Death. A concept I dealt with just recently. Some of you who have already read my first post will now the event I relate to in this post: my grandmother’s passing. It’s something I’m still struggling with, that the event is real. She’s gone now, with much achievements in life. As a Muslim (hence like fellow followers of Abrahamic faiths, believing in doomsday), it will be in the future before I meet her again.
As someone who believes in the afterlife, death is just another part of a process in a universal plan of the progression of Allah’s creation (Allah, by the way, means God. The word consists of al- [the] and ilah [subject to worship]). When I observe or peruse through efforts in lengthening lifespan and generally improving the disease resistance of the human body, I don’t always see it as a trans-humanist effort to escape the void of uncertainty that our mortality brings to us. Though I admit there are those who pursue it that way, ultimately helping extend life expectancy and general human well-being is a noble cause. Any efforts done to ‘improve’ the human body is merely maximizing the biological template Allah has given us, in the sense of synthesized medicine being found from natural sources in some part of their creation. Forgive me if I’m not being very clear on this matter, being someone who focuses on social science for the most part of my life, but it’s improvements Allah already intended us to make. Even then it wasn’t something I actually consider as outright improving Allah’s creation. We are not created perfect, for not even Prophet Muhammad is, but apparently prophets in ages past like Adam and Noah has lifespan measured in centuries and physical capabilities which can be considered superhuman in the modern age.
The belief in an afterlife convinces me that all actions we do are judged fairly by desire-less beings who are superior in every other way, the angels, who did it exactly as Allah commanded. The fairest of trials unimaginable even in the most sophisticated courts colored by human emotion and society. Then the end of days and the Akhirat afterwards, of heaven and hell. Where those who are truly vile are punished but those who have at least an atom of faith in the existence of a divine are given (to my understanding) lightened and ultimately temporary (yet still measured in eons) of punishment. Above all, to actually be in the presence of Allah. A being who surpass all concepts, who can create an imoveable and invincible object and move or even crush it. A dzat beyond our comprehension. Hopefully beholding Him will be the greatest gift of all.
And I pray to Allah that the judgment of two angels in the realm of Barzah is, to my grandmother, a calm and pleasant slumber. Hopefully we will meet again in Heaven, with all good people, beholding His splendor and the definitive answer to existence itself.