MAN, WORLD, UNIVERSE AND ISLAM

by AHMED HULUSI
www.ahmedhulusi.org

Do we know anything about the world, which exists, beyond our physical viewpoint? In this day and age, everybody asked this question will naturally give the following answer:
“Of course, I live on Earth!” Well, this is actually the answer given to the question: “Where do you live now?”
If you tell someone that he is an alien from outer space then the reply will be: “No, how can this happen? I am from a planet known as Earth.” So, is this Earth not in space? Are we not living on a planet called Earth, which is travelling through space?
Well, if we consider this realistically, we are in fact only a tiny speck in space. Because we have for so many centuries been inclined to accept everything in a conditioned manner, we think that we live in a world which is fixed at some point, around which the sun orbits, and that the whole of the universe is rotating about our planet Earth. As a result of this assumption, we accept ourselves as being life forms living on this Earth, and the Earth as the centre of the universe.
The most up-to-date modern science of our time still hasn't succeeded in making us aware that there are many other realities beyond our knowledge, which have to be learned in the meantime. We keep on telling ourselves that we are a species born and raised on the planet Earth. Yes, but even though each of us has lived and spent our time here on this Earth, how could the world we live in be best explained? Under what criteria will the definition of our world be made? What sort of world is it and where can it be found in the universe?

Again, let me ask you a different question this time: How old are you? Some of you will say I am 30 and some of you will say I am 50. Now, the question is, are you really 30 or 50 years old? What I mean to say is, what dictates that your age is 30 or 50?
As we already know, the world that we live in at present is only one of many other planets in this solar system of ours, which rotates around the sun. We are approximately 150 million kilometres away from the sun, continuously turning around this giant hot star. The sun which we see every day in the sky, standing out there in the sky like a giant copper tray or a massive saucepan is approximately one million 303 thousand times bigger than our world in terms of its mass.
Now, at this point, let's try to concentrate: We are always telling ourselves that our lives on Earth have been in the process of continuation ever since we were created. Furthermore, our definition of a one-year period is the amount of time it takes our Earth to complete one full revolution around the sun. According to us, this is the unit of measure, which is represented by one year. We also tell ourselves that our age has reached 30, because the Earth has gone around the sun 30 times in succession. In other words: since the day we were born, the Earth has completed exactly 30 revolutions around the sun. As can be seen very clearly from this example, this is the way in which we have produced our own definition of time. Meanwhile, we are still unable to come to terms with a very important factor, which needs to be understood, either by deliberately ignoring it or by pretending that we don't want to know anything about it at all. Or perhaps we are totally unaware of this fact.

Because in our world of limited understanding, there is no such concept or point of view. Yes, in reality, all of us, regardless of whom we are, are living in our own world of perception and resemble very closely indeed a shell, covered over and submerged, so that our contact with the outside world has been completely lost. As a result of this, we can just about manage to communicate with the others around us through using our limited understanding but also get trapped into the values that these people have predetermined for us.
Being stuck into our own world of perception, we know absolutely nothing about what is happening out there, which means that our interpretation of what is actually happening around us is a complete mystery to us and is something that we don’t notice, and therefore we are not able to realize many of the facts of our lives.

As a matter of fact, we don't want to concern ourselves with any of these realities at all. Perhaps we are scared. We are scared of the unknown or it might be that we assume ourselves not to be powerful enough to grasp these facts fully.
What are the actual realities lying outside our world of perception?
As we already know, we are surrounded by a reality, which hardly anyone would object to. At this present time, we know that we exist in this physical world and after a certain period has passed, we will disappear completely from the face of the Earth and will never be seen by anyone again. An incident known as 'death' will come very soon and will strike each and everyone of us.
