Life After Death

When one expires, in fact, one enters that world where the spatio-temporal restrictions do not exist any longer. Non-existence of restrictions is one thing and the non-existence of time and space is altogether another thing. One who after expiring is transferred to purgatory (Aaraf) experiences both the time and the space. Time and space both remain there in his mind. Just as in this worldly life one is constrained to live under a roof and it is necessary to consume food similarly in aaraf also it is essential that one should have a house, supplies of food and someone to talk and converse with. Life hereafter is not very different than it is here. Man experiences the same feelings and sentiments, which he experiences in this world.

The only difference is that this body of flesh and bones mixes into earth to become dust and the soul after leaving this material body makes a new body for itself in aaraf Just in this life as this body remains associated with various demands and needs in the same way these demands and needs are felt and fulfilled even in life after death. He feels hunger and thirst and to meet these demands he takes food and drinks water. He also lives through the moments of grief and enjoys the pleasures of delightful moments. At first sight there seems to be no difference between this worldly life and the life hereafter. The difference, in fact, is that of the speed of the conscious. The working of conscious, in life hear after, becomes so swift that the work ordinarily requiring months for its completion in this world is carried out in hours. This could be easily understood from the following example.

If one undertakes the journey from Karachi to London on foot one would require months to reach there but in an aeroplane one can reach there only after a few hours. One who wants to cover the distance of months in hours in this world is required to use an aeroplane whereas in the world here after even for a journey of years one would not be requiring an aeroplane, the speed of his mind would serve as an aeroplane. All this is about that realm where every one of us has to go willingly or not but one has to go. There exists no exemption for anyone. One who is once born in this phenomenal (material) world has to go to that realm whether he likes it or not.

We are familiar with the phenomenon of dreaming. In Aaraf more or less the same situation prevails. This could be stated that the dreams of this phenomenal world become the life of wakefulness in Aaraf (hereafter). The veil drawn between the unseen and the manifested is lifted after death but the veil drawn between the disobedient mind; the conscious and the Paradise remains there and is not removed unless it is lifted in the life of this world. If one could not be salivated from the disobedient mind in this phenomenal world then the same would remain predominating even after death. The most prominent features of life governed by this mind are anxiety, anguish, distress, tension, uncertainty about future, confusion, fears and phobias whether it is the life in this world or the hereafter. If someone is worried, under the influence of this mind, in this world, then he would remain worried even after death in life to come.

According to the laws stated by Allah, the most High, for lifting the veil drawn between the obedient and disobedient minds; the conscious and unconscious minds, it is necessary that the actual abode of man; the paradise should be witnessed in this life. If man could not acquaint himself with the life of Paradise in this world then he would never be able to enter the gates of Paradise in life hereafter. This thing has been very clearly explained in the Holy Quran by telling us about two classes of people residing in two different regions, namely, Sijjiyin and Alliyin. "And what will explain to thee what Alliyin is? And what that will explain to thee what Sijjiyin is? This is a register fully inscribed. A register in which every action, every movement, every motion and every breath of your life is recorded." That is, it is such a book in which every movement and every aspect of one's life is inscribed like a film.

Every act performed in this worldly life is picturized. If man is heading towards the Paradise and he witnesses Paradise then this whole journey would be picturized as a film of journey on the straight path. But if someone goes astray then this every step is leading him towards Hell, or to say, film of such a person's life would be ending in Hell.

When one passes away, on completion of his tenure in this world, appointed by God according to his will and plan, in his life in hereafter he watches the film made on his life in this world. If his life is spent, in this world, in travelling on that path which carried him away from Paradise and led him towards Hell then the film which he would be watching there would keep on reminding him that he had been heading towards Hell. And, if he lived in this world according to the laws of God only for the sake of Allah then the film watched there would be showing him that he had been heading towards the Paradise and he is entitled to the blessings of Paradise. LAW:- If the Paradise is not sighted in this world by someone then the life of Paradise would not be recorded in the film of his life.

This thing had been stated by the Holy Prophet in the following manner. "See the death before you are dead." Seeing the death before one is actually dead does not mean that one should stop eating to commit suicide, start living in jungle after abandoning the cities and towns, desist from wearing clothes and sever relations with ones children and parents. Seeing the death before one is actually dead means that one should become acquainted with the life after death in this life. When someone living in this life of material world manages to acquaint himself with the life of hereafter it is observed by him that Illiyin is the class of privileged people upon whom the favors of their Lord have been bestowed and they are the one who have been blessed with exaltation and Sijjiyin is that group of people who are deprived, distressed and convicted because of their wrongful deeds. It is the verdict of the Holy Quran that if one is blind in this life and cannot see owing to sightlessness then to would remain blind and sightless in hereafter. And, if one has managed to equip oneself in this world with the sight through which one can see the light that represents Allah then one would be able to behold God in life hereafter.

