INTRODUCTION
Death is a certainty that all the humans on the face of
earth agree upon. Often we see, hear or talk about
someone's death but what happens after death? Is death
really the end? Some might say "What is
there to think
about death? It's beyond our control. Our time will come
and we will die — that is it. While there is time, we
must
make most out of our life. Eat, drink, love, achieve
power
and glory, earn money, etc. Don't think about an
unpleasant thing like death." If death is the end, then yes,
we need not think about it but what if death is not the
end? So, let's think about this.
HOW DID WE COME TO EARTH? WHO PLACED US HERE?
Did we come from nothing? Did we create ourselves? Did
we come to earth on our own will? If the answer is “no” for
all the questions above, do we have a creator?
Scientists agree that Universe had a beginning as the age
of the universe can be measured. Since Universe has a
beginning, we are left with just two possibilities for the
origin of the Universe - 1) Universe came into existence
from nothing or 2) Universe was created by a Creator
whom we refer to as God.
If someone believes that Universe came into existence
from nothing, it means that this universe created itself
when it did not exist. It is like saying that the pen created
itself or you gave birth to yourself. This is logically and
scientifically impossible. Since the universe did not create
itself, the only possibility is that the Universe was created
by a Creator. The same Creator Who created the Universe,
also created us.
YOU MAY ASK “OKAY, WHO CREATED THE CREATOR?”
We use “Time” to measure the beginning and end of
everything. Just like the Universe, “Time” also came into
existence. All things created in this Universe are
dependent on time; hence they all have a beginning and
end. The Creator who created the universe was present
even before “time” came into existence and is hence
independent of it. Therefore, the Creator can neither have
a beginning nor an end and has always existed. For
example: if this pamphlet had existed forever it would not
need a creator or an author. The same holds good with the
Creator (God) as well.
WHY DID GOD CREATE US? WHY THIS LIFE AND DEATH?
God did not create us for play and fun. God created us for a
purpose to worship Him alone and not worship any of His
creations like idols, images, sun, star, planets, humans etc.
Worshipping God includes offering prayers and living a life
of obedience to God by performing good deeds and
staying away from all evil deeds.
YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO GOD FOR YOUR DEEDS ON EARTH
You might have heard some people say, “Forget about
being good. Many corrupt and bad people enjoy their life
with fame and money. Why should we care to be good? All
that matters is success in life.” On the face of it, the
comment looks very appealing but what we need to
remember is that God, Who is our Creator, is Most Just
and will not let us get away with what we did in this world.
Each one of us is answerable to God for our deeds we do in
this world.
The world will come to an end one day. All the human
beings from the first man to the last will be brought back
to life on the Day of Judgment and will be questioned for
their deeds. After you die, you will be brought back to life
on the Day of Judgement along with the rest of mankind.
IS IT LOGICAL TO BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH?
We all know that creating something for the first time will
be difficult and repeating the same thing again is easier.
When God did not have any difficulty creating us the first
time, why will He find it difficult, to give us life after we
die? Bringing us back to life after our death is indeed very
easy for God.
DO WE REALLY NEED A LIFE AFTER DEATH?
We need Life after Death because we all desire justice. The
world we live in is filled with injustice. Around us, we can
see lot of good people suffering, while many bad people
enjoy their life.
Perfect and complete justice is not possible in this world.
To give an example, how do we punish a suicide bomber
who kills himself and also kills several innocent people
leading the families of the innocent victims into grief and
emotional distress? How do we compensate the innocent
people who lost their lives in the suicide bombing?
Although we would all agree that the suicide bomber
should be punished and the innocent victims should be
compensated, in reality we can neither punish the suicide
bomber nor can we compensate the innocent victims
killed by the suicide bomber.
PERFECT JUSTICE IN THE LIFE AFTER DEATH
God has been watching us, knowing our intentions and is
fully aware of the effects of our deeds in this world.
God will weigh our good deeds against our bad deeds, and
pronounce His judgment on us accordingly. Even the
smallest of our deeds will be taken into account on the Day
of Judgment. Every person will know for what he is
rewarded or punished.