At this point, it is worthwhile discussing a matter, which we need to discover right now. As we already know, the time it takes for our world to complete a single revolution around the sun means that a period of one year has successfully passed here on our Earth. Similarly, the star we call the 'Sun' is also the subject of rotation around a particular axis. Its rotation takes place around the centre of our galaxy, which is known as the Milky Way. In other words, our world together with all of us in it, is turning around the centre of this particular galaxy in such a way that its position is dependent upon the sun, because the sun exerts a gravitational force on our Earth, which attracts the world towards it. Therefore our revolution around the galaxy is dependent on the position of the sun. The sun, which is forever turning around the centre of the galaxy we call the Milky Way, is at a distance of approximately 32 thousand light years away from the centre of this galaxy. Furthermore, this full revolution is completed every 255 million years, which reveals the fact that one year for the sun, according to our present calculations, lasts about 255 million Earth years.
We describe a period of one year as being a duration of time consisting of 365 days. Because this figure is related to our present understanding of time, we can never ever grasp or understand fully what the concept of time really is, since it is a relative concept in its own right. However, if we look at this matter from the point of view of our sun, a complete rotation of this hot planet, together with our world which is itself also dependent on its gravitational field takes a mere 255 million years to go around the centre of the galaxy. Now, let's think very carefully about these figures. As was mentioned earlier, we exist on the face of the Earth for the time being. But after a certain period comes to an end, the world will disappear before our eyes as we experience the event we know as 'death'.
As we already know, the way we perceive the world is by means of our five physical senses, which simply act as our biological organs. Their duty of perceiving events in every last detail is very limited indeed. We can see and eventually accept the existence of everything around us with the help of a very delicate organ called the ‘Eye’, which consists of a pupil positioned exactly in its centre. It is by means of this
particular organ that the signals of visible objects are sent to our brain for interpretation. The eye, however, is not capable of seeing everything, as it cannot interpret the wavelength of each object. In fact, the range the eye can see is very limited indeed, on a wavelength of between four and seven megahertz. Our ears on the other hand can help us to hear sounds and many other voices, in the form of wavelengths. These wavelengths are transmitted to our brain so that the hearing process can take place. The value of these voices, which we can hear as wavelengths range between 16 to 16 thousand hertz.
As it can be seen, the world's existence cannot be understood or comprehended with our five physical senses. In theory, although we say that there is a world out there, we can never see through or perceive each and every living or non-living organism in this world. This is due to the fact that our five limited senses are not capable of accomplishing this task. At this present moment, we assume that the world we live in is the only place that exists and it will disappear from our minds the moment the incident called 'death' takes place.
However, we will still continue to live our life, but in a new place, a totally new dimension which consists of a kind of magnetic field belonging to the world. This new life will take place in a special body form known as the spirit or the astral body. As we continue to live our lives here on the surface of this Earth and rotate around the sun at the same time, we are bound to be attracted towards the sun due to the force of gravity which the sun exerts over our Earth. With our death, we shall automatically be separated from all of the various material forces or objects, which we see around us every day. What's more is that the world will simply be regarded as a place which no longer has any special meaning for us since it will no longer exist. As a result of this, we shall carry on living our lives in a totally different dimension while at the same time occupying the same physical earthly space which we are living in at this present time.
Therefore we will take up our position in an area of magnetic field that belongs to the world as well as to the sun, both of which have the capability to attract us towards them. On the other hand, as soon as our world disappears from view, we will once again continue to live our lives, but this time in another new dimension, which is totally dependent upon the magnetic field of the sun. This new dimension of life will also contain some radioactive rays, which will harm our spiritual body.
Well, leaving everything to one side for the time being, let’s ask ourselves the following question: At this precise moment, which particular dimension of time are we supposed to place ourselves into, since the world has now completely disappeared from our sight? It is evident that the laws relating to the physical science of our present world which were once our only means of assessing and calculating everything, will now be cut off completely, because we are in an entirely new dimension. Furthermore, we will not be able to define the concept of time, day and night any more since they will no longer be effective values upon which to base our assumptions.
As we continue our journey by rotating around the sun, we will be not only in this particular dimension, but we will also occupy that spatial dimension which belongs to the sun and therefore be dependent on this new dimension at the same time. In other words, one year of the sun, which is equivalent to the value of 255 million earth years with our present calculations, will now be regarded as one year for us. If 255 million years is equivalent to one year according to the dimension of our sun, then let us compare this data with a 70-year period from our present time.
