To understand death, we need to know: What is life? The Greek philosophors Plato, Aristotle and Socrates had struggled with this question to find the keys that unlock the mystery of human existence. But the Holy Books like Torah, Bible and Qur'an reveal a God who boldly claims that He is the Creator of all life and that He created human life for a tremendous purpose. God created man in His image, according to His likeness; and gave dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle ( and all animals ), over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Human beings are unique among God's physical creation in their godlike abilities to make decisions, plan and create. Far beyond providing man with animal-like instinct, God created within human beings intellect, self-awareness, the capacity to learn, reason, communicate and produce.
Human brains are physically quite similar to some animal brains, the difference between the human mind and the animal brain is the spritual essence God included in the makeup of human beings:"For what man knows the things of a man except [by] the spirit of the man which is in him?" ( The Bible- 1 Corinthian 2:11; see also Job 32:8; Zechariah 12:1 ). Hence, the "spirit of the man" makes humanbeings intellectually superior to animal, enabling them to develop skills in mathematics and science, invent written languages, build great civilizations, learn from the past and plan for the future.
The Qur'an -Surah 2: Al Baqarah: "How disbelieve you in God when you were dead and He gave life to you! then He will give you death, then life again, and then unto Him you will be returned. He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth. Then turned He to the heaven, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is Knower of all things.
Can we pinpoint just what death is? Are we destined to go somewhere to experience some form of reward or punishment? What is really going to happen when we die? To understand, let's refer to the Biblical & the Qur'anic account of the first human beings. God personally instructed Adam and Eve, but they chose to disobey Him ( The Qur'an- Surah 2: Al Baqarah: O Adam! dwell you and your wife in the Garden, and eat you freely of the fruits thereof where you will; but come not near this tree lest you become of the wrong-doers. But the Devil caused them to deflect therefrom and expelled them from the happy state in which they were!) The Bible- Genesis 3:19 reveals: Adam and his wife Eve let Satan influence them into choosing their own will rather than obeying God's instructions. God informed them that, because they had disobeyed Him, their lives would grow difficicult and, as He had warned, they would die. "In the sweat of your face, "God said to Adam, "you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.
Our lives are physical; we age and eventually die. Like Adam and Eve, we eventually return to dust. Look around the world at the example of nature. All living processes eventually break down and cease, then the physical remains begin to decay. Ofcourse, many relgious groups teach that at death a person goes immediately to his/her reward or punishment. But the reality of what happens after death is quite different from all of these ideas. Solomon observed that mankind and animals are destined for, in death, a common fate. "For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other......All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust" (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20). It is a known factor that so far no scientist or researcher has claimed to live in this world forever i.e., avoiding death!
When you have ultimately to turn your face from this world and have eventually to meet death, then why wish delay and why feel nervous of death?
Faith in any religion is supported by four columns - patience, belief, justness or equity and defence for the cause of religion.
Belief is combination of four traits of character - to guard oneself against infatuations of sin; to search for explanation of truth through Knowledge; to take warning from history of nations and life of individuals; to follow the footsteps of good people who have passed. Because whoever wants to guard himself/herself against vices and sins will have to search for the true causes of infatuation and true ways of fighting them; to find those true ways one has to search them with the help of knowledge; whoever gets fully acquainted with various branches of knowledge will take lessons from life; and whoever tries to take lessons from life is acctually engaged in the study of the causes of rise and fall of previous civilisations.
Justness or Equity is composed of the attributes of desire, fear, abstemiousness and expectation; that is, whoever desires to reach the Heaven will not covet anything of this vicious world, whoever is afraid of the Hell will abstain from sins and vices; whoever practices piety and abstemiousness will pleasantly bear difficulties and calamities of life; and whoever expects death will hurry to do good as much and as quickly as possible.
Justice and equity also claim four qualities in man/woman: depth of understanding; profoundness of knowledge; fairness of judgment and clearness of mind; because whoever tries his/her best to understand a problem will have to study it; whoever has the practice of studying subject he/she is to deal with will develop a clear mind and will always come to correct decisions; whoever tries to achieve all this will have to develop ample patience and forbearance; and whoever does this has done justice to the cause of mankind/religion and has led a life of good repute and fame.
Defence of the religion is divided into four branches: to advise, persuade and order people of obedience towards life-after death; to prohibit them from sins and vices; to speak truth on all occassions; and to hate vicious persons and sinners.
There are four reasons of infidelity and loss of belief in life-after death: a desire for unnecessary rationalisation; a passion to dispute every argument; a bigoted and ignorant mind and a wish not to see and understand truth. Because whoever goes after unreasonable and unnecessary rationalisation will never be able to reach truth; whoever keeps on disputing every argument on account of his/her ignorance will always remain blind to realities; whoever turns his/her face away from truth because of bigotedness and ignorance, will always take good for bad and bad for good, and will always remain satisfied of his/her ignorance and infidelity; and whoever does not wish to see the truth and refuses to accept it will have a very difficult course left open for him/her, his/her affairs will be very complicated and the way to salvation will be uncertain.
Similarly, doubt and uncertainty about the truth of what our religion has taught is based upon four basic reasons: absurd reasoning; fear; vacillation and hesitation; and unreasonable surrender to heathenism and infidelity. Beacause one who has accustomed himself/herself to unreasonable and absurd discussions will never see the Light of Truth and will always live in the darkness of ignorance; one who is afraid to face true facts ( of life, death and the life-after death ) will always turn away from ultimate reality; one who allows doubts and uncertainties to vacillate him/her will always be under the sway and control of Satan; and one who surrenders himself/herself to heathenism, accepting damnation in this world and hereafter will so be damned
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