The reward will be Paradise and the punishment will be
Hell. The life in Paradise and Hell will be eternal. Since the
life in Paradise and Hell is never ending, God can punish
evil people like suicide bombers as many times as the
number of people they killed or as many times as they
deserve to be punished. Similarly, God can compensate
the innocent victims as many times as He wants without
an end. This is the Perfect Justice every human being longs
for but fails to get in this world.
PARADISE – FOR WHOM, HELL - FOR WHOM?
The righteous people who worshipped the One True God
and never prostrated to or prayed to any other thing or a
person, and lived a life of kindness and morality will be
rewarded with an Eternal bliss and delight in Paradise.
The evil and the arrogant people who after knowing the
truth, chose to worship and serve God's creations like
idols, images, sun, star, planets, humans etc. and lived a
life in disobedience of their Creator by performing evil and
shameful deeds will be punished in blazing Hell Fire for
eternity.
WHAT IS PARADISE?
Paradise is a place of never ending happiness where the
righteous will be given whatever they desire and ask for.
There will be no sickness, sorrow, enmity, jealousy,
aging
etc. God will gift the righteous with pleasures and
comforts that they have never seen, heard of or even
imagined.
WHAT IS HELL?
Hell is a place of never ending misery where the evil
will
suffer in blazing fire. They will neither die nor live.
Their
food will be dirty wound discharge (pus) and thorny
plants
and their drink will be extremely hot boiling water.
GOD IS MOST FORGIVING AND MOST MERCIFUL
God is not cruel and does not like to see people punished
in Hell. God rewards us multiple times for our good deeds
and He extends His infinite mercy through His unlimited
forgiveness and is ever willing to forgive the people who
seek His forgiveness. Only the arrogant people, who
refuse to correct their deeds and seek forgiveness from
God and die in that state, will end up in Hell fire.
WHAT ABOUT RE-BIRTH? WON'T WE COME BACK TO THIS EARTH AGAIN?
The element of justice is absent in the concept of birth
and
re-birth. One basic principle in rendering justice is to
reveal the reasons for punishment or reward. For
example: If a group of policemen come to your house and
say that you are arrested, won't you ask them “Why and
for what crime you are arrested?” If the police do not
disclose the reason for the arrest, won't you object to
the
arrest? Won't you consider this to be injustice?
Do you know if your birth in this world is your first or
second or third? Do you know for what deeds you are
rewarded or punished in this birth? If you do not know
the
answers for the above questions, is it not injustice that
you are punished or rewarded in this birth?
Also, if someone had harmed you in your past life, is
that
person punished for that sin? If yes, are you aware of
it? If
not, then justice has not been rendered to you! This
shows that the concept of rebirth is not only illogical
but
also devoid of Justice.
DID GOD TELL US ABOUT LIFE AFTER DEATH? IF YES, HOW?
God informed us about the purpose of our existence and
life after death through His Prophets. Prophets were
righteous human beings who lived as role models. The
Prophets were only human and they did not have any
divine qualities. Some of the Prophets are: Noah,
Abraham, David, Solomon, Moses and Jesus. God sent
Prophets to every country including India. The last and
final Prophet in the chain of Prophets was Prophet
Muhammad.
PROOF FOR LIFE AFTER DEATH – THE QURAN
Quran is the final revelation (Instruction Manual for
mankind) given through the last messenger of God,
Prophet Muhammad. Quran was not authored by Prophet
Muhammad. The entire Quran is the Word of God which
has remained unchanged for the last 14 centuries. God,
the author of Quran, challenges us to pick out a single
error in it. God says
There are more than a thousand verses in the Glorious
Quran, containing facts about various fields of science
like
geology, embryology, astronomy, botany, physics,
zoology, oceanography and psychology. Many scientific
facts mentioned in the Quran 1400 years ago have been
discovered only in the last few centuries. The Quran
which
spoke about these recent scientific discoveries with
remarkable accuracy also speaks about life after death
and so logically one can conclude that the concept of
life
after death mentioned in the Quran has to be true and
correct.
Your destination will be decided based on your actions on
earth. What would you like your destination to be -
Paradise or Hell? The choice is yours. Remember,
Death is a beginning not
an
end!
“Do they not consider the Quran
carefully? Had it been from others beside
God, then it
would have contained many errors and
inconsistencies”
(Quran Chapter 4: Verse 82).
nd th HOUSE OF PEACE, #8, 2
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