Imagine that we have spent some 70 years of our life on the face of this planet. At the end of that 70-year period, when our spirits are released from our physical bodies and depart from this world, what will be the meaning of 255 million years of world life? In other words, what is the actual value of our 70-year
lifetime when it is compared with one yearly period of the sun, which corresponds to 255 million years? If we make a simple calculation to understand what 70 years really feels like in comparison to 255 million years, we can clearly see that 70 years of that time period is equivalent to 8.6 seconds according to one sun year. This simply means that a person who has lived for 70 years and is no longer alive in this world will, after their death, be living in a totally new environment where the time dimension of the sun applies. When this takes place, he will say: How long have I actually spent in this world? Was it just a short dream, which only lasted for a time? This point is emphasized in the Holy Qur'an, in one particular chapter:
“It will be, on the Day they see it, as though they had not remained [in the world] except for an ‘Ashiyyah’ (the time it takes for the sun to set below the horizon) or the period of twilight.” [79. An-Nazi’at: 46]
The final verse of this chapter mentions the word 'Asheyyan' to refer to the kind of person who places special importance on the afterlife. This word is also used to refer to the actual time of evening prayer, which is closely related to this event.
As we already know, the time of evening prayer is the moment in which the sun's red colour on the horizon is no longer visible to the naked eye and twilight creeps in. This is the time when the sun sets but still casts its brightness since the darkness of the night has not yet fallen. It is a very short time that can only be measured in minutes. You look at the horizon and see the sunset as well as the red colour of the sun, which has now completely disappeared. At this very moment you are faced with twilight. Then all of a sudden everywhere turns to darkness. In one of the chapters of the Holy Qur’an, there is a special verse which indicates that whenever a person's death takes place, he will leave this world and be transferred to another new world dimension called 'Barzakh' in Arabic, which simply means the dimension of the afterlife. In actual fact, this particular dimension relates to the sun's gravitational field as the soul of the individual does no longer exists in the physical world, but becomes subject to life within the dimension of the sun.
As you already know, your life on the face of this world is dependent on using your five limited senses every day. If we try to understand the concept of time by using our five limited physical senses, we notice that dreams that we can all see when we are asleep only last for about 45 or 50 seconds. It seems to you as though ages have gone by when a dream, which you have experienced in real-time, only lasts for about 45 to 50 seconds. But as soon as you wake up from that dream the next day and start thinking about it, you inevitably say to yourself that you had a dream and it felt like it lasted for a very long time. Well, a dream, which only takes about 45 or 50 seconds, does in fact take a very short period of time as soon as you realize that you have just woken up from your sleep.
However, as soon as you pass away to the dimension of Barzakh, that is the dimension of the world you go to after your death, you will say that: Were we only in the world for a very short time, like the fall of twilight?
This same subject is mentioned again in the chapter called 'The Believers', verses 113 and 114 of the Holy Qur’an:
“They will say, ‘We remained a day or part of a day; ask those who count.’
Say, ‘You stayed only an instant - if only you had known.’” [23. Al-Mu’minun: 113-114 ]
By looking at all this information now, the crucial point we need to carefully analyse here is this: For you, what is the meaning of a dream which only lasts for about 50 seconds or when you think about how you saw it the next day? By the time you are dead, you will all have taken your place in a new dimension, which will be dependent upon using this short unit of time.
As we already know, our lifetime of 70 or 80 years is based on the calculation of the physical world. The physical world has its own pace and time is all related to the movement created by nature, which in itself is the creation of Allah. In reality, all the physical activities of the body are tuned to the time scale of the world that we live in. So, if you have successfully managed to live in this world for 70 years, then according to this new time dimension, you would only have lived for eight seconds, meaning that the total amount of time you have spent is only about eight seconds. If you can notice, this 70-year lifetime is indeed long enough to allow you to live through many incidents.
From your childhood until the time when you grow up, as well as maturing into an older person or falling sick and losing your mental abilities and so on. These are the many different types of events, which you could face in during these 70 years of yours. In all this 70-year period, if you try to work out the amount of time in which your brain was actively thinking about your responsibilities in this life, then how many seconds do you think that you allowed for yourselves out of that 8.6 second period which represents your whole life? Just try to think. The period of time you are living in at present in this world is only meant for a very special purpose. It is meant for you to acquire the values, which it is absolutely essential to know to ensure your well being in the next life.
As it can be seen, through your death you are simply travelling from one dimension to another. Millions and millions of years will pass by in this new dimension until the coming of the resurrection day. If we take the measurement of time belonging to the dimension of the sun as our unit of reference, we can then see that the amount of time that you have really spent in this world can be worked out in units of seconds. In actual fact, at this very moment we are living our lives dependent on the sun. All living creatures on the face of this Earth, regardless of their nature, receive their energy from the rays of light, which directly reach the Earth from the sun. These light rays contain a special cosmic ingredient, which forms the basis for the source of life here on this planet. In other words, by means of the light rays travelling towards us from the sun, the divine qualities of Allah transmit all kinds of vital resources to our planet.
We know that from the moment we open our eyes, we find ourselves living within a spatial dimension belonging to the sun, or at least that is what science informs us today. Again, with the manifestation of the event known as our death, we are simply being transferred from our present dimension of the physical world into a completely different environment and a new dimension within which we continue to live in our next lives. This new dimension of space attracts us towards itself as it did before, because it remains under the influence of the sun’s continuous gravitational force.
Our lives in this current dimension will go on for a very very long time until the day of judgement finally arrives. As soon as this moment comes, we shall realize that it is going to be an impossible task for us to remember the type of events which took place during the course of our lifetime, because our minds are simply not capable of fixing each and every single event in our memory; especially when we face the reality of our death. This is due to the fact that the five organs with which our physical body is equipped and which act as our sensory devices have a very limited capacity since they cannot fully grasp what is taking place out there.
These five senses can hardly be expected to perceive everything properly, and yet our only way to see and feel the world out there is by means of these senses. Having said that, our senses have the ability to perceive things to a certain extent; let me draw your attention to a person who has successfully managed to live for 70 years on the Earth. According to the dimension of the sun, the time that this person has actually spent in his lifetime represents a very short period of time, about 8 seconds. Now, let us think very carefully for a moment. What does this person have to accomplish in this 8-second period and why does he has to do it?
Well, if we are one of these people with an intellectual mind, we can very easily see that, just like the Milky Way, our own galaxy, there are many billions of other galaxies present in this universe. The distances between each of these galaxies is simply immeasurable using our present calculations. This can never be possible. However, we can estimate the distances between each galaxy with the help of mathematical figures.
Of course, not everyone is capable of understanding how great these distances could be. So even if you forget about the billions of galaxies or the distances between them, it is still impossible for the human mind to understand the magnitude of the 400 billion stars, which are already present in our galaxy.
At this present time, there are between five to six billion people living in this world. If we multiply this figure by ten to count all the people who were born and have died up to the present day, we simply arrive at a figure of 50 billion, assuming that the world had 50 billion people in it from the very beginning. This figure still doesn't come close to that of the 400 billion stars present in our galaxy, a number which science has recently revealed. It has also been proved that there are about 400 billion stars like our sun in our galaxy. Assuming that we could send each person to a star in our galaxy, then this process would require 50 billion stars, which is still nowhere near good enough to match the figure of 400 billion.
In fact, I am only trying to explain this in order to explain how vast and massive the galaxy that we live in really is. Now it is meaningless to assume that there is a God living somewhere outside of our galaxy that controls it from a distant place, like a giant source of power. It is up to you to decide whether this idea is right or wrong.
As a matter of fact, the prophet of Islam, Mohammad, attempted to wipe this rather primitive and meaningless concept off the face of the Earth completely and successfully managed to do this over 1400 years ago. He tried to emphasize to all of us the reality, which had been stated in the Holy Qur'an on so many occasions. He said: "La ilaha illallah" which simply means that God and any other concept relating to the existence of a God is a totally wrong idea and has no significance whatsoever; the only one who exists is Allah. This means that No God has ever existed anywhere in space above and that the actions that we perform are not for the purpose of pleasing him or making him happy. No such concept exists at all; only Allah exists.
