in God only by seeing Him personally, unlike human being.

(5) Vehicle of Time Will Drive You to The Afterlife:  In the realm of time, only the present time is a reality and the future is simply an expectation.  But when the future turns into the present time, then that future- turned-present also becomes a part of your  experience.  In this way, with the passage of days, one after another, when you arrive at the crucial day of death, then you have no scope to avoid that reality.  Thus when unbroken flow of time with take you to that point (the moment of death), then the non-believers, like the believers, will also believe in death and the Afterlife that follows, through their visual experience.
    In sum, as regards the future life after death, the non-believers, differently from the believers, hesitate to believe mainly for lack of visibility.  But the fact remains that the clock of time will continue to tick even beyond your death and in either physical or spiritual form you will always journey through time. It is this vehicle of time that will give you an unstoppable ride through the gate of death and drop you off into the concrete days of the Afterlife.  Then you will be a resident of never-ending Afterlife when you will see everything of that life “with certainty of sight” (102:7).

 (6)  Denying the Afterlife Is a Risk Not worth Taking: All the monotheistic religions revealed a clear picture about the Afterlife. Accordingly, if you invest your faith in that, you will not have any “burden” or loss (4: 39). On the other hand, you will gain a world of definite benefits through Paradise. By contrast, if you choose to be a non-believer, you are gambling only to lose and that loss through your hellish sufferings is too high to measure.

(7)   Creation of Life after Death Is Not Difficult for God:  Though it might seem otherwise to the nonbelievers, it is not at all impossible for God to accomplish gigantic tasks like making Dooms Day happen, creating a new world for Afterlife, resurrecting man for trial, building of Paradise and Hell etc.  Because He has already created "the heavens and the earth and has the power to create their likes anew” (17:99). Particularly the creation of “the heavens and the earth is (more difficult) than the creation of man” (40:57). For God, it is “most easy” to repeat creation of man by “assembling (their) bones” “in perfect order (even) to the very tips of (their) fingers” (30:27; 75:3/4).

(8)  Afterlife System Is an Incentive for Moral Actions: The provision of “grievous penalty” for sins and “reward with justice” for piety goes to the heart of religious life (10:4).  Under God’s plan, everyone will be “called to account” and each soul is supposed to get “recompense for what it earned"(88:26; 45:22). In fact, there is nothing more suitable than the Afterlife for ensuring justice in due form.  For example, the worldly justice of a single death penalty for a killer of innocent millions is not enough.  Such an offender deserves severe punishment proportionate to his crime through “more enduring” Afterlife (87:17).  Similarly, an everlasting life after death would provide better scope for rewarding a pious man who has a mountain of good deeds to his credit.  Thus the provision of Afterlife sounds compatible with the system of divine religion.

(9)  Scientific Indications:  Some scientists believe in the Afterlife while others don’t. However, they have near full consensus at least in one aspect, that's about some changes taking place in the natural world that are symptomatic of the upcoming Dooms Day. Such examples include the destruction of ozone layer under the 'green house' effect, global warming leading to high frequency of wildfires and polar ice melting causing submersion of low-lying areas, casual deaths of planets or cooling of their interior, chances of collision among them due to their occasional proximity, cycle of life (birth, growth and death) for man, everything except Eternal God trending to decay and destruction etc.

In fact, God put in place a system in whch His numerous natural elements are capable to destroy and they are waiting for God’s Command to destroy on the Dooms Day everything except “(God’s) Own Face” (28:88). Examples of the above destructive elements include but are not limited to: fire, water, ice, soil, air, wind, light, heat, uranium, radium, bacteria, virus, etc. The scientists have no precise idea about what of these agents will be used to destroy the Universe or how that will happen. Turning to wild guess, some say it will take place through reappearance of the ‘ice age’, others say through fiery (solar burning) condition and so on. However, on top of all these opposing views is the knowledge of God about how He will destroy the Universe, as revealed through numerous verses of the Quran (ex: 101:3-5, 101:11; 19:90; 77:8; 77:10; 81:6).

(10) Costs and Benefits of Belief in the Afterlife
Though belief in the Afterlife deserves unconditional acceptance, yet any cost-benefit analysis should convince a potential or marginal believer that belief promises to be more rewarding than unbelief.  The 17the century French mathematician Pascal proved through mathematical calculation that there is infinite probability to benefit from believing in God. Now we present below a non-mathematical version of the potential costs and benefits from believing in the Afterlife.  For this calculation, we attribute one positive value of (+) for each of (i) personal benefits (physical and mental) and (ii) social benefits (flowing from communal peace linked to your virtuous conduct). Likewise, negative value of (-) is given for lacking in each of these dual benefits: at both (i) personal and (ii) social level.

After Belief: After your belief, when the Afterlife will turn out to be true, your personal gains (due to your physical and mental wellbeing in both lives) will be infinitely positive (+) and earthly social benefits (thanks to your virtuous deeds) will also be positive (+). Otherwise, if your Afterlife belief proves to be false (which will certainly not happen as per atheism), then you will have almost nothing to lose in your personal life. Instead your virtuous life will make your earthly personal gain (through peace of mind) positive (+) and social benefits will also be positive (+) due to your faith induced good deeds.

After Unbelief: On the other hand, if an atheist’s rejection or unbelief of the Afterlife turns out to be true (i.e. absence of Afterlife will however not happen), then his personal benefits will be negative (-) for lack of mental peace (or depression) due to atheism induced bad behavior. In addition, his surrounding society will also suffer from lack of discipline resulting from his sinful actions which will bring him a negative (-) gain. However, when his disbelief in the Afterlife proves to be wrong (that means the Afterlife becomes a reality), then his personal gains will be infinitely negative (-) due to intolerable punishment from Hellfire and his social benefits will also be negative (-) due to supposed dominance of his vicious actions for lack of accountability in the Afterlife.

In sum, based on the above, four pluses (++++) go to the credit of belief and four minuses (----) measure the loss from unbelief or atheism. It is therefore logical to accept the reality of the Afterlife for becoming a sure success rather than playing a losing game through unbelief.  Such belief is not a small matter like any earthly affair that we can gamble with. Since all arguments, symptoms and documentary evidences gravitate toward the reality of the Afterlife, there is no better way of showing your wisdom than investing your faith therein.

Conclusion: The above facts suggest that the Afterlife is a reality that no rational being can ever deny and no one can do that without risking endless harms for self.