Carpe Diem #1384 Afterlife ...?

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

If I had known how difficult it would be to create this month than I had given it a thought again, because it's difficult to create this month. I have read the Quran, as a wonderful book of wisdom, but I also experience a kind of doubtfulness, because I am a little sceptic about the idea that the Quran was given to Muhammed by God the Almighty. I for sure have doubts on that idea, because Islam is a very young religion (born in the 7th century CE) and there are to much similarities between the Quran and other holy books. But as I stated in earlier posts I respect the idea that the Quran was given to Muhammed.

Because of my doubts its very difficult to write these posts, but on the other hand I enjoy writing them. I think we have all the opportunity to question the things we experience or the books we read, or the believes around the globe. I am a spiritual being and I love everyone and everything unconditional, but sometimes ... well I think you all understand what I mean.

Today's episode is about the so called "afterlife". I ran through the Quran and found a few wonderful Ayah in several Surah about the idea of "afterlife". Maybe you can remember our special Theme Week about the "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", or maybe you can remember what I wrote back in 2013 in that beautiful month about the Tarot. In those posts I already mentioned "afterlife" and "reincarnation". And I was a little bit surprised to read about the "afterlife" in the Quran. The ideas about "afterlife" are almost the same as I know them from the Bible, or from the Hindu and Buddhism ideas I have read about. So there is a source, a well, from which all those ideas flow and that makes the idea that Muhammed compiled the Quran from all other religions and philosophies a bit stronger. I even think that all known and unknown religions have the same roots ... nature and how mankind looked at it and learned from it. How mankind was honoring and praising nature, because isn't that the true religion ... nature?

Nature ... source of all religions

Well ... that was my introduction, let me now share the verses of the Quran that I mentioned above.

[...] "Until, when death comes to one of them, he says, “My Lord, send me back. That I may do right in what I have neglected.” By no means! It is just a word that he utters. And behind them is a barrier, until the Day they are resurrected. When the Horn is blown, no relations between them will exist on that Day, and they will not ask after one another. Those whose scales are heavy—those are the successful. But those whose scales are light—those are they who have lost their souls; in Hell they will dwell forever." [...](Source: Surah 23: Ayah 99-103)

What does this mean, I found a wonderful website that gave a nice explanation of these verses.

[...] "This ayah describes the end of worldly life as we know it and the immediate thing that will happen afterwards. The end of this life will begin with the blowing of Horn. Once the Horn is blown, it will stand as a signal for the start of Judgment procedure and what happens afterwards is the weighing of the deeds of a person. The ones who have deeds heavy than their sins are the ones who are successful and will go on to the heaven and the ones who are on the contrary will go to hell. It is the latter, who will then beg to Allah to send them back to world so that they could do good deeds, but by then it will be too late for them and they will have nothing but the eternal life of damnation." [...] (Source: Qurantutor)

Higher Self

In addition to the life after death that each and everyone of us will have, there is an exception as well. It is of the people who die in the name of God. Such Muslims are called ‘Martyrs’ and as per Islamic doctrines the martyrs don’t die once their worldly body ceases to breathe, rather they are the ones who keep on living even before the Judgment day forever. Regarding them, God says in Quran:

[...] "Do not consider those killed in the cause of God as dead. In fact, they are alive, at their Lord, well provided for."[...] (Source: Surah 4: Ayah 169)

[...] "The belief in the life of martyrs soon after death is another example that ascertains the belief of a Muslim that with the end of this life the life does not end, rather, we go into the next life and start living it. Therefore, a Muslim is never to grow skeptic of the life that comes after death, rather one needs to prepare for it and spend the hours and minutes of this life in performing good deeds so that when the Day of Judgment comes, the scale stays heavier on the good deeds and consequently Jannah (or paradise) is awarded to the Muslim.

The problem of what happens after the tomb is one of the absolute problems that has been haunting mankind since its existence. In this regard, perhaps the most satisfying answer is provided by Islam where it tells people that life does not end, rather a new life begins and that is the life that is in the environment which man is destined to live in, however, to achieve that a person has to do good with this life and spend it in the right way." [...] (Source: qurantutor)

Jannah (Paradise) (Persian miniature)

In these verses we can read that in Islam there is an idea about reincarnation, as we know it from Buddhism or Hinduism, when you didn't reach your life's goal as given to you by God, Spirit, Higher Self or what ever you call it. In the idea of "afterlife" I think all religions find eachother. Isn't that a great idea? Maybe ... just maybe all the religions and philosophies will once see that and will leave their differences and find eachother in the love of God.

fountain of life
eternal river of youth
paradise

© Chèvrefeuille

phoenix spreads its wings

after the dark cold winter night

finally spring

© Chèvrefeuille (2017-06)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 14th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on.