Afterlife in Islam and Major Religions
Afterlife is a concept in almost all the religions that believe in life after death. In Islam, it is considered a punishment or reward for one’s deeds in the world before the death transition. According to Alan Segal, the afterlife is the eventual reward that God serves his people who have been loyal and doing his deeds while on earth. However, it is quite different in other polytheistic religions such as early Romans or Greeks that do not consider the reality of the afterlife. To these religions, there is nothing like the afterlife, and it all ends here. Islamic religion believes in the materiality and literalism of afterlife. It goes ahead to describe how the afterlife will be realized after judgment on both the good and the bad people, which happens on the Day of Judgement. The Islamic holy book, the Quran, distinctively describes the minor and major signs of the judgement day, for example, there would be a major fire in Yemen, and the Anti-Christ would come, fire in Magog and Gog, the rising of the Sun in the west rather than the normal East and the coming of Christ (Jesus).
This will be the final day of people on earth, and there will be a resurrection of the dead for judgment. It is important to note that although the Quran describes the Judgment Day for the Muslims, the day is for all that lives on earth, and all people will be judged. This will be a judgment for all mankind irrespective of one’s religion. It is the good, moral deeds or the bad, unjust deeds that will grant one paradise or hell. Those who have been good and moral will be taken to the Paradise (Jannah), a place of all pleasures of life and enjoyment while those who have been bad and immoral will be taken to hell where there is a fire-dungeon. It is the disbelievers, Kafir that will be subjected to the repetitive burning of their flesh. My main aim in this paper is to discuss into details how Islam views afterlife as a religion and what everyone needs to know about the afterlife, irrespective of one’s religion.
To achieve the goal of the paper, I have organized the paper into different sections where the first section examines the Islamic view of paradise and hell. The second section focuses on the signs of the judgment day, both minor and major signs. The last section will be a comparison of the view of Afterlife of other religions such as the Jews and Christians. The paper will then be concluded in a summary of all the perceptions of Afterlife and my own view of the afterlife from a religious perception.
Hell is a special place that has been adequately prepared by God for those who have always disobeyed and rejected God’s messengers during their life on earth. It is a real place and not a spiritual entity or state of mind. It is characterized by pain, punishment, anguish, and horrors of higher magnitude than in real life. This is the worst place one can ever be, a place of ultimate loss and humiliation of those who disobeyed God. According to ReligionFacts.com (Page 1), it is a place that exists for eternity and the inhabitants will suffer in it for good. In addition to the sinful believers, there will also be unbelievers and polytheists who have failed to recognize God in their lives and failed to obey his teachings. In ensuring, no one can escape from hell because there will be nineteen guards at the gates of hell, and they are powerful enough to an extent they can subdue humanity on their own. All believers of Islamic religion aim God’s reward of being granted a place in Heaven, Jannah. The Quran describes this place as the most beautiful place ever full of satisfaction and dignity, quite close to Allah and a beautiful garden that everyone wishes to live in. This is a special place reserved for the righteous who obeyed and did what God required of them in the earth before their actual death. God’s grace will be in abundance, and this can be understood from the Quran’s perspective of Heaven as a place with virgins and wines, and ultimate pleasure for the righteous mankind (Nguyen 621).
The Day of Judgment will be realized from the signs that will occur on earth during the ending times. Some of the minor signs include lesbianism and homosexuality becoming quite common in the societies, there will also be more children born out of wedlock, adultery and fornication would be rampant and marital fidelity and virginity would be disregarded. Adding to that, there will be a disproportion between women and men to the extent that more women will be availed to single men. There would be universal acceptance of alcohol in the world, people would no longer care about the religious knowledge, swift movement of time, and there would be violence everywhere (Griffel 69). The Quran describes the major signs of the end times as that the world would witness the coming of antichrist, there would be smoke in the world, Magog and Gog, the rise of the sun in the west instead of the normal east, the earth would sink in three different places of Arabia, West, and East, the would be fire in Yemen to drive people to the assembly point where judgment would take place. The major signs would end with the coming of Christ who would be present on the Day of Judgement (Harcet 42).
Although most monotheistic religions believe in life after death, the sacred literature and texts of the Jewish are not clear on what really happens after one dies. Most of these religions are focused on the actions of rather than their beliefs. Therefore, there was little from their sages and prophets on what to expect after their death, but rather they concentrated on teaching the people on what they should do in their current lives. Basically, their purpose in life is to fulfill one’s responsibilities to God, and other fellow men, failure to which one gets punished and successfully achieving this purpose deserves a reward from God. They do not care whether punishments and rewards will continue after one has died or not. They consider afterlife to be here on earth where individuals die and continue living through others. Just like most monotheistic religions, Christianity believes in life after death particularly the souls of the Christians that God raises to new life. They believe in the resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion and Christians are required to obey God’s teachings and do his will to be with him in his new resurrection when he will come for the righteous. Afterlife was made possible through the coming of Jesus as a human being and later resurrecting back to Heaven. This gives Christians the hope of resurrecting from death and going to heaven.
However, the fair and just God will not let the evil without being punished. This makes it the existence of evil necessary. Some Christians believe in purgatory which basically refers to a state of Heaven and earth where people get cleansed from sin as they get prepared to ascend to heaven. Besides, Christianity believes there is a place in Heaven for those who might have unknowingly done God’s will on earth without necessarily understanding and believing in him. In the second coming of Christ, the dead will be resurrected, and God’s kingdom will be established from then. It is as well important to note the differences among Christian denominations in their view of the afterlife, for instance, evangelical Christianity believes in the bodily resurrection, and the body is expected to come back in its initial form as the soul waits for the judgment day (Holst 16).
This is different from the perception of protestant Christians where there is a belief in the soul immortality and not the body. According to them, the soul directly goes to Heaven after death, and some even believe there is no hell since God forgives and cannot take one to hell because of their sins. The last Christian view is based on Roman Catholics who believe in the judgment of the soul before being sent to Heaven or to a different place. Although there may be various Christian views on the afterlife, they all believe in life after death, and it depends on how ones have lived their present lives.
From the examination of Afterlife in different religious perspectives and how it will be realized when the time reaches, I can say that there is life after death and this life all depends on how we live our current world. Besides, it was clear from the signs of end times that some of the signs described in the Quran are quite evident in our current world, for instance, there is widespread homosexuality and it is legally allowed, there are various cases of violence around the world. This, therefore, gives people the opportunity to choose what they want to believe and the choice of doing good or bad in their lifetimes.