Death - A Beginning not an End

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 Cross, 4 Main, LB Shastri Nagar,

Bangalore – 560017. Phone: 9886001357

For more information on Islam:

Visit : www.islam-guide.com

Mail us at : knowislam@live.com