There is only one living ultimate power, who has created this universe and the many others, which we have not yet had the chance to discover. There are an unlimited number of creatures that he has created and who have come into existence through his infinite power. Because every living being is made up from the origin and qualities contained in Allah, then every living being has the chance to find the meaning of their existence through their own origin and within themselves.
What I mean to say is that there is no God controlling you from some great distance, from a different place or galaxy, somewhere higher than and separate from you. I'm talking about the concept of Allah
who has created this universe together with everything in it from his power of existence and that every living person can actually feel this concept through the origin of their self. This concept of Allah is the most fundamental and important principle of the religion of Islam. Every other prophet who has lived in this world right from the very beginning of time until now is in fact united in this concept of La ilaha illallah as their common belief, a phrase which means that There is no God, only Allah exists.
Furthermore, all of these prophets have brought with them a series of proposals to benefit mankind in order to solve many of our daily social problems. The main reason for this was to improve the quality of people's lives with respect to their level of intelligence, and this in return provided many great benefits for the people who lived during those days.
Now, let's get down to the truth of life. It begins with understanding the system of Allah, which is created only by Allah. As you already know, our lives began in this world, in a particular solar system and a galaxy with our planet contained within it. We name this planet as Earth and on this planet Earth; each of us is referred to as a human being. As a living human being on the face of this Earth, each of us should acknowledge an important reality and tell ourselves the following things: As a person, I haven’t actually given anything to anyone in writing which says that it was my precise desire to appear as a living human being in a particular galaxy in this universe. I was never asked about this at all. I was simply born in a galaxy called the Milky Way. Also, I was never consulted as to whether or not I would prefer my life to begin on a planet in this particular solar system or maybe in some other different solar system. I was born in a specific solar system and this solar system is contained in our own galaxy called the Milky Way.
In other words, without being asked anything about why it happened like this, I became a living human being on the face of this Earth, which is itself contained in the solar system. I could have been born in another galaxy for instance. This event was something completely out of my control and with neither the power of my will nor my desire. Furthermore, I wasn’t asked in which particular continent on the face of this Earth I wanted myself to be born in. I was born in a place called Turkey, resting in a location between two major continents, namely Asia and Europe. On top of that, I have never been asked either which part of Turkey I wanted to be born in or to which particular tribe, culture, religion or race I wanted to belong to. I was born right in the centre of Istanbul, in a place known as Jerrahpasha.
Again, I have never been questioned to see if I had any idea about wanting myself to belong to a particular family or a nation, or a desire to choose a specific kind of genetic program. I simply found myself coming out into the world from my mother’s womb. As a result of that, I have been granted a particular type of genetic program, which wasn’t really of my own choice. The characteristics of this genetic programming provided me with a special type of sex, which enabled me to be born as a male. In fact, regardless of whether I am male or female, ugly or beautiful, tall or short, intelligent or slow, I had no opportunity to choose these attributes freely.
To cut a long story short, whatever I have said up to this point shows very clearly that nothing is the result of my own choice or based on the demands of my own free will. As you can see, I have simply found myself in this situation. In search of the answer to why all this happened in such a way and who is responsible for it all, I happen to raise my head to the sky and gaze at the star we know as the sun, which is about one million 303 times larger than our world and is 150 million kilometres away. My eyes cannot actually see it properly, because it is too bright. My mind is also unable to comprehend how big it is. Consequently, I cannot bring up this issue with anyone when I try to think about the endlessness of the galaxy, containing so many stars like our sun, which according to the scientists is a figure somewhere around the region of 400 million, just in our galaxy alone.
Unfortunately my power of thinking and reasoning can hardly stretch anywhere beyond that limit. Who shall I put my questions to concerning all this, or to whom shall I address myself to in order to find out why and how all these things happened? I simply cannot find anyone to talk to about this matter. Unfortunately, this leaves me with no alternative but to accept myself as what I am.
