Life After Death

Life After Death

Muslims believe that individuals are accountable to God for their actions. Muslims also believe in the Day of Judgment, when all human beings will be called upon to render a complete account of their acts of commission and omission on earth.

The judgment will rest on one question: Did man conduct himself, in submission to God, in strict conformity with the truth revealed to the Prophets, and with the conviction that he will be held responsible for his conduct in life on the Day of Judgment? If the answer is yes, the reward will be Paradise. If not, Hell will be the punishment.

Belief in the hereafter divides people into three distinct categories.

First, there are those who do not believe in the hereafter and regard life on this earth as the only life.

Second, those people who do not deny the hereafter, but who depend on the intercession or atonement of some one to absolve them of their sins.

Third, are those people who believe in the hereafter in the form in which Islam presents it. They do not delude themselves that they have any special relationship with God, or that anyone can intercede on their behalf.

They know that they alone are responsible for their actions.

For them the belief in the hereafter becomes a great moral force.

A person who has the conviction that he is fully accountable for all his actions finds a permanent guard, stationed within himself, who cautions him and admonishes him whenever he deviates from the right path.

There may be no court to summon him, no policemen to apprehend him, no witnesses to accuse him, and no public opinion to press him, but the guard within him is ever on the alert, ready to seize him whenever he transgresses.

The consciousness of this inner presence makes man fear God even when he is all by himself.

He discharges his duties honestly, and refrains from doing anything which is prohibited.

Should he succumb to temptation, and violate the law of God, he is ever ready to offer sincere regrets, and enter into a firm contract... that he will not repeat the mistake.

There can be no greater instrument of moral reformation nor any better method to help man develop a sound and stable character.