LIFE, DEATH AND THE LIFE TO COME

A lecture at the "Arbeitskreis Interrreligiöser Dialog" at the Department of Evangelical Theology at Hamburg University

I - Thoughts about Life and Death


A Qur'anic prayer says,

You make the night change into the day and the day change into the night, You make the living emerge from the dead and the dead from the living, and You give without reckoning to whom You choose. (Surah 3:28).

In the Qur'an, Life and death are often contrasted in this manner. Day and night as phases of activity and rest, the seasonal changes with blossoms, the ripening of the fruit, the withering of the plants and the revival of the soil are aspects of the same existence, components of the same circle of nature, traced back to the One Source of Being who created everything in pairs, and the same applies to life and death.

Therefore it is certainly human to feel fear of death the way we feel fear of the unknown and of changes, or to be sad, because for the dying person it is a farewell to a world that was familar for him/her and which enabled him/her to make useful experiences as well as a farewell to relatives and friends who were close to him/her and are now equally filled with sadness and maybe even with worries about their future without him/her. Death is a transistion from this physical world into a different state we are not familiar with but - in spite of all the fear and sadness - not a state in which we are distant from God. Rather we return to God. This is also expressed in the words we say when we hear about the death of a fellow human being: "We belong to God, and it is to Him we return." In the Qur'an, this is expressed as follows.

... and that the final return is to your Lord, and that it is He who makes laugh and weep, and that it is He who gives Life and death, and that He created the two mates in a pair, male and female ... (Surah 53:43-45)

- see here and in many other places in the Qur'an the arrangment in pairs.

All creation is changeable and temporary, and all living beings are mortal. The Prophet (s) is told,

We did not grant permanent life to any human being. So if you are going to die, would they live permanently? Every individual shall taste death, and We test you with evil and good, and it is to Us you shall return. (Surah 21:34-36)

"Taste death" means in this context that every living being will have death as an experience of transition.

Life and death are not only understood in their biological sense. Life also means activity and giving or contributing while death also means passivity. Life is encounter, exchange, communication. In this context, God is described as the Living One Who Never Dies, while we are told,

Those whom they call upon besides God do not create anything, rather they themselves are created. They are dead, not alive, and they do non know when they will be raised. (Surah 16:20-21).

This refers to all beings or things that are given a divine status, both human personalities in the past or present who are excessively followed and adored, institutions that are relied on beyond rational limits, and ideas and ideals that are worshipped rather than realized. They are dead in the sense that they are hardly able to achieve anything for themselves and much less to fulfil our hopes, and they are created like us or even made, by us, what we take them for. Occasionally the Qur'an points out that they let us down in a decisive moment. Strength, comfort and help is only found in the Source of Life itself. Therefore the Qur'an repeatedly tells us to observe the worlc and recognizes God's signs in it.

Among His signs is that He created you from clay. Then you became human beings spreading far and wide. And among His signs is that He created mates for you from yourselves so that you may find peace with them, and He put love and mercy between you. In this there are signs for people who reflect. And among His signs there is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the differences of your languages and colours. In this there are signs for those who know. And among His signs there is your sleep by night and by day and your quest for His bounties. In this there are signs for people who listen. And among His signs is that He shows you the lightning for fear and hope, and He sends down water from the sky to revive with it the earth after its death. In this there are signs for people who use their intellect. (Surah 30:20-24).

From this perspective the world, in Qur'anic language, is 'Âlam, a meas for realizationboth of the numerous practical things that make life possible and of their Creator. Throughout the text, variety is seen as positive both as an enrichment for life in the world and as a maifestation of the One who brought forth the countless phenomena and the laws that relate them with each other and regulate their interaction.

The Qur'an repeatedly points out the fabric of the world and ecological relations as signs of the One Creator. There have been many attempts to read rational "proofs for God's existence" into texts like these, especially in modern times with a perspective of couteracting atheism and agnosticism. However, the Qur'an does not stop at scientific observations and conclusions therefrom but teaches the reader to reflect about him/herself and to deal with his/her own experiences.

How can you deny God? You were dead and He gave you life, then He lets you die, then He revives you, then you return to Him. (Surah 2:28).

In other passages, our gradual development in the womb until the moment of birth is described, processes that we are unable to influence ourselves; this is also true for our growth as a child and adolescent until we reach the age that is often described as "maturity" when we take over responsibility for ourselves and our fellow human beings and other creatires. It is equally true for the gradual decline of our physical strength when we approach the end of our lives. Life is a process of development and education consisting of an interaction between our activities and reactions on one side and influences and challenges on the other, our potential being unfolded through this interaction. God sustains, accompanies and guides us in this process - this is what the Arabic word Rabb means that in most cases, simply and misleadingly, is translated as "Lord".

