The Afterlife

عالم آخرت

The Afterlife ('Ālam al-Ākhira): Nothing is wasted in this world — good act or bad, motion or stillness, good or evil — no act is wasted. The sound intellect (aql salīm) does not accept and submit (taslīm) that someone would do evil all their life and at the end return to the same place — it must be that there is a world in which the good get their reward and the bad get their punishment. Here, there is no accounting to the full. The Afterlife is a world necessarily established alongside the necessities of this world.

In the Afterlife will the body be punished or the soul? Or both? In this world it is the body that suffers pain — but the suffering is mediated through the soul. The body is the instrument and the soul is the perceiver of pain — so at the root, the soul is the perceiver of suffering. In the hereafter, the body of the old times will not exist — as it is said that a person is born in thirteen years (or twelve) or the whole body replaces itself in seven years. But 'I' who was born 57 years ago — the body has changed 8 times — but the things I knew then and the events are equally present in my knowledge now. That means my 'self' (anā'iyya) is the same — it came, something happened, and nothing changed.

The local knowledge of the body dissolves with the dissolution of the body and the knowledge of it also becomes lost. But the older conversations and events are still equally remembered in my knowledge. I rise from my chair, I sit, I walk — I am without the body's will and the material (mādda) does not move of its own will. Matter (mādda) is one thing in the World of Witnessing.

In the Afterlife, the actions of the self will be present — theft creates a heart of pain and anguish in the thief; he searches in the shape of the one who stole — the judge gets him in the form of the ruling authority; shackles bind him from behind — he is locked in prison. Shackles and chains become present. Salvation: will there even be salvation for the unbeliever? Resting — will there be any? Some scholars of Sufism hold that after a very long time and after extensive toil, the love of Allah Most High will come upon them — and a mercy will descend upon the unbelievers.

قَالُوا بَلَىٰ قَالَ فَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَكْفُرُونَ

"They will say: 'Yes.' He will say: 'Then taste the punishment for what you used to deny.'" (Sūrat al-Aḥqāf, 46:34)

سَبَقَتۡ رَحۡمَتِي غَضَبِي

"My mercy has preceded My wrath." (Hadith, narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim on the authority of Abu Hurairah) — This hadith muttafaq 'alayh: Abu Hurairah reports that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: 'Allah Most High wrote a Book before He created the creation — in it is written: My mercy has preceded My wrath — and it is written above the Throne.' — In this, the 'wrath' is surmounted; those in the Fire will, over time, come out.