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eath...?
MUBAREK ABDESSALAMI
any questions have been venturing in quest for truth since the dawn of history. Man proved to be very curious about unknown phenomena and issues around him which he was unable to explain. With time, He was convinced that he could assimilate everything even those things beyond his brain abilities to understand. So he persisted and endeavored to reach his goals; first by magic .. And step by step he developed some rational faculties... When scientific methods of investigation evolved enough to replace magic, the real long thorny path of reason was opened over the tough searching tasks .. Man sometimes succeeded in finding "answers", but most of the time he got only parts of the answers. He very often got false answers and he was contented that they were the final truth. More often he got no answers at all. But time has proven he was completely on the wrong path because the brain was not the only tool needed in his quest for truth. Until later when the new generations found out that their ancestors failed to reach their goals because their tools, methods and techniques were primitive, they started to deal with the question of existence among others from a new perspective.
hanks to the quick development of scientific researches, methods and techniques as well as the technological progress, man became able to explain many of the phenomena that the previous generations couldn't. Still Man should never forget that since he corrected many of his predecessors theories, his theories are subject to many testing phases in the future and may be what he thinks it is true today will prove to be complete funk in the future.
mong the biggest questions that man is still unable to solve are about the phenomenon of death and the possible life after this stage of earthly existence. I don't intend to answer this question by myself but I'll try to see it from a heavenly angle. I must show first that I do believe in the Day of Judgment and what will happen after. Moreover I'd like to display that my present subject will address those who have some knowledge of religion in general and Islam in particular. It goes without saying that the believers have no doubt concerning the ultimate doomsday. They are also sure that there will be heaven-dwellers and hell-goers.
o begin with, I'd like to remind those who read the holly Qur'an of the basics of Islam notably those who follow the right path will end up in a comfortable everlasting life after death. And those who happen to follow the path of Satan will end up in Hell. No matter what people do, their own good-doing will not be enough to make them reach the level of heaven-dwellers. It is Allah's Mercy which will improve the few good things they used to do during their life. Nevertheless nothing is sure about who will go to Heaven and who will be in Hell. That's not up to us to decide from the few things we know about Allah's bounty. What I'll discuss however are three important things. First, What Heaven and Hell are supposed to be like? Second, what man will look like during the Day of Judgment? And as a final point, I'll talk a little about the concept of time between earthly life and heavenly one.
ccording to the holly Qur'an's description of both Heaven and Hell, man is unable to even imagine the expansion and the beauty of the places. We all know that mankind will gather at once to see to what extent they respected Allah's commands. So how many people will gather that day provided that From Adam up to now that number is impossible to know exactly although some scientists estimated eighteen billion people added to them the generations that will come after us; and since we don't know how long mankind will exist on earth it will be impossible to even think of a figure. What I aim at is to show the great number of people in relation to the huge place which will carry them all. From the Hadith of our prophet Mohammad (pbuh), we know that the heavens are far away from each other. Therefore the heaven will not be one separate place but a number of beautiful planets. Each one of them will be reserved for the believers according to the level of their faith and worship to Allah's commands. The heaven will be full of things that people used to know already during their life time. Yet they are not the same. They will see and taste fruits that they think they have already known before. Those fruits however are of another category that only the resemblance which copes with the earthly ones. "Their fruits will have such resemblance to those of the earth…" Hell on the other hand will be a sort of a "sun" which produces its heat and fire through a nuclear particles fusion. A lot of verses describe Hell as Fire, and this fire will never cool down."ãÓÊÚÜÑÉ": forever burning. Allah says,"…The Fire whose fuel is men and stones and which has been prepared for those who deny the Truth." All in all, this is a mere weak approach to my own interpretation of the holly text of the Qur'an. I hope I could open doors for more thinking and analysis. Those who believe in the Hereafter have nothing to be septic about because what they are sure that Heaven and Hell exist no matter where. The essential is that we are going to witness things that we have never thought about before. Billions of people will be standing on one single plane ground. How wide will it be? Surely, the planet earth will not be enough because it will be a very narrow place for that larger number of people. Or if it will be on this planet, there will be another form and shape, No mountains, for instance, only large wide flat space of land on which those shabby looking people standing under a very hot sun waiting for their turn to be judged. Once the judgment "day" has ended, each one will have already known his destination and his final station.
ome people argue about the age of resurrected people in that day. I'd rather not discuss this point, but what sort of bodies the souls will wear. We all agree that the bodies are just a sort of vehicles that carry our souls. When the souls go back to their master, the bodies lie down useless and good only for burying. The bodies will wear out under the ground. They will lie there for only Allah wot how long. I presume that they won't be reused to carry the souls they used to carry during their life time. Therefore the question what sort of vehicles will suit our souls in those different dimensions. I suppose the bodies won't be the ones we use now. According to the holly Qur'an, those bodies, once in heaven they won't suffer at all. Accordingly they will be pure celestial heavenly bodies almost like those of angels. What about the bodies "the rightful owners of the fire" will be like? We already know that they will have skins so as to suffer pain. And because "they will abide therein" When their skins are used out, God will replace them so as to permanently feel the pain. Apart from that, the earthly heavy bodies will stay on earth their first origin. They are practically not suitable to undergo all those long "years" just in judgment. Unbelievers would doubt about this, however let's quote from the holly Qur'an,
"The originator of the Heavens and the earth! When He decreeth a thing He saith unto it only: Be! And it is."
his proves that nothing is impossible for Allah. New bodies are the most justified logically, scientifically, and religiously. Because the Earth will not be the same so will the bodies that the earth carried. Those bodies will undergo severe tests that only other forms of bodies will be able to support. More importantly then is the fact that our bodies in those "days" will be stemmed out from the earthly ones. It is reported that the prophet Mohammad (Pbuh) said that all our earthly bodies will decompose except for one part of them and that's the bone at the bottom of the backbone. From it our new bodies will be created for the "heavy" Day of Judgment. Now, what about that day? Will it be the same as the one we used to live fittingly on earth?
ime is another big question. The time we are used to, will no longer be useful. Another standard will be followed. I mean that the "day" at the hereafter will be thousands of our earthly years. And the more the stages of judgment carry on, the more the criterion changes. There will be places where the day is one thousand earth years; in other places and circumstances the day is more than that. Even distances should be measured through light years mediums. Therefore the notion of both time and place will be completely different; and more complicated to imagine.
obody would argue then that the measuring system for the whole cosmos will change. We can't preview how, but it is sure there will be a complete change in everything. The planets, galaxies and the whole universe will change in a recycling manner. Besides this, the bodies which constitute the vehicle without which our souls would be undetectable are useful for Earth laws not for other planets'. Take for instance the change that occurs on our bodies once they are on the moon. The bodies which can live on the moon should be heavier, have no lungs for there is no oxygen to breath and so on. That's an example from the present life what about the Hereafter. Everything will operate in terms of other dimensions, systems and criteria which we know nothing about. In a word, we have to believe that our bodies are just temporary vehicles that soon after death they become of no utility. And our souls are taking different shapes and using different bodies from their creation, not birth, until their final station in Heaven or in Hell. Broadly speaking, the global view of the Hereafter will be simply and purely Celestial...That's perhaps all that our limited intelligence could reach so far and any further questions concerning details would not only be heresy but a complete conundrum as well.
N.B. : All the ideas stated on this page are subject to questioning. Please do send Feedback. [abdessalami2001@yahoo.com] the e-mail box where your comments are welcome!
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