The Hereafter: Life after Death

The Hereafter is a term used to describe the events that will take place after a person leaves this world. Each one of us upon death, upon the visit of the Angel of death our own individual journey begins. The Angel of death has been given a very clear job description, to remove the soul from the body, and the angel will do that without fail. Now, the soul could be removed in a gentle, peaceful and loving manner as will be the case of the believer. Or, it may be ripped out of the chest in pain, with suffering and not wanting to go as will be the case of the disbeliever. But the soul must be separated from the body and this process is called death. And Allah says:

“Every soul shall taste death..”1

And this process begins with the pangs of death which every person shall experience, death comes with pain.

“And the pangs of death are very real!”2

Aisha (ra) narrates that when the Prophet Muhammad was dying he is reported to have said

“Indeed for death there is real pain.”3

The Barzakh

Which literally means a period of waiting, is when the person is put in the grave and are to wait for the Day of Judgement. This waiting period, known as the Barzakh, could be another form of pleasure or punishment. The grave for the righteous person will be a garden from the gardens of paradise. And for the disbeliever, the grave will be a portion of the Hellfire. In the grave two angels will visit every person asking three fundamental questions:

1 – Who is your Lord?

2 – Who is your Prophet?

3- What is your Deen

And only an honest, sincere devoted believer will pass this test, the others will be punished severely for their incorrect answers.

The Blowing of the Trumpet

This blowing of the trumpet will be twice, once for the destruction of all creation, and the second by Angel Israfeel to extract the dead from their graves, marching their way to Allah waiting for their accountability.

The Day of Resurrection

At this stage the dead are raised from their graves and are herded towards a central meeting point. At this location all people will be waiting for this mighty day to begin.

“O Mankind! Fear your Lord! For the convulsion of the Hour (of judgement) will be a terrible thing!”4

The Big Gathering

This is the place where all the souls are gathered. The place where they are brought together waiting for their accountability to begin. At this place they will either receive their deeds in the right hand or in the left hand, the right signifying success and the left a complete failure.

Receiving ones book of deeds

It is at this point that each person will see what they have earned for this day. Their whole life will be presented to them and nothing will be left out. A very detailed, scary and decisive meeting with Allah with take place.

The Reckoning

At this stage after seeing your whole life in detail, you will then be questioned about it. Questions regarding your actions, speech and even your decisions. Allah tells us:

“That Day will every soul be requited for what it earned, no injustice will there be that Day, for Allah is swift in taking account.”5

The Scale (Mizan)

At this stage all your deeds will be put on a scale to be weighed. From the blessings of Allah, good deeds weigh far greater than the evil deeds. Allah informs us that one good deed is equal to 700 good deeds and one bad deed is equal to one bad deed. So, it’s a very favourable ratio 700:1. Allah is merciful and wants us all to go to Paradise but there are some of us that worked hard to go to the Fire.

The Pool of water belonging to the Prophet

This is a pool of water which streams from the river al kawthar in Paradise. It is a gift given to the Prophet by Allah, and on this day people will be very thirsty, and the believers will be given permission to drink from it. One sip of this heavenly water will quench one’s thirst forever.

The Bridge – Sirrat

This is yet another very scary experience, where a bridge which is described as being as thin as a hair and as sharp as a blade, to the bottom of the bridge is the Hellfire, and the bridge is described to have sharp objects on either side of it. A believer will fly across to the other side. The disbeliever will fall face forward into Hell and the sinful believer may cross and if he does he will struggle falling to the left and to the right but eventually making it to the other side.

Intercession of the Prophet Muhamad

It is at this point that a person may request the Prophet to intercede on his behalf, and to help him into paradise. If a person followed the Qur’an and the Sunnah then he is legible for the intercession of the Prophet with Allah’s permission.

Al A’raf

The place a person qualifies for both paradise and hell, Allah will decide here what he will do with these people

Hell

This requires no introduction. An eternal place of punishment, a place for the wrong doers, a place all the messengers warned against a place that every person could have avoided if they only took their lives in this Dunia seriously.

Paradise

Allah Is Great. This is the actualisation of the promise of Allah. Allah promises success and victory to the believers in the Dunia in the form of paradise. And now each believer that struggled and strived will taste the efforts of their hard work. Jannah consists of rivers of milk, honey, water and wine. Jannah will entertain all your desires. Allah has created for you all that which the eye has not seen, the ears have not heard the mind has not dreamt of. Eternal bliss.

[1] Aal-Imran 3:185

[2] Qaf 50:19

[3] Al-Bukhari

[4] Al-Hajj 22:1

[5] Al mominoon 23:17