Salvation,
Heaven and Hell
By Navid S. Zaidi
Joplin, MO
With regard to Dr. Shahid
Athar's excellent speech and article (Reflections
on God’s Grace, Salvation, Heaven and Hell,
Pakistan Link, May 12 2006) I would like to make
the following additional comments.
Heaven and Hell are not localities. They are states,
or conditions of the soul's existence, in the
life after death. Their descriptions in the Qur’an
are visual representations of an inner fact, i.e.
their character.
Hell, in the words of the Qur’an, is 'God's
kindled fire which rises above the hearts' (Al-Humazah
104:6-7). In other words, this 'fire' originates
in the guilty hearts. This clearly alludes to
the spiritual nature of the 'fire' in the sinners'
belated realization of their guilt. It is a painful
realization of one's failure as a man. According
to the teachings of the Qur’an the re-emergence
of the soul brings it a 'sharp sight' (Qaf 50:22).
This newly awakened self-consciousness and reason
in the sinner will plead that he had always been
more or less conscious, and perhaps even critical,
of the urges and appetites that drove him/her
to evildoing. However, this belated and, therefore,
morally ineffective rational cognition will not
diminish but rather enhance the burden of man's
guilt.
Imagine this painful condition of soul's existence
with utter loneliness and bitter desolation, the
torment of unceasing frustration, the darkness
and despair intensified beyond anything imaginable
in this world and you will know, however vaguely,
what is meant by 'Hell'.
There is no such thing as eternal damnation in
Islam. The word 'eternity' used in certain verses
in the Qur’an relating to Hell, is explained
by the Qur’an itself to mean only a period
of time (An-Naba 78:23).
We believe in an undiminished survival of the
individual personality and consciousness in the
life after death. In the Qur’anic view of
the life to come death and resurrection are continuous
stages in the career of each human soul. The life
of the soul is one and continuous. However, time
cannot be totally irrelevant to the development
of the soul's personality. A sinner's character
tends to become permanent. Its reshaping must
require time. Hell, therefore, as conceived by
the Qur’an, is not a pit of everlasting
torture inflicted by a revengeful God. It is a
corrective experience which may make a hardened
soul once more sensitive to the cool breeze of
Divine Grace. This concept is explained by the
Qur’an where it speaks of the fire of Hell
as man's friend (mawla), i.e. the only thing by
which the soul may be purified and redeemed (Al-Hadeed
57:15). The soul will continue to march onwards
from state to state (Al-Inshiqaq 84:16-19) to
receive ever-fresh illuminations from the mercy
of God so that there will be further opportunities
for the soul to create new situations during its
endless career in the hereafter.
Heaven is the joy of victory over the forces of
disintegration. It is the existence of the soul
in an inner state of unimaginable happiness in
the afterlife. Imagine the most joyous sensations,
beauty, love, consciousness of fulfillment, perfect
peace and harmony and you have, however vague,
the idea of what is meant by 'Heaven'. In a nutshell,
this is beautifully described in the Qur’an
in the expression nafs-e-mutmainnah (Al-Fajr 89:27-30).
Since Heaven and Hell are not localities, they
cannot be the sole property of one group or another.
With a breadth of vision unparalleled in any other
religious faith, the Qur’an repeatedly stresses
the fundamental idea that salvation is open to
all human beings equally (Al-Baqarah 2:62). This
is a very important point and must be properly
understood in order to get a clear insight into
the Islamic theory of salvation. It is with the
irreplaceable singleness of its individuality
that the human soul will approach God and see
for itself the consequences of its past action
and to judge the possibilities of its future (Maryam
19:93-95). Therefore, it is man's duty to purify
his soul and save it from corruption during this
earthly life (Ash-Shams 91:7-10). In other words,
Heaven is not ours as of right; it is to be achieved
by personal effort. We are only a candidate for
it.
And how to make the soul grow? By righteous deed.
No wonder the Qur’an has referred to amil-us-saalihat
no less than 50 times! It is the deed that prepares
the soul for dissolution, or disciplines it for
a future career. The fundamental principle of
righteous deed is to respect your own soul as
well as that of others.
And how to corrupt the soul? By narrow mindedness.
In many ways narrow mindedness leads to extreme
thinking. This is often fueled by an underlying
feeling of discontentment.
We being Muslims naturally feel that Islam is
the best religion and we might think that it would
be a good thing if all of humanity became Muslim.
However, as explained by the Qur’an, that
is not the will of God (Al-Maidah 5:48, Al-Baqarah
2:148).
The idea that everyone in the world should be
a Muslim is quite extreme and this kind of extreme
thinking causes problems. Since we left our own
country we have had a chance to come into contact
with other religious traditions and learn about
them. This should naturally result in getting
closer to reality, realizing that among humanity
there are so many different mental dispositions.
Even if we tried to make the whole world Muslim
it would be impractical. It is only through closer
contact with other traditions that we realize
the positive things about them. This naturally
creates a mutually comfortable feeling to arise.
Then, as expressed by the Dalai Lama, it is like
going to a restaurant. We can all sit at one table,
order different dishes according to our own taste,
but nobody argues about it.
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