Life after Death 2

"Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good, by way of trial. To Us must you return." (21:35)
"Every soul shall have a taste of death: In the end to Us shall you be brought back." (29:57)
Death is not pure annihilation, but rather both the living and dead are aware, but there is a difference that can't be compared. Death is merely movement from one world to another. It can be described as a journey through a wormhole to a separate dimension of existence.
We begin this journey in our mother's wombs. 120 days after
conception the soul is blown into the fetus. Narrated 'Abdullah bin Mus'ud: "Allah's Apostle, the true and truly inspired said, '(The matter of the Creation of) a human being is put together in the womb of the mother in forty days, and then he becomes a clot of thick blood for a similar period, and then a piece of flesh for a similar period. Then Allah sends an angel who is ordered to write four things. He is ordered to write down his (i.e. the new creature's) deeds, his livelihood, his (date of) death, and whether he will be blessed or wretched (in religion). Then the soul is breathed into him'"[Bukhari]
We have no choice in who our parents are, our race, color or nationality. "He it is Who shapes you in the wombs as He pleases. There is no god but He, The Exalted in Might, The Wise." (3:6) Allah knows all of this before our birth even, but we still continue our journey to fulfill our destiny.
The next part of our trip begins after we are born. This is the life of this world, in which we now reside and are familiar with. We may stay at this station for a few seconds or as long as 100 years or more. Here we grow up and acquire the means to happiness or misery. We are given the ability to make choices after the age of puberty and we will later be punished or rewarded based upon them. Allah gives each of us the natural Fitrah, knowledge of good and bad as well as
right and wrong. The rest is up to us. As the Quran says, "By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it, and its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right--Truly he succeeds that purifies it, and he fails that corrupts it!" (91:7-10)
In this life, the soul and the body are together except during sleep when the soul may leave the body and come back in the morning or Allah may take the soul at that time. "It is Allah that takes the souls at death; and those that die not (He takes) during their sleep: those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back (from returning to life), but the rest He sends (to their bodies) for a term appointed. Verily in this are Signs for those who reflect."
(39:42) It is indeed something to be pondered; that we die each night and Allah gives us another chance at life when we wake up the next day.
We also find continuous biological processes of life and death during this time. In every cell, organ or system of organs, life and death is occuring. There are several hundreds of thousands of enzymatic reactions that take place in the body every fraction of a second. Some of these biochemical reactions are used to synthesize living materials while others are either used to synthesize dead materials or to get rid of living materials. "You (Allah) bring the Living out
of the Dead, and You bring the Dead out of the Living" (3:27)
This part of our journey ends as our death begins.
No one knows where, how and when he or she will die. "Verily, the knowledge of the hour is with Allah (alone). It is He who sends down rain, and He who knows what is in the wombs, nor does anyone know what it is that he will earn on the morrow. Nor does anyone know in
what land he is to die. Verily, with Allah is full knowledge and He is acquainted (with all things.)" (31:34) Nor does anyone have the right to take his or her own life. If they do they will
automatically go to Hell. The One who gave life is the only one who has the right to take life.
When someone begins to die the Angel of Death or Izraeel comes to take the soul out of the body and puts it in a place called the Barzakh. "Say: 'The Angel of Death, put in charge of you, will (duly) take your souls. Then shall you be brought back to your Lord." (32:11) "Wherever you are, Death will find you out, even if you are in towers built up strong and high! " (4:78)
For those who led a life of evil, the removal of the soul is tough and difficult. Sometimes, more than one angel has to work together to beat the face and back of the deceased. But for those who lived a good life, the soul yearns to meet its Lord and leaves the body with ease, like a drop of water pouring out. A light like the sun's ray and a sweet fragrance come out to the soul. Then it ascends amid rows of angels, but those who are there cannot see or smell this. The deceased is questioned, punished, beaten, and wails, and cries out. All this happens while they lie dead and their family is around them, but they neither hear nor see it. The sleeper dreams and enjoys their dream or is tormented by it, while someone awake at their side is not able to perceive what is going on at all.
Allah has given inanimate objects awareness and perception by which they glorify their Lord. The stones fall down out of fear of Him. The mountains and trees prostrate. The pebbles, water and plants glorify Him. All this is going on but we are not aware of it. "There is nothing which does not glorify His praise but you do not understand their glorification." (17:44) The Companions heard the food that was being eaten glorifying Allah. That was because the Companions had a transparency of heart that does not now exist among us. All these things are part of our world and yet we are in complete ignorance of them. It is not too much of an extrapolation to extend this to our being unaware of the things of the Next World.
After the soul is taken, if it is a pure soul and has relatives in the Next World who are people of the Garden, they come to meet the soul with yearning and great joy. They ask it about the condition of those who are still alive and 'suffering' in this world. The angels then bear the soul from one heaven to the next until it comes into the presence of Allah, Then it returns and sees the washing of the body, its shrouding, and the funeral procession. It says either, 'Take me forward! Take me forward!' or 'Where are you taking me?' The living, of course, hear none of this. The soul comes back and stays floating above the body and when the corpse is placed in the
grave, the soul inserts itself between the body and the shroud so that the questioning can take place.
Whenever someone died, the prophet (saw) would stand for awhile at the burial site and then say, "Seek forgiveness for your (Muslim) brother and pray for his steadfastness since he is now being questioned." [Abu Dawud]
The angels pray for the soul of the believer in the heavens just as people pray over the body on earth. The soul hears the receding footfall of the last of the people who followed the funeral and the earth is levelled over them. The earth or even a rock hollowed out and sealed over with lead, would not prevent the two angels, Munkar and Nakir from reaching it.
This is all narrated in the following sound hadith of the prophet (saw): "When the believer is about to depart from this world and go forward into the Next World, angels with faces as bright as the sun descend from the heavens and sit around him in throngs stretching as far as the eye can see. Then the Angel of Death comes and sits at his head and says, "Good soul, come out to forgiveness and pleasure from Allah!" Then his soul emerges like a drop of water flows from a
water-skin and the angel takes hold of it. When he has grasped it, the other angels do not leave it in his hand even for the twinkling of an eye. They take it and place it in a perfumed shroud and fragrance issues from it like the sweetest scent of musk found on the face of the earth.'
"Then they bear it upwards and whenever they take it past a company of angels, they ask, 'Who is this good soul?' and the angels with the soul reply, 'So-and-so the son of so-and-so,' using the best names by which people used to call him in this world. They bring him to the lowest heaven and ask for the gate to be opened for him. It is opened for him and angels who are near Allah from each of the heavens accompany him to the subsequent heaven until he reaches to the heaven where Allah the Great is. Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says, 'Register the book of My slave in 'Illiyun and take him back to earth. I created them from it and I return them to it and I will bring them forth from it again.'


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