Page 31 - The importance of conscience in the Qur'an

Believing in the Hereafter with Certainty 29

according to his or her conduct in this world. It does not suit
people's purposes to follow their conscience in a life which they
spend in joking and playing around, and by rote, without giving
a thought to it at all. Everyone pursues plans they will benefit
from in the life of this world, but none of these plans concern
death or the hereafter. Death, however, is a reality far more
absolute than all of these planned events. People, however,
never take death into consideration. They try to live their lives
as if they will never die.
What may then be the reason that the majority of people
live by ignoring this important fact?
To answer this question, you must take a moment to
think; how many times in your entire life have you thought
about death? Have you ever thought that one day you will die,
all your loved ones who buried you under the earth will then
leave your grave and get on with their daily lives, and everything
you ever had will be gone upon your death? Have you ever
visualised how death takes place? Your flesh will rot under the
soil, but what will your soul experience?
Man has a soul and the soul does not disappear. After man
dies, a new life starts for his soul, but has he ever happened to
wonder what kind of a new life awaits him? Like the majority of
people, he, too, may have never thought about such things. This
is because thinking about them makes people feel horrified.
They try to avoid these facts as much as possible. When this
subject is brought up, they try to dismiss its impact on them
with jokes or flippant remarks.
Why, then, do almost all people try so strongly to escape
this reality which is certain to happen one day? Will ignoring
prevent it from happening? Of course it will not. The reason
people avoid thinking about death and the hereafter is that it