The Hereafter Life: Islamic concepts and multifaceted proofs (original) (raw)

Rituals and Beliefs Surrounding Death in Islam

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, 2020

The view of human nature within Islam can be derived from the Qur'an and the Hadiths. The Qur'an states that God created everything in six days (7:54; 57:4), and after informing the angels about the creation of human beings and their superiority over them (15:28-29), he formed them from dirt (22:5; 23:12-16). God keeps a supply of souls in heaven and takes them from there 1 (Merklin 2012:3) to place in each human being, choosing the right one for each person (Sahih Muslims 1214). Therefore, it is God who put a soul inside the first man's body of clay and he became alive (Qur'an 32:7-9). The Muslim belief regarding the soul is that the soul lives on into eternity and will receive the reward or punishment along with the body (Allen and Toorawa 2011:56). Haeri (1991:2) believes that the final destiny of people will be decided at the final judgment, but this life is given to finally allow the soul to return to where it emerged from, and that is permanent non-time reality. Although the angels knew that humans would be disobedient and sin against God (Qur'an 3:30), Merklin (2012:6) explains that humanity's failure was in that they had "forgotten" God and his ways. The Qur'an records that people were created weak (4:280), impatient (70:19), stingy (17:100), and argumentative (18:54), and it is the soul that prompts a person to do wrong as when Cain's soul told him to kill his brother (5:29). Islamic View of Death and State of the Dead The Qur'an (67:2) states that God is the one who created death and life to test humans. In Islamic literature the meaning of death is to move from a life of sorrows and sufferings to a permanent life of peace and comfort

Life, Death, and the Life to Come - an Islamic Perspective

A Qur'anic prayer says, In the Qur'an, Life and death are often contrasted in this manner. Day and night as phases of activity and rest, the seasonal changes with blossoms, the ripening of the fruit, the withering of the plants and the revival of the soil are aspects of the same existence, components of the same circle of nature, traced back to the One Source of Being who created everything in pairs, and the same applies to life and death.

(2013) Lived eschatology: Muslim views on life and death. Preliminary practices.

In T. Quartier, E. Venbrux, C. Venhorst & B. Mathijssen (Eds.), Changing European Death Ways. Münster: LIT Verlag.

Eschatology (beliefs concerning the last things the beliefs, we associate with death rites) has strong roots in Islamic primary sources. The afterlife is a major theme in the Quran; it frequently speaks about death, the end of the world and resurrection, as does the Hadith. Belief in the day of judgment and resurrection is explicitly mentioned as one of the five articles of the Islamic faith. 1 The Islamic eschatological narrative has been studied thoroughly over the years. A good example is The Islamic understanding of death and resurrection , which provides an in-depth analysis of the eschatological myth and its development over centuries. Underexposed in this theological understanding of the end of time and the hereafter is the way these eschatological perceptions are actually lived and ritually enacted by Muslims. We take a close look at the eschatological meta-narrative as an organising principle for thinking and action (Cortazzi 1994, 157) and locate lived eschatology in the ritual process.

An Islamic View of Death and Dying

Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America, 1996

if he leaves wealth, that he make a bequest to parents and next of kin according to re<lsollable usage ....us The'e and other «'ayat" (verses) give details of how a dying Muslim should divide and distribute his properly. R1lsul-AWih fPBUH] advised Muslim to visit the sick, especially when deaLJl is near, and advised them to recite the "Shahadah" (the Islamic article of faith [wiUless)) or "Surat Yasill" and LJIa~the dying person should recite the Shahadah. 'Abu S'aid al~Khudri [RAAJ narrated that tIle prophet [PBUH] said: "Instruct the dying person to say, 'La ilaha illaIl3h'" (fhere is no god but God [Allah)).6 For Muslims, it is clear Illat Allah, not man, is in charge of death, as revealed in tlle following verses:

Resurrection -The Quranic Demonstration in This Life

Resurrection (life after death) is one of the basic belief in the religion of Islam. We should not just believe (Iman) in it, we should be certain (yaqeen) about it. How can one prove the happening of an event that will occur in a distant future? The Quran has not only asserted that it will happen, but has demonstrated many components of it. This paper will explain how these examples can help us develop certainty about resurrection. The Quran first establishes that, from the perspective of soul, the sleep and the death are the same. In both the cases the soul departs from the body. The Quran then demonstrates that the departed soul has the potential of returning to the body, whether the person is asleep or dead, as long as the body is intact. If it is not intact, it can be reconstituted from the pieces of flesh or like a plant, it can be sprouted back from a seed (nucleus of the cell or the cell itself). The Quran has thus demonstrated all the aspects of resurrection. The resurrection on the Day of Judgement will happen by first reconstituting the body by sprouting it back from a seed (nucleus of the cell or the cell itself). The soul will then be returned to the reconstituted body. The person will feel as if he has just woken up from a night sleep. Resurrection thus should just not be a matter of belief (iman), it should rise to the level of certainty (yaqeen).

Islamic Death: An Exploration into the Traditions and Rituals Associated with an Islamic Death

Death and dying, for all people, is a unique process to the individual and also the community around them; death rituals are for both the living mourners who celebrate their deceased loved ones lives as well as for the souls of the deceased. However, religious or personal beliefs can alter how a person handles the process of death. Islam is no exception; Muslims have a distinct methodology for dealing with the death of a loved one. This is an essay explaining the traditional, fundamental ways in which Muslims handle the death, funeral and burial of the deceased. These processes are defined by the hadith, which are the words of approval or disapproval by the Prophet Muhammad, which is the final law. It should be noted that, for Muslims living in the western world, some of the following traditions might not be able to be applied fully due to western laws and regulations, such as burying the body without a coffin. Also, due to modernity and reformation of Islam, some of these rituals may have adapted and evolved to the times, such as allowing women to be more active in the burial process. That being said, the discussion that follows on how Muslim's traditionally handle the deceased can proceed.

Sufi views of life in the grave, Chapter 5 pp. 109-129

Sufi Cosmology (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section 1; The Near and Middle East), 2022

The mystery of death has been treated in Islam since its formative era. This chapter, however deals with post Qur’anic treatises that elaborate on the nascent-eschatological ideas presented in the Qur’an. While satisfying natural human curiosity concerning the enigma of death, these treatises convey detailed information about the world of the dead and suggest a continuous existence between the two worlds. In so doing any possible thought about the finality of death is rejected. Each piece of evidence from the afterlife that reaches the present world assures the living of a posthumous survival of human beings and of their full-fledged life after death. The quality of this other life is determined by the actions performed during the first chapter of life. Accordingly, the correlation between the two worlds is very delicate. While building an argument about the futility of the present world and the high value of the next world, the present world is never stripped of independent validity. It rather has a decisive influence on the afterworld. The purpose of life on earth is to enable the believer to accumulate good deeds that, in the hereafter, will intercede on behalf of their performers. Thus, through countless narrations presented in this popular eschatological literature, the theoretical notion of the interaction between the two worlds turns into a tangible and relatable reality. While demonstrating day to day actions, accompanied with descriptions of deep emotions of the dead, the fantastic narrations surveyed in the present chapter not only immerse us into a world of mystery, but also assure the inevitability of actual life in the grave.