Every breath you take is a step towards death
Like many other world religions, Islam preaches belief in the afterlife (akhiret). In the religion of the Prophet Muhammad.
This concept is considered so important that the messengers of Allah (Rasuls) at all times considered even the slightest deviation from faith in life after the grave as apostasy from Allah.
A true Muslim should always remember about akhiret, which makes his life and his actions meaningful. What is human life?
A person’s life is just a short moment during which people cannot fully receive a fair reward or retribution for their deeds committed throughout life.
The Qur’an emphasizes the need for a fair recompense for each of the living, both for bad and good deeds in earthly life, since earthly life is only a preparation for akhiret.
At the hour determined by Allah, a person dies.
Although death comes by the will of Allah, the duty to take human souls is assigned to the Angel of Death – Azrael, who is a symbolic veil between a person, death and the one who sends it.
A man dies the way he lives. The one who led a righteous life dies easily and calmly, while sinners leave this world in torment.
The Prophet Muhammad said that the souls of the righteous are taken as softly and smoothly as water flows out of a jug.
Moreover, the martyrs (martyrs who died on the path of the Lord) do not feel the agony of death and do not know that they have died. Instead, they feel they have moved into a better world and enjoy eternal happiness.
The Prophet Muhammad told Jabir to the son of Abdallah ibn Amr, who was martyred at the Battle of Uhud: “Do you know how the Lord met your father?
He met him in such a way that neither eyes saw, nor ears heard, nor minds comprehended .
Your father said: “Oh, the Almighty! Take me back to the world of the living so that I can tell those I left behind how wonderful things are after death!” The Lord replied, “There is no return.
Life is given only once. However, I will tell them about your stay here. “In his dying hour, the Great Prophet recommends reading special prayers to facilitate the transition of the soul to the world of shadows.
Islam teaches that a person should not be afraid of death.
For those who believe and do righteous deeds, death should not be terrible. According to the predestination of Allah, the world is constantly being renewed, the mortal life is replaced by eternal life.
When a fruit stone enters the soil, it seems that it is dying. But in fact, passing through certain stages of development, it eventually turns into a tree.
And the “death” of a stone is the beginning of the life of a new tree, a new, more perfect stage of development.
And if the death of plants, which represent the simplest level of life, is beautiful and of great importance, then the death of a person, which represents a higher stage of life, should be even more beautiful and have even more serious significance: a person, going into the earth, will certainly find Eternal life.
In Islam, there is the concept of “azab al-kabr” or grave punishment
Meaning a small judgment on the dead, which is performed immediately after death: “We will punish them twice, then they will be returned to the great punishment” (9:101/102).
The grave in this regard is an analogue of Christian purgatory, where it is determined what the deceased deserved by his earthly deeds – punishment or reward.
If this is a reward, then the grave becomes the threshold of the Garden of Eden, if the punishment is the threshold of hell. If the deceased believed, but has some sins for which he was not punished in earthly life, he is punished in the grave, and having atoned for sins, he is admitted to heaven.
The deceased in the grave is interrogated by two angels – Munkar and Nakir; they, fulfilling the will of Allah, leave the bodies of the righteous to enjoy peace until the Day of Resurrection.
Sinners are punished with excruciating pressure, and truly terrible torments await atheists: “If you saw how the angels end the life of those who did not believe, they beat them in the face and on the backs:” Taste the punishment of the fire! ”(Quran, 8:50 /52).
After death, the soul goes to the waiting place “barzakh” (barrier), where it stays until the Day of Judgment, and the souls of Muslims go to heaven, and the souls of the infidels go to the Barahut well in Hadhramaut.
In this state, the bodies of the dead still have the ability to feel, although they are in the graves. And finally, on the day when the whole universe will be destroyed (qiyamet), all the dead will appear before Allah for judgment.
The court of Allah is the highest and fair, during which he will punish sinners and give eternal bliss to the righteous.