It is the proclamation of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) that be cautious of the sagacity of the believer because he sees through the Light of Allah. This statement of the Holy Prophet is not a similitude. Seeing through the Light is no simile. All that is stated by the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is factual reality, a reality in which there cannot be any variation. One with the ability to see the light can behold the world of light and if the sight required to see the light is not made operative in this world before dying then one would remain blind in life in the hereafter.

When the human life as a whole is taken into consideration this fact is revealed that all the feelings, sentiments, emotions, all the demands responsible for the smooth functioning of life and the various styles depicting life in different forms are the eventual outcome of informations perceived. At times we are informed that it is cold and at time the information comes it is hot. Hunger, thirst, pain, delight, love, hatred, pity, cruelty and any other need experienced in life is based upon informations or in other words informations are perceived and expressed in the form of different needs, emotions, sentiments and feelings.

After settling upon this point that life is a conglomeration of informations it becomes necessary that we should find out 1) what is the source of these informations or from where these informations are coming, 2) where is the receiving station located which perceives these informations, 3) which agency ascribes meanings to the informations perceived, 4) which machine is giving us the printouts of phenomena after the informations are ascribed meanings, 5) what is the nature of that matter which is being used in this printing process and 6) when information, after passing through various stages, become manifested phenomena why and where do they vanish as if they never existed.

In the elementary stages of spiritual science it is explained that this body of flesh and bones is not the real man rather this physical body which is composed by muscles, tissues, flesh and bones is merely a cloak of the real man in it. Just as clothes of wool, leather or cotton are used for the protection of this physical body similarly this physical body is an attire of the soul; the real man as called by Allah, the most High.

When someone intends to learn spiritual science on a regular basis according to its rules and regulations then this belief is required to be firmly established in him that the physical body of flesh and bones is hypothetical and fictional. When this belief is strongly adopted and takes its roots deeply in ones mind that this physical body is perishable so it is fiction, then very naturally the mind starts receding from the hypothetical senses and when this retraction of mind from the hypothetical life takes place, the journey towards reality begins. Because reality and fiction both cannot rally at one point. The most prominent and distinguishing feature of hypothetical senses and objects both is that they suffer change, variation, deterioration and annihilation whereas reality remains invariant, unchanged, lasting and unperishable. Reality which is independent self-existing, self-subsisting and permanently flowing towards its center us explored, resulting in the efforts of that man, who has been called the soul by the Holy Quran.

But then the soul has its own gradations. Due to lack of knowledge usually the soul is considered to be a human being just like the one which we see in the form of physical body of flesh and bones. Soul is such a reality which is an indivisible entity, self-subsisting and unwaveringly related and established only with its own self. It has this unique quality of demonstrating itself in a variety of forms and shapes remaining perpetually kinetic and subsisting. It is one of its main characteristics that it never exhibits itself in hypothetical and fictional senses, though it uses them as its robe. But since to remain perpetually kinetic is one of its attributes therefore it makes itself manifested in various dresses. Sometimes its manifestation is in the form of a goat, sometimes it expresses itself as a cow, sometimes it is a jinn and at times the angels.

Spiritual scientists have pointed out the existence of about eleven and half thousand species on this planet earth and indicated that each species is an integral part of the soul. One of the definitions of the soul is that on one hand it selects species' dress for its manifestation and on the other it designs dresses for itself in the form of the individuals of the species. For the sake of understanding this working of the soul, we can say that the manifestation of the soul in species' dress is the negative and the individuals of that species are the positives of that negative. It is an amazingly wonderful system under which the soul keeps on creating its dresses of species and the individuals of the species, and these dresses keep on wearing down just as ordinary clothes of wool and cotton do.

It is not very difficult to understand this. When the real person or man; the soul makes a beginning of its dress, this dress appears in the form of a beautiful, tender and charming baby and then this dress keeps on replacing by a new one at every second. Every second one dress is taken off and the other is put on. In each change of the dress some variation also takes place. At times the printing ink is more and at times it is in lesser quantity. The same one picture is being printed on the same one machine using the same materials but still the impression of each print of the picture differs.

Replacement of dresses one after the other finally reaches that stage when exhaustion starts overpowering and this dress (carnal body of man) perishes. Exhaustion and inability to change the dress is termed as old age. This law has been stated so that it could be clarified for our comprehension that soul remains kinetic perpetually. Movement of every second towards the other, in fact, is a dress of the soul. This very dress is that thing which we see in the form and shape of one or the other manifestation.

 (Note: The above article is taken from the book "Parapsychology", Auther: Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi)