The Lives of the Human Being - Part 2

The Lives of the Human Being - Part 2

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

Classical Divisions of Human Life Stages

The next stages, these are the two classical divisions. Some will put it into five, and others seven. Seven is, you know, Shakespeare has the Verona Tapestry that has the seven stages of man. And so it's consistent with some of the Western tradition.

Ages 1 Through 15: The Formative Years

But here, 1 through 15, 15 was traditionally more commonly the onset of puberty, it was around that age. Where I was in West Africa, that's pretty much when puberty happens for most of the people there. But you're obviously going to get some are delayed and some are earlier, but it's around that. And this is also consistent with neurological research that indicates that the brain is pretty much by 15, it's fully formulated.

And at puberty, there's actually a hormone that's released that will remove, if networking was not done, it removes all the potential. So, which is really important why children need so much stimulation in those early periods. And we've shown now, there's an Israeli study that indicated that for the first at least 10 months, there was strong corollary study that showed that children that were breastfed, that their IQs increased about a point for every month that they had mother's milk.

The Right of Breastfeeding and Mother's Milk

And it's interesting also that it's actually a right of a child to be nursed with breast milk. It's a right. And if a woman is not able to do it, then it's the responsibility of the man to find what we used to call wet nurses, which obviously we don't have this anymore. But mother's milk is seen as really important.

And in fact, the Arabic word for the actual tit of a woman's breast is halama, which means, it's the same root word for compassion and forbearance. And there is a belief, you know, it's what we used to call in this tradition, the milk of human kindness. That there's actually, that that is transmitted to the children through the breast. That there is a transmission of hilm. And it's interesting that historically, the wet nurse of the Prophet's name was Halima. That was the name of his wet nurse, was Halima Sa'diyah.

Forbearance Precedes Knowledge

And so, it's also believed in the Islamic tradition that this hilm, which is forbearance, precedes ilm, which is knowledge. And so the woman for the first seven years is inculcating forbearance in the child. That that is what the child needs to learn in those first seven years, is how to be a human being. How to actually have the ability to be empathic, compassionate, forbearing, kind, generous. This is what the mother is imparting to the child.

The Womb and Divine Mercy

And this is why she's been given, and there's a very interesting correlation between the breast and the womb that many women know. The womb in Arabic is rahim, which the root word is compassion. And there is a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said that God says:

(Sahih Bukhari 5987)

"I have derived the womb from my name, the Merciful. So whoever maintains ties with the womb, I will maintain connection with him, and whoever severs the womb, I will sever connection with him."

So the womb is the source of human rahmah. And this is why kinship ties are so important, because if a child does not learn to have mercy at the unit of the family, it will never be able to extend mercy to the greater human family.

Marriage: Divine Love and Compassion

So in the Islamic tradition it's essential that a child learns to be compassionate within the family unit. And this is why rahmah is believed to be the dominant sakina. And this is why the Qur'an says that the male and the female come together with two qualities, muwaddah and rahmah:

"And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy."

Muwaddah is a love that is not lustful. It's transcending the erotic love and moving into the divine love. And this is why one of the names of God is al-wadood. It's from the same root, the one who loves divinely. So muwaddah, and also the Prophet ﷺ said the best woman was the wadood, this woman that has this divine love, because she will transmit it to her children. And then the second quality of marriage is rahmah, which is compassion and mercy.

The Marital House: A Place of Tranquility

The two of these result in sakina, which is tranquility. And shakina in the Hebrew tradition, right? Shakina, which descends. The word in Arabic for that marital house is called maskan, which in Arabic means the place of tranquility.

So this is what the marital house is a place where this divine sakina is allowed to descend because of divine love and compassion and children that grow up in that environment are children that are fitra children, that will have compassion, love and tranquility. So that when they move out into the dominant culture and society, they're not a threat to people. They're actually a contribution.

Righteous Children: A Lasting Legacy

And this is why the Prophet ﷺ said one of the three things that a human being leaves behind that will benefit him in the next life is righteous children. So this stage cannot be underestimated. This stage will

actually affect the parents' afterlife if they do it properly. And he also said that people that don't do it properly, they will accrue the wrong actions of their children throughout their lives. So it'll have the opposite effect.

Ages 15 to 35: Youth and the Fire of Energy

So at the age of 15 to 35, you enter into the new stage, which is youth. It's called shabab, which comes from a root word, shabbat an-nar. The fire became inflamed. So youth is when you have this energy.

Imam Ali's Wisdom on Raising Children

And this is considered the age of plowing the field. There's a tradition of Imam Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) who said, he's the nephew of the Prophet and one of the greatest scholars of Islam. He said: "لَاعِبْ وَلَدَكَ سَبْعًا، وَأَذِبْهُ سَبْعًا، وَصَاحِبْهُ سَبْعًا، ثُمَّ اتْرُكْ حَبْلَهُ عَلَى غَارِبِهِ" - "Play with your children for seven years. Educate them for seven years. Befriend them for seven years. And then release their reins."

Let their reins go. Play with them for seven. Educate them for seven. And then befriend them for seven. That age of 14 to 21, it's the identity. They need that mentorship. They're moving into the world. And then at 21, your job is done. And now, if you do that, then there'll be a contribution to yourself and to society.

The Period of Struggle and Effort

So from that period is seen as the period of struggle. This is where you're really meant to do your serious work. One of the scholars said, if a man has nothing to boast of by the age of 21, he'll never have anything to boast. That this is the real time of effort and struggle.

Ages 35 to 40: The Transition to Maturity

At the age of 35, a new phase is coming in. And some take it to 40. 40 is productivity versus stagnation, in Erickson's model. 40 is the age now where the other world is really moving in to picture now. One of the things that happens at 40 is grey hairs begin to emerge.

Grey Hair: A Sign of Harvest Time

And there's a wisdom in that because grey hairs... What the scholars say is that grey hair is a sign that harvest time is soon. Right? The chafe is yellowing. The grim reaper is on his way.

And so 40 is seen as a time of getting serious, if you haven't been yet. It's no longer... You don't have the youth to waste anymore. It's time to really start thinking about... And this is what Erickson says. What you're leaving behind. What your contribution is. Right? What are you going to leave behind? And that will determine his later stage of integrity versus despair.

Confronting Mortality at 40

Did you do something worthwhile that you can say my life has had meaning? Or was it an egocentric life? And

this is why in our culture 40 can be so frightening for people. Right? Men will often leave their wives and go find a younger woman and now women are starting to compete with men in that realm as well. And with enhanced cosmetic surgery and things like that people are doing really bizarre things.

And this is our death denial culture. We're not dealing with this. This is a turning point. Right? It's literally... The focus on this world is really meant to... 40 is the transition where you're turning your back on this world and you're really starting to face your mortality in a deep existential way.

The Age of Maturity )رجولة

And so this is called now the age of maturity. رجولة It's the age... It can apply to the male and the female. It generally means man. But it's the idea of somebody now who has reached this age of dignity. They are no longer going to do anything that is indicative of the folly of youth.

That they have wisdom now. There's no longer an excuse for the stupidities of lack of experience. You should know better. Right? Shame on you. And this period then will be the most productive period from 40 to 50 in terms of contribution. Because now you really have... You still have remnants of the strength of youth but you also have the maturation of intellect and spirituality according to this tradition.

Age 50: Becoming an Elder )شيخوخة

At 50, you move into what's known as shaykhuha. Shaykh or Shaykhah. This is now where you become an elder. Your wisdom now has matured in a way that you are now guiding peoples that went before you. You're giving them insights into their own journey. Because you've gone down the path.

Respect for the Aged and Compassion for the Youth

You've been through these stages and now you can actually guide them. And there's a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said: "لَيْسَ مِنَّا مَنْ لَمْ يُوَفَّرْ كَبِيرَنَا وَيَرْحَمْ صَغِيرَنَا" - "He is not from us the one who does not respect our aged nor has compassion on our youth." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1919)

So there is an interesting dyadic relationship between the aged and the youth. The aged have to have compassion because the youth don't have the experience. So they make these mistakes. But the youth have to have the respect of the aged in that they can derive from them the wisdom of those who have already traveled the path.

So this is a really important period. And this will go on for about 20 years.

Age 70: The Final Stage )العاجز

At about 70, you're moving into the ajiz. Now obviously the baby boomers are going to alter this because of, you know, people now they're like 75 and they have the strength of people traditionally that were in their 50s. We're seeing this now. I mean, it's interesting.

But traditionally, 70 was really where you're settling down into, you're slowing down physiologically and in every other way. And so you're really now, you walk slowly. There's a type of dignity that goes with this age.

God's Shyness to Punish at 70

And it's an age where the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that God is shy of punishing somebody who reaches the age of 70 in a state of submission in the next world. And then he wept. And they asked him, why are you weeping? And he said, I'm weeping for those of my community who are not shy about disobeying Allah at that age.

So this is really a time where people should be really directed to the other world. This is a time when you really leave behind this world. You begin to go into spiritual.

Insomnia and Deep Meditation

Physiologically, this is a time of insomnia for a lot of people. And traditionally, that was because the body is designed at this age to go into deep meditative states in the night, which replaces sleep. And in the traditional Muslim culture, that's what people did. At this time, it was going inwardly in a very deep way and spending the nights in meditation, getting ready for the afterlife.

Death: The Inevitable Reality

And then we have death. Now, death is an amazing thing. If you're familiar with Heidegger's philosophy, he built an entire philosophy around the phenomenon of death. And death is ultimately... If you don't want to think about where you came from, everybody at some point has to think about where they're going.

A Personal Realization of Mortality

And I had a professor once... In fact, in Western schools, he was really the only really great teacher that I had. Catholic, very brilliant scholar, Ken Kramer, who in a class I had with him, which some of this material is taken from, about death and dying in religious traditions. And he said one day in class, there is a point in your life where you will become absolutely certain of your mortality. And he said it comes to people at different stages in their life. Some people it happens really early, and other people it happens really late.

And when he said that to me, it struck a chord in me because I know that point with absolute certainty. When that happened to me, I was 17. And I was in a really intense car accident. And I realized during the accident that I might be going into the next world. And I realized it, I mean completely, a total realization of mortality.

And that completely altered my experience of life after that. I was disconnected for about a year after that accident. Completely disconnected. Conversations, I couldn't hear people talking and things. I mean it was a very, very profound experience for me. And that was my experience. For him, he said it happened when he was 25. He was in theological seminary, sitting out on a window pane, looking out. And he realized he was going to die.

Spiritual Death: Dying to the Sensory World

That realization of death and mortality, I think for most people, and there's also, I believe in my own experience, there is a, because it's happened several times since then, there is an experience that you can, there's a belief that you cannot experience death in this life. There is a belief amongst a lot of the Freudians and other psychologists in this culture that human beings cannot really understand death as long as they're alive.

In all the traditional cultures, death, spiritual death is real. That you can die to the sensory in this world before you leave this world. And in fact, that is the goal of most religious traditions. The spiritual death.

And the spiritual death is where one enters into meaning. You die to the sensory and this is an inward experience. And once that death occurs, you can never look at the sensory world in the same light. You're freed from it. The chains of it, in a deep way.

One of them said: (فَفَارَقَ الَّذِي الْحِسَّ وَعَائِقَ مَعْنَى لَا يَحِلُّ فِرَاقُهَا عَائِقًا كَانَ - He freed himself from sensory, his obstacle. And he embraced meaning. An embrace that he's not permitted to ever leave.)

So the idea is, once you make this, you embrace this meaning, which is your mortality, and that you will be brought back into the divine present. But that will completely alter your life. You will never be able to look at the world in the same way. And this is the spiritual goal, of the spiritual path.

Five Reasons Why We Fear Death

Now, there's a lot of reasons why we fear, why we fear dying. Right? And these, these five are going to be, the majority of people are going to fall into this:

1. Fear of Pain

People have a fear of pain. There's a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said, whoever loves to meet God, God loves to meet them. And his wife said, what about fearing death? And he said, we all fear death. In other words, it's very human to fear the pain. Right? That comes with death.

Like what's called in the Qur'an, (سكرة الموت - The Qur'an says):

"The pangs of death have come in truth. This is that which you were putting off."

Right? We don't like to think about this.

2. Fear of Loss and Separation

The fear of loss, separation, leaving this world, loved ones.

3. Fear of Meaninglessness

The fear of meaninglessness. Right? Despair that comes with feeling that your life really didn't turn out the way

you wanted. That it wasn't really, you didn't get what you wanted to get done. Right? I can't die now. I've still got things to do.

4. Fear of the Unknown

Fear of the unknown. Right? Of what's going to happen in the next realm. Many people will say, well, there's nothing. But, it's Pascal's wager.

Pascal's Wager and Sayyidina Ali's Wager

Which is in the Muslim tradition called Sayyidina Ali's wager. Because he preceded Pascal by centuries with that. Somebody was debating with him about, you know, belief in the afterlife. He said, well, if I'm right, you're in big trouble. But if you're right, I don't have a problem. Right?

In other words, in the next world, if the materialist who says it all ends with death, if it indeed does, then the religious man or woman has led an ethical life. I think it was Whitehead who said, even if there isn't a day of judgment, we should all live our lives as if there was. Which is the secular humanist perspective. We've still done the right thing.

Whereas the aesthetic, or the garment, or the person who wants to live the sensual life, and not think about what's coming after, or say nothing's coming after, if indeed there is something after, then he or she is in trouble.

5. Fear of Non-Being

And then fear of non-being. Right? It's hard to imagine ourselves, in fact, it's really at one level impossible, to imagine ourselves just not here at all.

Types of Death

Now, if you look at death, there's different types of death. We have physical death, but we also have psychological death.

Psychological Death

One of the things George Vithoulkas, a homeopath, said, was in America, we die at 25, but live to 75. Right? That at a certain point, a lot of people literally stop experiencing life, and go into this just numbed state, where they've had a psychological death.

Physical Death: Medical Definitions

A physical death is determined by Harvard's... I used to always be amazed in the hospital, because I saw a lot of people die, nurses can't say they're dead. You need the doctor to come in and declare them dead. I mean, if that's not religion, I don't know what is. The priest has to come in, right? Yeah, he's dead. Okay, thank you.

Brain waves, that determines death, right? That is one type of death, brain death. So if they're not seeing brain activity, they're determined to be dead. Heart and blood, if the heart stops, and blood starts circulating, death occurs very quickly. Alright? There can be resuscitation, if somebody is, for instance, defibrillated or something, brought back into a beating heart. But that happens pretty quick. The nervous system is one way of determining. So you poke, you don't get any reactions. And then breath and lungs. You really have to have all four, in order for them to... you know, this is a dead... there's no longer life.

The Soul and Material Substance

Now, at one point people started weighing cadavers. Because there was a belief, you know, that the soul leaves and obviously it's going to be lighter. Which, again, is such a stupid concept, because the soul is immaterial. Right? So obviously it's not going to have any weight. I mean, that's the point of the soul. It's not material substance. It's not part of this realm. It's from another realm. The body is material.

Now, the soul, you know, there's a lot of people that don't believe in the soul. In fact, there's a lot of scientists that would really like to prove that we are nothing other than anabolic and catabolic processes. Just biochemistry. That's what we're dealing with.

Forms of Psychological Death

Now, at the psychological level, you have types of death:

Cognitive Impotence

So at the brain level, you get cognitive impotence, where the brain is not functioning anymore. So psychologically, you know, people literally stop thinking and they become automatons that literally kind of go through life without really ever thinking about anything other than the most functional things, you know. So people go into these trance-like states. And they go into this perfunctory life that is nothing other than routines.

And this is why, like Ezra Pound, you're all teachers. Ezra Pound said, the day that a teacher is not excited about teaching a class is the day they should retire. So this is really a type of death, of brain death, when you're no longer excited about the material.

The Tragedy of Boredom

I was telling Hakim, I rented a car, and this man said to me, he was from another state, and I said, how long have you been here? He said, 30 years. But I'm moving on. I said, oh, really? You don't like here anymore? He said, well, seen every mountain, been on every trail, hunted every hunting area, fished every stream. I'm bored. Right?

And I was just, I mean, that always amazes me. Because I've never looked out here and seen the same place. Every single time I've looked here, I've been coming here all these years, I've never, it's like, where did that mountain come from? And it's all lights. It's always changing here. The lights are incredible.

And so this idea of boredom, that's something, that's another thing that really always amazed me about people who say, I'm bored. How people get into that state. What happens where somebody can say, I'm bored.

And children are not like that. We teach them boredom. Right? Children are not bored. I mean, they're just, you know, they're, you know, in everything. Right? Which is people that take hypotropic drugs are like that. Right? They'd start looking at leaves, like, you know, amazed at, and that's the way children are. They're in a whole other realm. Right? And that type of excitement about life is not something that has to stop.

Existence as Ecstasy

Discovery, in Arabic, the word to find something or discover something means to be ecstatic. And the word for existence is the same root word. Existence is the arena of ecstasy. And, and, but you have to be alive to be in that, to be in that state where it is.

You are in an ecstatic state because there's constant discovery. This is a theater of enlightenment. There's all these revelations happening in every moment. You know, divine attributes are manifesting all over the place.

Emotive Dissonance

And then the next is emotive dissonance. People who die emotionally. And this is the ruin of myriad marriages. Emotional death that occurs in marriages where there's no, nothing's happening. People are dead and numb inside to each other.

Which, one of the things about death and really keeping death in perspective is unlike having the morbid experience. It actually invigorates your experience of life because you, it's like this might be the last time I'm ever with you. Right? This might, I might never see you again.

