The Hereafter and The End

The Hereafter and The End
Knowledge of the hereafter

There is no doubt that the death phenomenon has worried a man since he was present on this Earth and face it; he who admires immortality and survival. This issue has controlled his feelings and stimulated questions and doubts inside him so he tried to solve this confusing mystery through different means and ways.

This phenomenon has forced a man to search for his truth and essence because death is related to his self and character, trying to explain it and understand his reality as a step to control it and achieve immortality on the personal and group level. Thus, he searched for the soul. Is it a materialistic being or otherworldly material?

Starting from the point of view taken by a man, regarding a human being reality and the consequences of understanding death, some people say that death is complete destruction and eternal damnation where nothing exists after this life because they think that a man’s reality is only a materialistic phenomenon like any other materials that exist in this life.

The other group, which considers death as otherworldly, sees death as a movement from a life rank into a better rank; this is what the prophets (peace be upon them) give good tidings about and the revealed religions in general have followed.

Based on the second point of view, the question about the hereafter and the end becomes a logical justifier and whether the return and resurrection take place on the soul or body level or both of them because those who see death as destruction and damnation don’t need to ask these questions.

From here, we conclude that the fear and panic of death, felt by most people, results from the absence of certainty regarding the better life that follows death or the absence of certainty regarding the reward because they are not sure if their deeds are accepted and considered as good deeds.

Death, in reality, is the separation of the soul from the body so that the latest disappears and is covered with sand while the soul joins its isthmus or the eschatology and interacts with them.

A Man’s Truth:
However, people, as a result of their interest in the body and the world of matter, imagine that the body is all of the reality of man, so they think that it is the end of life. The Holy Quran was keen to prove life after death, and it falsified many of the statements of the polytheists, which are based on the exclusion and astonishment of the afterlife, refuting and treating the suspicions that come to their minds.

The honorable Sunnah also clarified many of the peculiarities related to that world, and proved that the reality of man is his soul, and that it wears a body other than the material body that it used to wear in the world of this world, similar to it. The body is nothing but a garment that this spirit and soul wears in this word, dictated by the nature of this life, and it has nothing to do with human reality. Abi Walad Al Khabbat reported that Abi Abdullah Al Hussein (a.s) says: I sacrifice myself for you, they say that the souls of the believers are placed in birds corps around the throne, so he answered: No, a human being is more honorable in the eyes of God than making his soul in a bird’s corp, but in bodies theirs now.[1]

It was also narrated by Younis bin Zibyan:” I was visiting Abu Abdullah Al Hussein (as) so he asked: what do people say about the believers' souls? So I answered: they say that they are placed in bird corp in lamps under the throne, so he said:” Glory be to God, a human being is more honorable in the eyes of God than making his soul in a bird’s corp. O Younis, when a man is dead, the prophet Mohammad will come to him with Al Imam Ali, Fatima, Al Hasan, Al Hussein and close angels (peace be upon them). After he’s dead, the soul will be placed in a body like his in life. He eats and drinks. If someone comes to him, he knows him from the same appearance that he had in life. [2]

Natural sciences have proven that the body consists of a group of cells that constantly change, until all the cells that existed at the beginning of creation are annihilated with the passage of time. However, no sane person has any doubt that the one who was born some time ago is the same as the one we see now. This indicates that the angle of a person’s unity and survival is something other than his changing body, which is characterized by permanence, and it is his soul and self.

Likewise, man does not disappear by death, as the composition of the soul and the body is not a chemical composition, as is the case in water, for example, so that its reality is negated, if one of the two elements of which this being is composed is negated.

As long as the human spirit remains after its separation from the body, its fading and its demise, then it is abstract and not material because if it was material, it would be its demise and extinction as is the case in matter.

His Eminence Al Sheikh Hatem Isma’il

[1] Bihar Al-Anwar, Part 6, p. 268
[2] Bihar Al Anwar, part 6, page 269