Life is also described as a test: we are confronted with challenges of evil and good to which we react one way or the other, thus becoming aware of how far we have developed our human qualities of e.g. patience, mercy etc. - sometimes we even discover unknown qualities or simply our own limitations. Anything good we realize is blessed. But we also experience the consequences of evil that we have done: there we have a chance to understand, repent, learn from the experience and achieve forgiveness, or to repress or deny it, only to be confronted with it at some point in the future - a painful experience that we describe as punishment. In this context we speak of the "fruits" of good and bad actions that might take some time to ripen, but in any case we are going to harvest them:

And whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil shall see it. (Surah 99:7-8).

Life and death are also understood as components of this physical life. When we look at the human being as a being under development, we can say that each stage is a world and a life to itself, the trasitions between them being a kind of death, a change, a farewell to familiar habits, and a resurrection to new thoughts and feelings into a world to which one has to adapt and find a new orientation. Thus, a child "dies" to be resurrected as an adult; an individual "dies" to be resurrected as a married partner and finally as the father or mother of a family; an adult "dies" to be resurrected as a senior who can share a treasure of experiences and even wisdom with others. At least puberty and midlife crisis are often experienced consciously as phases of transition like death and resurrection, therefore it is no coincidence that in many old religions there were rites of transistion connected with these stages, clearly marking the end and the new beginning, sometimes with actions symbolic for a new birth where the person concerned is even given a new name. Also changing one's job, emigration, a severe disease or the recovery therefrom etc. are experienced as a transition in a similar way, as a serious challenge for one's sense of identity causing intensive reflections about one's past with a temporary "settlement of accounts" and a new perspective for the future with new approaches and plans. This is the more clear for people who are inwardly alive and awake. In the mystical disciplines, an even clearer awareness is aimed at so that each moment is experienced as such a moment of dying and being recreated with full trust in our Creator and Sustainer who is present with us in all these challenges and changes.

This leads us to an understanding of life and death on still another level. A living heart opens up, turns towards God and its fellow human beings, understands and sees. On the other hand, a human with a selfish attitude and the illusion of being unchangeable can die off inwardly and become fossilized. Thus we speak of a "diseased heart" that is gloomy with selfishness, unable to see clearly, and inclined to hypocricy and opportunism. We speak of a "blind heart" e.g. in people who have seen enough of the world to recognizes the evidences of historical experiences but nevertheless are not ready to learn from the past and morally to come to a new beginning.

Do they not travel in the land so that they have hearts with which they understand and ears with which they listen? For it is not their eyes that are blind. It is their hearts in their breasts that are blind. (Surah 22:46).

People who reject insight and revelation in spite of better knowledge are described as people with "dead" or "petrified" hearts. They are admonished,

After that, your hearts hardened until they became like rocks or even harder. For even among the rocks there are those from which rivers break forth and those from which water flown when they are split, and there are certainly some omong them that fall down before God in humility and reverence, and God is not careless against what you do. (Surah 2:74).

It is extremely difficult and probably needs a shattering experience to revive hearts like that.

Life and death are also understood in a transpersonal sense as is evident from the following poem by Rumi.

I died as a rock to be reborn as a plant,
died as a plant to continue as an animal,
died as an animal to become human. What do I fear,
for I will not become less by dying?
Finally, when I have died as a human being,
I will be resurrected in the state of an angel,
and even as an angel I will have to give up life
in order to become what I cannot fathom: a breath of God.

At least since the Ikhwân as-Safa (10th century) there is the idea Muslim sciences of creation as a gradual evolution that is understood to be hinted at in the Qur'an that talks about "days of God" lasting 1000 or 50.000 years (if modern Muslims sometimes vehemmently reject Darwin's theories, this is mainly due to the coincidences and meaninglessness that are implied there while, seen from the Islamic perspective, the world has been created "with wisdom" and "in just proportions to be a means to recognize the Creator). Growth and decay are closely linked with each other, conditioning each other. There is a continuous varity of new shapes emerging from old ones, all of them interacting and organically combined with each other and with the One Source of Existence. As we have seen, the human individual undergoes similar stages as "the world" as a whole. In philosophy we speak of the human being as a "microcosm" compared with the macrocosm of the universe. In both of them God's attributes are manifested. In both, God is present.