I mean, we leave, we go to work and come home and think that it's always going to be like this. But there's people all over this country right now that are getting phone calls. I hate to tell you this, but your husband was in a car accident today. You know, your wife, or, I hate to tell you this, but you know, the test came back positive. You've got terminal cancer. I mean, this is going on all over right now, everywhere.

And we forget that. You know, we go into this thing that's always going to be like, she'll always be around. He'll always be around.

Volitional Routinization

Volitional routinization of life. Right? Just sit down at the terminal, turn on, plug in, check my email, coffee, you know, phone rings, yes, okay. There's people all over the world like that. Literally just, right? Driving cars, same radio station, right? It's amazing. So, that's a type of death.

Intuitive Paralysis

And then intuitive paralysis, losing that expansion contraction, the breath, you know, losing that, that experience of, right, that that breath can be cut off. And that when you're connected to your breath, you're connected to yourself in a really powerful way, which is why breath is a primary meditation.

The Stages of Dying: Beyond Kübler-Ross

Now you have, these are not universal. And there's actually new death work that's beginning to go beyond Kübler-Ross's. I mean, she was important at one point. Singh's book, The Art of Dying, which is published by Harper, has taken a whole other, and that's probably going to become an important book. It's going really beyond that because there are many people that do not go through these stages.

There are many people that, you know, but this is a common death denial. People in a death denial culture, this is very common, these stages, and they do work.

Stage 1: Denial

Denial is the first stage, right? He's relating them to these, but I'm not going to go into that. But denial is the first stage. You know, people hear it. There's a film called The Doctor. I don't know if people saw that, but that's very much in that genre of somebody who's told they're going to die, and they thought, it's not going to happen to me, it happens to everybody else.

And this is one of, you know, Arjuna has asked Krishna, what is the greatest wonder of the world? And he replies that the greatest wonder is that you see people dying all around you, and you don't think it's going to happen to you. Right? So we, you know, we go into this denial of death.

Stage 2: Anger

And once people overcome that, it's anger will often emerge. Getting angry. Why is this happening to me? Especially, you know, you're 35, 40, and you've got terminal cancer.

Lee Atwater's Transformation

There's a wonderful piece that was written by Lee, was it Lee Atwater? Who was the campaign manager for Bush? Huh? Lee Atwater. Really bad guy. This guy was bad, and he admits it. It was a piece that was published in, I think, New Age magazine several years back. When he first, do you remember he had the brain tumor?

He said that he based his life on Machiavelli's The Prince. You know, he said, that was my life. Machiavelli. This guy, on top of the world, could do no wrong. The Republican golden boy. But his, you know, screw onto others before they screw onto you. That was the motto of that man's life. Right? Really.

And he admits that in there. If he could, you know, damage, attack people's reputations, do the worst things, that was his realm. And that's why they loved him so much. Right? Because he got people elected. When he

Species Death and Collective Transformation

And the, you know, one of the things about our age is we're confronting species death. Right? We're looking at, you know, our entire world is being threatened with death. Right? Our biosphere is showing signs that it can no longer sustain us because of what we're doing to it.

And what, if that really enters in to the collective consciousness of, of, of, of human societies now, what type of transformation is that, but as long as we're in denial about this. Right? Or in the anger stages, like the echo warriors. Right? Because they're furious. Right? Earth first people. They're not in denial. They see it happening, but they're angry. You know, the Unabomber. Let's blow these people up that are ruining our world.

Right? This is all anger. but if we as a, as a species could really see that we are threatened with our own extinction, that there is not going to be a sustainable world for our children, for our grandchildren. What type of transformation is going to occur?

Stage 3: Bargaining

Bargaining. Give me another chance. God, I know I'm mucked up. Give me another chance. Right?

Stage 4: Acceptance and Submission

And then acceptance. This is submission. And I mentioned that, you know, the denial is Kufr. That's what Kufr means. Rejection. Right? Anger is fighting it. Fighting the truth. Bargaining is trying to deal with the truth on your own terms. Right? Trying to deal with it on your own terms. I know it's true. Okay, but can't we, you know, let's bargain here a little bit. You know, give me a break. This is hard. I can't deal with this.

And submission is I submit. I'm accepting this thing completely. And from that experience is an incredible liberation. You transcend yourself. You are a free human being. Before that, you're a slave. You're a slave to your fears. You're a slave to your desires.

