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              who then also perform the last rites. It is believed that if even a fraction
              of the ashes is not cast into the river, the subsequent life will bring much

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              suffering. These scriptures, written thousands of years ago by ignorant
              people, are not based Allah’s revelation and yet there are around 1 bil-
              lion people who blindly believe in them.
                   Much has been written over the centuries about this religion which
              has no divine or rational basis. They are the product of the Aryan pow-
              er of imagination. Especially in recent years the karma belief has been
              much discussed in the West. When reincarnation is considered in the
              light of the verses of the Qur’an and Allah’s revelations about the life on

              earth, the fact that this is a grave aberration is seen right away:
                   He Who created death and life to test which of you is best in action.
                   He is the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving. (Surat al-Mulk: 2)
                   It is revealed in this verse that people will be tried throughout their
              earthly lives. The world is a temporary abode where genuinely faithful
              people as well as deniers are revealed for who and what they are. It is a
              place of learning where believers are purified, attain the spirituality of
              paradise, and mature by their efforts of winning the good pleasure of

              Allah, Who has clearly revealed His limits that must be observed and
              what He approves and disapproves of. According to his morality in his
              life on earth, every human being will either meet with reward or pun-
              ishment in his eternal life in the hereafter and therefore every moment
              of our lives on earth, is either a step towards paradise or hell.
                   Man will not be reincarnated time after time as the false reincarna-
              tion belief suggests, but he will meet his death which will terminate his
              worldly life. Everyone around him, his friends, relatives and everybody

              else on earth will most certainly die like the billions of people who have
              come before them. Allah reveals this fact: “Every self will taste death…”
              (Surat al-Anbiya’: 35). Forgetting this inevitable reality is one of the



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