However, Islamic theology does not work with two terms.

  1. Incarnation.
    God allows Himself to be found and experienced - in fact, Islamic theology is a theology of experience - but at the same time He remains unfathomalble and unconditioned. God is immanently present in His creatures, but at the same time remains transcendent, and we must not lose one of the two aspects out of sight. We differentiate between God and creation with a mathematical precision according to which an entity is identical only with itself, even though God's attributes can be experienced in creation in a temporal and spatial framework like e.g. in the great prophetic personalities who are "perfect human beings" and whose influence continues beyond time and space while they are limited and conditioned and, like other phenomena, linked with the Source of Being but different from it.
  2. Reincarnation.
    By this, two misunderstandings are avoided:

    1. The idea that inner processes and good activities that are essential for the human development could be postponed to a later lifetime. We meet challenges and chances here and now, and we should make the best possible use of them and not waste or neglect our abilities and potential.
    2. The idea that present suffering must be the effect of past guilt. This can be the case, but a human being can also be afflicted with suffering without any guilt of his/her own, caused by some imbalance or by evil actions of others. When we are afflicted by poverty, diseases or other difficulties, we can take this for an occasion to repent and to change our attitude, but it is umportant that we have patient with our situation and develop a trusting and confident outlook on the future rather than brood over a past that cannot be undone anyway. In face of the suffering of others, it is even more important not to search for possible faults of theirs that might have caused their misfortune but to have sympathy with them and to try to help them overcome their suffering.

    Let us return to the biological life of a human being on earth between his/her birth and physical death. We experience human beings in a wide variety with numerous different talents, temperaments, interests and individual biographies. Consiering this variety, the question might be of interest how far human beings are "equal". Similarly there might be the issue of justice. Seen from an Islamic perspective, a human being first of all has his/her equal value as a human being, as one of God's creatures, and as an individual. At the same time, each idividual is unique with his/her own set of talents and possibilieties and the liberty to use them and to unfold them in the interaction with others. Seen from that angle, human beings are anything other than equal, and any attempt to make them look equal, e.g. by making them wear a uniform, can hamper some aspects of their humanness, e.g. their sense of responsibility, and influence their self-esteem. Therefore, the Qur'anic concept of justice is not a concept of mere formal equality but a concept of balance and mutual completion (symbolized by the scales), considering all those different talents and gifts that have been given to us. Referring to the level of education and test during our life on earth, the Qur'an says that no one is expected to do more than he/she is able to. It does not count as a failure if an individual does not fulfil what is (still) impossible. On the other hand, special abilities are connected with a special responsibility, and each individual is asked to recognize him/herself and his/her respective task in life. Doing good basically means to unfold one's own good potential and to use it for the benefit of one's fellow creatures and in the service of the Creator; this leads to good results both for others and for oneself and is blessed. Doing evil basically means either not to unfold one's own good potential, thus harming oneself and depriving others of good, or to misuse it; both is connected with evil results both for others and for oneself unless insight is gained that leads to repentence and a new attitude. Such a process of learning can be another kind of blessing.

    In Qur'anic language there is the image of good and evil actions being "written" or recorded during a human being's lifetime, or that evil actions for which forgiveness has been achieved are deleted respectively. In this context, the term "Book of Actions" is used, the contents of which determine an individual's future after death. The Prophet (s) said, "When a person dies, the book of his/her actions is closed except in three cases: for a person who gives a charity that continues after his/her lifetime (e.g. a school or a social institution); a person who leaves a scientific work that is useful for others; and a person who leaves a righteous child who prays for him/her." In this sense, a person can work in this world even after his/her death. This is especially true for people who have been witnesses for God's cause in life and death.

    The concept of a scripture or book plays an important role in Islam and is a widespread image. It refers first of all to Schriptures of revelation like the Qur'an and also Biblical Scriptures or a pre-existent original thereof. The Book of Actions, however, is a record of things that happened and still are efficient. But the word Kitâb not only means scripture, book, record etc. but also pre-scription or law. Thus when we speak of a Book of Creation, it implies not just the idea that all creatures and their individual actions are registered but also the concept of laws of nature regulating their mutual relations. In this context, there has been a debate in Muslim theology whether the actual moment of death is determined beforehand. This was part of a general debate on predestination. Those who advocated a doctrine of predestination used to refer to passages like the following.

