Christopher Kanazeh

Professor Benjamin
REL 2300 07Z
4/21/13
Afterlife
In a world full of different religions, most of the religions believe in a number of different
things, one of them being life after death. Afterlife is something most religions believe in. When
following a religion that believes in afterlife, you are living your life based on the fact that you
will have a life even more sacred than the one you are in right now after you die. In Islam, they
believe that there will be a day of judgment that will divide everyone depending on how sacred
they were to paradise or hell. In the Islamic religion, while following the five pillars, and living
their life the way it should be according to the Qur'an, the belief of afterlife and having a chance
to end up in paradise or hell can be a serious journey.
According to Anonymous, "A central doctrine of the Qur'an is the Last Day, on which
the world will be destroyed and Allah will raise all people and jinn from the dead to be judged."
When you die, you are buried in your grave with a tombstone that is not marked, signifying that
everyone is equal, no one gets any special treatment. They wait in their graves awaiting the Day
of Judgment, knowing that they will soon be resurrected. If someone has sinned to the point of
no return, then they will suffer in their graves knowing they will be going to hell for what they
have done. Those who have lived their life doing good and not sinning will be bound for heaven
and be at peace while resting in their graves. "On the Last Day, resurrected humans and jinn will
be judged by Allah according to their deeds. One's eternal destination depends on balance of
goods to bad deeds (Anonymous)." When you are judged by Allah, you are awaiting the decision

of wether you will be sent to Hell which will be full of physical torment for eternity, or you will
be sent to Paradise where you will be pleasured both physically and spiritually. The passing over
is often depicted by walking over a very narrow bridge, and if you fall you are sent to hell. The
people weighted by their bad deeds will fall down off the narrow bridged and will be condemned
to Hell for eternity while the light hearted people who have done no wrong will make their easy
journey over the bridge to Paradise. There are also some exceptions to gaining access to either
Paradise or Hell. If you are a warrior and died while fighting to protect everyone in the word of
God, you are immediately sent to Gods presence, you do not wait for the day of judgment since
you have given your life for others. On the other hand, if you are by any means an enemy of
Islam, then you are sent immediately to Hell for eternity when you die.
Living up to ones faith is extremely important to all religions, and one of the main beliefs
Islam has is the Five Pillars. According to Michael Molloy, "All Muslims must accept and
practice the following Five Pillars, so called because they support one's faith. The Five Pillars are
mentioned in the Qur'an" (431). This is one of the practices that has to be followed throughout
life to even be considered access to Paradise. The first Pillar is Shahadah, which means creed,
and says "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger" (431). If someone
believes in Islam, and recites this line, they are considered to be Muslim now. It is written
everywhere in Arabic, it is recited daily for prayer and is the first thing whispered in infants ears
at birth (431). The next pillar is Salat or prayer, which says that Muslims are called on to pray
five times a day, and those five times are at dawn, midday, mid afternoon, sunset and nighttime.
When it is time to pray it is announced by a Muezzin, who is atop the Minaret and he calls out to
everyone to pray. Zakat is the charity to the poor and the third pillar of Islam. Muhammad was in
poverty and said that you should give to the poor and that it is part of the overall vision of a

better and more just society. The fourth Pillar is Sawm or fasting during Ramadan. Fasting means
to not eat food for a certain amount of time and it happens during Ramadan which is the time
when Muhammad received his revelations. "The purpose of fasting is to discipline oneself, to
develop sympathy for the poor and the hungry and to give to others what one would have eaten
(434)." The last pillar is Hajj, the Pilgrimage to Mecca. The Pilgrimage is to visit a sacred city or
site on a religious journey by someone who believes and has faith. The Pilgrimage started before
Muhammad was born and people wanted to see the meteorite that had come down into their area.
Muslims who have died are taken care of and treated if as they were still alive for the
most part. According to Hanson, " Once a Muslim dies, the people left behind must prepare the
body by washing, perfuming, and shrouding it. The funeral prayer is then performed, and the
deceased is buried in a graveyard without a coffin, simply laid in the earth and covered." After
this is taken care of, a relative of the deceased will come to the grave and speak to the dead
because it is believed that the dead can hear and understand what is said to them but they can
obviously not respond. The relative will then tell the dead that two angels named Munkar and
Nakir will come down and ask you three questions and you must answer them all correct or be
sentenced to eternity in hell. The first question is, "Who is your Lord", which the answer is
Allah, the second question is, "Who is your Prophet", the answer is Muhammad, and the third
and final question is, "What is your religion", which the answer is Islam. Once the dead has
answered those questions correctly they are at peace resting in their graves awaiting the
judgment day to be in Paradise.
The Islamic religion, even though it is a very unforgiving and brutal religion at times, it
has its good sides. The idea that living your life according to the five pillars shows that they have
set their eyes on what is right in their minds and no one can tell them different. They know that

by following a certain set of rules and to stay true to themselves and not sin that they will be sent
to Paradise after the Judgment day and will be living the life full of physical and spiritual
pleasure. Sometimes all a person needs is reasurance of what their life will be after death and that
is what Muslims receive. The certain acts of love relatives do to their deceased is actually quite
astonishing. The care they give to the dead is something that could be done in every religion.
They make sure they are taken care of, from their appearance to make them look good and feel
good, to making sure they know what to say to gain access to Paradise. All in all, Islam gets a lot
of flak, but underneath it all, they are a group of people with a cause, and their cause is Paradise.

Work Cited
Anonymous. "Islamic Beliefs about the Afterlife." ReligionFacts. N.p., 4 February 2007. Web.
20 Apr 2013. <http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/beliefs/afterlife.htm>.
Hanson, Hamza. "Islam - rituals, world, body, funeral, life, customs, beliefs, time, person." After
Death. 2013. <http://www.eathreference.com/Ho-Ka/Islam.html>
Molloy, Michael. Experiencing the World's Religions Tradition, Challenge, and Change. Fifth
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 423-87. Print.