At this point, I tell myself this: I have virtually no control over myself right at this moment, and as I can only carry out my actions to a certain degree depending on my ability and willpower, it would be an excellent idea if I could at least show an effort to understand more about the order of the system as a whole, since I am already living in it. One thing for sure is that I can never go back to the past and do or undo what I did back then. The only thing I can do is to look ahead from where I stand and try to figure out what sort of incidents I am likely to face in the future, so that I can give my life a solid direction with respect to what I have understood and learned so far about the values and facts of life. Eventually, I need to try to save the rest of my life by doing whatever I can whenever I can with that thing called my willpower to try to ensure that happiness and peace of mind are restored on Earth for the sake of future generations. When I look at the truth of life, I can see this: I am only here in this world for a certain length of time and I will depart from this world at a time, which is as yet totally unknown to me. But will I completely disappear forever?
By means of what we call the transformation process, every existing person will continue to live their lives in a different dimension, and this is why no one will actually vanish. By this logic I know that my body of today is an existent form which will be subjected to a transformation after a certain time has passed, and through this transformation I will continue to live my life in a totally new dimension, but this time under new physical laws and conditions. People usually refer to this incident as 'death'.
Indeed, death is upon us all and can be considered very much like a transition phase, which we experience when we pass into another dimension, into a world beyond matter. The event indicated by our 'death' is not just a vanishing act as some of us might think, and those who do are very unfortunate. According to the statement given in the holy book of Qur'an, it is the kind of event, which will only be experienced. The Qur'an also points out that every living soul will taste death:
“Every individual (mind, cognizance, manifestation of consciousness) will taste death (life without a biological body)…” [3. Ali Imran: 185]
Therefore, I will continue to live my life as before, even after I taste death. In other words, I will actually be in a state where I will no longer be able to use my physical body. I will realize that using my physical body is impossible and will eventually realize that the connection I had with this body of mine is cut off.
Because I have been ceaselessly extending my knowledge by loading information into my consciousness at each and every single moment of my life, I have simply fallen prey to a kind of misunderstanding that whoever I may be, I consist only of this physical body, nothing else. For this reason, even though I am separated from my biological form, I will never be able to leave this physical body of mine since my mind will still think that I am not really dead. They will bury my body in a grave and I will still go on having a living and conscious mind. I will also be able to witness the recital of my funeral prayer and watch the many people around me crying and moaning, bewailing my death.
They will then lower my body into a grave and will then start to throw soil from the top, onto my coffin, gradually filling the grave. I will see all of these things taking place, one after the other. From this dimension of the grave, I will move into another dimension where I will be able to live my next life. In Islam, the holy book of Qur'an defines this incident as tasting death. The Prophet of Islam also points out
that whenever a person experiences death, he will be able to see what is going on around him and will be aware of the fact that he is buried alive while still conscious. He will also be able to hear people's voices calling to him from beyond the grave. This is why the Prophet of Islam clarified the matter with some advice to one of his loyal friends, Omar. He said this: "Whatever the state of your mind or consciousness is today, right at this very moment, you will continue to live on in your next life having exactly the same mental abilities and perception as you had before, even after your death."
In order to make other people aware of this situation, the Prophet of Islam addressed and delivered a speech to those who were killed and buried in graves during the Islamic battle of 'Badr'. This happened just after the war had come to an end. People who had witnessed this incident seriously thought that those buried in the graves were not alive, and in astonishment they asked the Prophet: “How can you talk to these dead people? Can they hear you?” The Prophet’s reply to them was: “Yes, they are not in a state where they are deaf to my voice at all, they can in fact hear my speech even better than you do. They can also consider what I say and verify that it is the only truth.” In other words, those people who have been put into a grave are not actually dead. They are totally conscious and have full mental abilities as if they were still alive.
Because they can no longer use or have virtually no control over their physical bodies, they can never communicate with us. However, our messages can reach them quite easily since the communication link between them and us is not broken in any way. For this reason, in order to be of help to the deceased, people usually pray and recite holy words by the graveside immediately after the burial takes place. Yes, as you can see we will go through a new dimension and then start a completely new life with the help of the event indicated as death.
