Page 37 - Islam and Karma
P. 37

The Afterlife According to the Idea of Karma



             ceasing to exist when they die. Since they are frightened by the
             thought of this, people who are unbelievers or have very little reli-
             gious faith either avoid thinking about death altogether or they try to
             console themselves by believing in superstitions such as reincarnation.
                  However, people do not cease to exist when they die. It is only our

             bodies that die. The spirit will live forever. However, this new life will
             be in the next world, not (as the reincarnation idea would have us be-
             lieve) in this one. Everyone will be rewarded for what they have done
             during their earthly life; their reward will be either a life of happiness
             and peace in the Garden, in which there are infinite blessings and

             countless good things, or a life in the fires of Hell, where there is un-
             bearable suffering and pain. The reward that those who deny Allah
             will receive is the eternal torture of the Fire; they will wish a thousand
             times over that they could die and cease to exist. Nevertheless, they
             will receive the true and just reward for having denied Allah during
             their time on earth. Allah describes the condition of the inhabitants of

             the Fire in the following verses:
                  But as for him who is given his Book behind his back, he will cry
                  out for destruction but will be roasted in a Searing Blaze. He used
                  to be joyful in his family. He thought that he was never going to re-
                  turn. (Surat al-Inshiqaq: 10-14)
                  When they are flung into a narrow place in it, shackled together in
                  chains, they will cry out there for destruction. "Do not cry out
                  today for just one destruction, cry out for many destructions!”
                  (Surat al-Furqan: 13-14)

                  The tortures of Hell are so violent and so painful that those who fear
             death and an end to their existence, and turn their faces away from
             Allah's religion, seeking consolation in superstitious beliefs, and those
             who deny the existence of Allah and the next world, will instead wish for
             that very end to their existence in preference to the tortures of the Fire.






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