    And it is He who takes your souls by night and who knows all that you you do by day; by day He raises you again so that the appointed term might be fulfilled. To Him you will then be returned, then He will inform you about what you used to do. (Surah6:60),

    or, referring to communities rather than to individuals,

    For each community (Umma, also: generation) there is a term. When their term has come, they cannot even cause an hours's delay nor can they advance it. (Surah 7:34).

    The opponents of a doctrine of predestination base their attitude on the general doctrine of human freedom and individual responsibility that is taught consistently in the Qur'an and illustrated by many examples. The "term" mentioned here is not understood as an individual term with a pre-determined beginning and end but a natural life span corresponding to the relevant laws of nature that is normally given to individuals and communities and that can hardly be influenced once its end is near. However, it can be cut short by external violence or unhealty behaviour, and that is where the wrong lies that is done e.g. by a murderer to his victim. If the moment of death were pre-determined, a murder would still be illegal but not a real wrong against the victim who would have died at that moment anyway - and this would be open to quite a number of unethical and blasphemous conclusions as well. Besides, predestination would not only narrow down human freedom and responsibility but, seen on the level of theology, even God's freedom because He would be seen as tied up with a detailed plan once fixed, and the whole Qur'anic concept of life as a process of education and test, the doctrine of good results for good actions and bad results for bad actions as well as the possibility for repentence and forgiveness would become meaningless.

    In contrast to the general trend of our age to keep disease, loss, old age and death out of public sight and mind, the Islamic sources teach us to remember our own transitoriness and to organize our lives in such a way that we do not stick to temporary things but strive for permanent values by trying to do and promote good. Accordingly, we are taught to be patient in face of a loss, to visit the sick and help and comfort them, especially when the disease turns into a permanent handicap, and to meet old people with respect and love - we must not deny them the care and protection of the family, especially when they become dependent of professional care that we are unable to give ourselves. We should not leave dying people to themselves or to strangers. As far as possible, pain should be alleviated without blurring the dying person's consciousness or torturing him with medication. We should recite comforting passages of the Qur'an to a dying Muslim, remind him/her of God's mercy, help to clear up problems that worry him/her and to make last minute arrangements, and give him/her a chance for a dignified farewell. All this is a help both for the dying person and the relatives. It may also help to say the testimony of faith and to ask forgiveness for oneself and for the dying oerson. As yet it it understood to be self-evident in the Muslim world that a person dies at home surrounded by the family unless it is a sudden death by accident, but it has also become necessary to think about possibilities for a dignified farewell in a hospital and how to look after people whose family members are not present.

    From the Islamic perspective, human duties cannot be institutionalized. Therefore there is, as yet, no institutionalized clinical pastoral care, because relatives, neighbours and friends are enjoined to look after the sick, supporting each other. Similarly it is recommended to be present in the last hour of a dying relative, for dying is a mutual farewell, and death loses some of its strangeness and mystery if we become more familiar with it in this manner. However, the actions conneced with the death of a person are not immediate individual duties like e.g. the testimony of faith and regular prayer but fard kifâya, a duty to be fulfilled, that is, by one or several members of the community as the case may be. If it is fulfilled by one person, it is fulfilled by the community, and if it is not fulfilled by anyone, it has been neglected by the community.

    The latter also applies to the preparations of the deceased and the funeral. Someone should close the deceased's eyes and tie up the jaw to avoid the face from being disfigured. The deceased should be layed out in a dignified posotion and washed and shrouded as soon as possible, a man by men and a woman by women. By the way, the shroud has much similarity with the clothes the pilgrims wear in Mecca; in fact, some Muslims keep their pilgrimage garb to be used as a shroud. Weeping is considered natural for mourners, but artificial lamentation should be avoided just as much as exaggeration and extravagance at the funeral.

    Before the burial, the funeral prayer is performed, sometimes in the cemetery. It does not contain bowing and prostration like other ritual prayers but is performed standing. After that, the deceased is carried to the grave, if possible by the relatives. The grave is made in such a way that the deceased lies in it facing Mecca. In many big cities in Western countries there are nowadays some cemeteries that offer space for Muslims, the graves there facing Mecca. Each participant throws three handfuls of earth to help filling the grave, remembering that we have been created from earth, return to earth, and will be resurrected from the earth. It is recommended to stay until the grave is completely filled up, and supplication is made for the deceased. During the following days, the relatives are visited in order to pray together and read Qur'an both as a comfort for them and to ask for forgiveness and blessings for the deceased.

    The Prophet (s) said, There are three that follow a person until the grave is reached, relatives, possessions and actions. Relatives and possessions go back, but the actions follow him/her into the grave and remain.


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