Of course, when we pass into this new dimension, we will be able to live in a special bodily form known as the spirit, which can also be referred to as the astral body. But, there is a crucial point to be emphasized here, something, which we should never underestimate. The plain fact is that what we call our spiritual or astral body is actually something which is produced by using our brains when we are on Earth, and it can be constructed automatically by the way our brains function in various situations. This simply means that as we live our lives here on Earth at present, we are in fact constructing our spirit body by using our brains contained in our biological bodies and this is the actual body which we will use just after we die. As you can see, the world we live in at present is a place where we perform a series of particular actions so that we can maintain our well being for the eternal life after our death. Whatever information that you have stored in your consciousness in this world, you will then have to live with and face the consequences of in the next life, soon after your death takes place.
In other words, every tiny piece of information in this world that your brain has managed to store in your consciousness and eventually used to construct your spirit body will be of use to you in your next life. You will have no chance to make any complaints whatsoever about the state of your present condition when the time comes to die and start living your next life. After all, it was you and you alone who chose each and every one of these attributes when you were in the world. It is therefore inevitable for us that when we go to the next world, we will face the reality of living with those qualities, which were in fact produced and then transferred, to our spirit bodies by means of our brains. The moment our spirits detach from our physical bodies; they will arrive at a place which is a completely different dimension of life to our own. In Arabic, this is known as the world of 'Barzakh'. As soon as our spirit begins to live in this new dimension of life, all of us will realize the fact that it is impossible to ever return to this world again.
Therefore we will say to ourselves that: "If only we could go back to the world one more time and get another chance to correct all our mistakes by doing the actions which we should have done but neglected before. In this way, we could start everything afresh and eventually build a new spirit body, so as not to experience any kind of difficulty in life after death." The holy book Qu'ran explains this situation in a verse which states that:
“[For such is the state of the disbelievers], until, when death comes to one of them, he says, ‘My Sustainer, send me back (to worldly life) so that I might do righteousness in that which I left behind (i.e. a ‘faithful life which I did not heed or give importance to; the potential that I did not utilize and activate).’
No! (It is impossible to go back!) His words are invalid! (His request is unrecognized in the system).” [23. Al-Mu’minun: 99-100]
But this is absolutely impossible. This particular verse in the Qur’an is mentioned to all of us to emphasize this crucial reality.
As soon as the world is left behind and we experience the dimension of life after death, there is no way to return to the old world through reincarnation and hence enter another biological body in order to obtain another chance for a life back in that world. This goes totally against the Muslim faith as well as against the Qu'ran and the teachings introduced by the prophet of Islam.
Whatever we do or manage to do in this world, it is only now with these actions that we are able to enhance the capabilities of our souls. But, as soon as our death takes place, there is no more coming back to this world in order to make a completely fresh start so everything goes right from the beginning. For this reason, we will never be able to gain the qualities necessary for our eternal life since we will simply have no more chances at all. Well, if this is the case, then how can we get another chance to obtain those qualities necessary for eternal life now, when we are in this world?
But when we leave this physical world, our souls depart from our bodies to go to the dimension of the afterlife, and as this happens, we will be subject to life under new conditions. Hence the concept of time for us will change considerably, meaning that what we have actually lived on Earth will feel like it was lived for a very short time, for only a few seconds. This simply shows that life here in the dimension of our planet Earth is measured in seconds. During this period of just a few seconds, we have the obligation to build ourselves a future that is sound as well as secure for our eternal life, which will last much longer, for billions and billions of years.
Now, in order to achieve and obtain a better afterlife for ourselves, there are two kinds of options we can take; we may either pay attention and understand the fact that there is an eternal life which follows our death, and that we could give our lives a better direction while we are still here on Earth by being aware of this fact, or we can pay no attention to it whatsoever and simply cover it up and say that it isn’t important at all. In return, we'll have no alternative but to suffer the consequences of our actions and face the harsh reality that there will be no chance of ever returning to the world again and having the same opportunity for a second time. The choice is ours.
