Islam The Voice of Human Nature
4. THE HEREAFTER
~ 80 ~
We are all familiar with the facts of our origin and
the course which life takes from the womb until
death. But at the end of our lifespan, whether it
terminates in youth or in old age, our familiarity
with the nature of things comes to an end. It has
been surmised that death means total and final
annihilation. But this is not so. Death is simply a
means of consigning us to a new womb, to the
womb of the universe’ itself. From that point, we
are ushered into another world: the Hereafter.
While the present, physical world as we know it has
a finite time-frame, the Hereafter stretches away
from us into infinity. We fondly imagine that there
is some parallel between the pleasures and pains of
this world and those of the next, but, in truth,
nothing that we can experience in this world will
ever match the extremes of agony and bliss of the
life after death. Those who merit punishment in the
Hereafter will be condemned to suffer the most
horrific pain for all time to come. But those who
merit God’s blessings in the Hereafter shall know
the most wonderful joy and contentment.
It is because life in this world is intended to be a
testing-ground that the world of the Hereafter
