Page:Maulana Muhammad Ali Quran.djvu/11

Rh weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and the quenchless fire as the punishment of the wicked are spoken of in the same breath with the kingdom of heaven, the treasure in heaven, and the life eternal as the reward of the righteous, but there is no clear indication as to the sources of the one or the other. The Holy Qur-án, on the other hand, makes it clear that the state after death is a complete representation, a full and clear image, of our spiritual state in this life. Here the good or bad conditions of the deeds or beliefs of a man are latent within him, and their poison or panacea casts its influence upon him only secretly, but in the life to come they shall become manifest and clear as noonday. The shape which our deeds and their consequences assume in this life is not visible to the eye of man on earth, but in the next life it will be unrolled and laid open before him in all its clearness. The pleasures and pains of the next life, therefore, though spiritual in reality, will not be hidden from the ordinary eye as spiritual facts are in this life. It is for this reason that while, on the one hand, the blessings of the next life are mentioned by physical names as an evidence of their clear representation to the eye, they are on the other hand spoken of in a saying of the Holy Prophet as things which "the eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive of them." This description of the blessings of the next life is really an explanation given by the Holy Prophet of the verse of the Qur-án which says: "No soul knows what is in store for them of that which will refresh the eyes" (32:17).

To the same effect we may quote another verse of the Holy Qur-án: "On that day you will see the faithful men and the faithful women, their light running before them and on their right hands" (57:12). This verse shows that the light of faith by which the righteous men and women were guided in this life, and which could here be seen only with the spiritual eye, will be clearly seen going before the believers on the day of resurrection.

As in the case of the blessings of paradise, the punishment of hell is also an image of the spiritual tortures of this life. Hell is said to be a place where one shall neither live nor die (20:74). It should be remembered in this connection that the Word of God describes those who walk in error and wickedness as dead and lifeless, while the good it calls living, The secret of this is that the means of the life of those who are ignorant of God, being simply eating and drinking and the satisfaction of physical desires, are entirely cut off at their death. Of spiritual food they have no share, and therefore, while devoid of the true life, they shall be raised again to taste of the evil consequences of their evil deeds.

The next life is a life of unlimited progress.

(3) The third point of importance which throws light on the mystery of the life after death is that man is destined to make infinite progress in that life. Underlying this is the principle that the development of man’s faculties as it takes place in this life, however unlimited, is not sealed by finality; but a much wider vista of the realms to be traversed opens out after death. Those who have wasted their opportunity in this life shall, under the inevitable law which makes every man taste of what he has done, be subjected to a course of treatment of the spiritual diseases which they have brought about with their own hands, and when the effect of the poison which vitiated their system has been nullified, and they are fit to start on the onward journey to the great goal, they shall no more be in hell. This is the reason why the punishment of hell, according to the Holy Qur-án, is not everlasting (see foot-note 1201). It is meant to clean a man of the dross which is a hindrance in his spiritual progress, and when that object has been