Although the choices we have made up to now do not belong to us, we are now faced with the fact that we have to carry on with our lives using our reasoning, and make the choices that we need to make in this manner.
By using our reasoning as well as our understanding with as much determination as possible, we should give our life the kind of direction which will enable us to get the best out of what we need for the life which follows our death. For all of these reasons we should completely ignore every kind of conditioning that we face and begin to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong, because we are living in a world, which contains many circumstances, which we find difficult to understand due to the fact that our knowledge is limited. We could also opt to stop our thought processes and reject all of these ideas outright. As a result of that, we will inevitably come face to face with many harsh realities, both in this world and the one hereafter. So, we shall be obliged to suffer nothing but the consequences of our own ignorance.
Therefore, we should try to understand the nature of the event marked by our death, the environmental conditions which this incident brings with it, and also the kind of deeds that we should perform during our lifetimes to ensure our well being in the afterlife. The exact reasons why and how we should perform these deeds must also be considered very carefully. This is absolutely necessary for the future of each and every one of us.
It was purely for this reason that the prophet of Islam, Mohammad (peace be upon him) presented us with a series of proposals, understanding as he did more about the system and the meaning of our existence in this universe according to those realities, which were revealed, to him. We have been shown that at the root of all these proposals lies a very strong emphasis pointing to an extraordinary mechanism, a mechanism which forms the basis not just of all the realities available in the system of life as a whole, but also of the order of life which we are living at present.
The prophet of Islam has explained to each and every one of us that the system of our lives was created by Allah. He pointed out that this system’s characteristics and conditions are laid down for us at this moment, so that we can try to understand them as much as possible and prepare ourselves for the future with respect to these conditions, or else you will face the reality that you have to suffer and pay for the consequences of your ignorance. This was the message that the holy prophet gave to all mankind. Indeed, neither the proposals brought by the prophet, nor the kind of activities, which we perform whilst worshipping, are aimed at pleasing a God who is far removed from us and living so distantly. There is a simple reason why we should build our future in the best possible way.
So, in general we have two choices: Either we should try to understand why the prophet was sent to us and how we should carry out the steps necessary to achieve what he showed us, or we can just as well pay no attention whatsoever to what the prophet has said to us, not listen to or believe in him, or show no interest in anything relating to the system we live in at the present time. As a result, we'll have no alternative but to suffer the terrible consequences of all this. We must try to understand the religion the prophet has brought to us, because in religion everything is emphasized in an absolutely realistic manner.
Now, let's try to consider this point very carefully. The things that the prophet suggested and introduced to mankind concern the deeds that people must perform when alive, and these were meant purely for the purpose of making them totally aware, because they will surely be faced with these things in the afterlife. The prophet introduced mankind to all the things that they need to do, since they will face those things in the life they will live after their death. This shows that the religion has come in order to address those individuals whose lives will also continue after death.
The religion in this respect can be considered as a series or collection of proposals, and can be described as being governed by certain rules all of which were suggested by the holy prophet of Islam. Notice the
fact that there is no possibility of anybody altering any of these rules or making any kind of modifications to them whatsoever. The reason for this is because the prophet of Islam informed us of all these rules and proposals according to the way in which Allah revealed them to him. In other words, the right to speak in Allah’s name was only granted to the final holy prophet Mohammad, and therefore the right to speak in Allah’s name has been taken away from mankind completely, because it belongs only to the prophet and to no one else. Up until now, everybody, including Abu Bakr who was the closest friend of the prophet, has been able to explain and freely offer their comments or opinions about what they think about religion, but no-one has been able to talk in Allah’s name or in the name of the religion itself, because they have absolutely no right to do that.
Therefore, we must nominate the holy prophet Mohammad as our only reference before we suggest anything to anybody concerning religion. This is because the prophet is the only person we have with whom we can consult on all religious matters. Over 1400 years ago, the prophet of Islam personally informed each and every person that they should do whatever necessary to secure their future. In other words, the prophet introduced us to the idea that every person can choose to do whatever they wish to suit their own interests and must themselves make their own decisions about how they want to act in this life.