Being Unto Death

Once you accept your own mortality, right? What Heidegger calls a being unto death. You can nurture. You can enter into your humanity as long as you're in denial of that most fundamental fact. And Heidegger goes to the

radical proposition that your death act will be the only real thing that you will ever do that was not determined by anybody else.

That every act that you do in your life is because you've been influenced by your parents, by your peers, by your education, by your society. It is death alone that will be uniquely yours. No one will teach you how to do that. No one will show you that path. You take it on your own.

And so that is your one true act that can be absolutely volitional. You can die. And that is really in harmony with the Islamic understanding.

Euphemisms for Death in Our Culture

This is kind of interesting, just in our culture, all these. These are like euphemisms because people don't like to say he died. Right?

Passed on, croaked, kicked the bucket, gone to heaven, gone home, expired, breathed his last, succumbed, left us, went to his return, award loss, met his maker, wasted, checked out, eternal rest, laid to rest, pushing up daisies, called home, was a goner, came to an end, bit the dust, annihilated, liquidated, terminated, gave up the ghost, left this world, rubbed out, snuffed, six feet under, consumed, found everlasting peace, wishful thinking, went to a new life in the great beyond, no longer with us, made the change, got myrtilized. On the other side, God took him, asleep in Christ, departed, transcended, bought the farm, with the angels, feeling no pain, lost the race, time was up, cashed in, crossed over Jordan, Paris, lost it, was done in, translated into glory, returned to dust, withered away in the arms, gave it up, it was curtains, a long sleep, on the heavenly shores, out of his or her misery, ended it all, angels carried him away, resting in peace, changed form, dropped the body, rode into the sunset, that was all she wrote.

So, lot of ways to say the same thing. One of the Arabs said: If you don't die by the sword, you'll die by something else. There's a lot of ways to die, but death is one. Right?

What Happens After Death: The Islamic Perspective

Now, what happens then, from the Islamic perspective, when we die? Obviously, in pre-Islamic cultures, there's a lot of ways to die.

Pre-Islamic Arabian Belief: No Afterlife

The Arabians, most fascinating aspect of Arabian culture, the Arabs did not believe in an afterlife. Really interesting, because most cultures have a concept of the afterlife. The Arabs did not believe in an afterlife. They said: (وَقَالُوا مَا هِيَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ - We live and we die, and nothing kills us but time.) (Quran 45:24)

The Arabs said, And will we be decayed bones, dust in the earth, and brought back to life? They say, Who's going to revive these dead and decayed bones? The Qur'an says: (قُلْ يُحْيِيهَا الَّذِي أَنشَأَهَا أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ - The one who

brought them to life the first time, he'll do it the second time?") (Quran 36:79)

The Qur'an says, We created you the first time. The commentators say, Second time around is always easier. Right? If it was done once, it can be done again.

The Qur'anic Argument: The Dead Earth Revived

Now, how did the Qur'an deal with this belief? Because it's very interesting that the Arabs didn't believe this. How did it deal with it? The way that it dealt with it, was it told the Arabs to look at the dead earth, and it said, We take a dead earth, send down rain from the heavens, it mixes with the seeds, and we bring forth, we bring the earth back to life again, and like that, you will be brought back.

The Wondrous Tail )عجب الذنب(

Now, this analogy, there is a hadith that says, that the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: (كُلُّ ابْنِ آدَمَ يَبْلَى إِلَّا عَجْبَ الأَذْذَنَبِ، مِنْهُ خُلِقَ وَمِنْهُ يُرَكَّبُ - Every human being has what's called عجب الذنب The wondrous tail, and it's at the tip of the coccyx, and it's the seed of the human being.) (Sahih Muslim 2955)

So, the Muslims believe that there is a seed, that every human being has, and like seeds, seeds are very interesting, because they're very hard to destroy. Right, you swallow seeds, they come out the other end. Hydrochloric acid doesn't break them down. In fires, seeds stay. Right, forests that are burnt down, come back to life, because of seeds that are there, that aren't destroyed.

Drought comes, kills everything, but the seeds, when the rain comes back, it comes back to life. Now, the belief of the Muslims is, that every human being has a seed, and that seed will not be destroyed. We don't know where it is, or what it is, the hadith indicates that it's in the coccyx, but we don't know what size it is, what it looks like, nothing like that.

Resurrection and Modern Science

But from that seed, every human being will be recreated, from a divine rain. And it's interesting that, we deny resurrection, and yet, our own culture, is talking about recreating human beings, from one cell. Bringing back the entire human being, by cloning, one cell.

Because all of the information, about you, is contained in, one of your cells. And this, one of the verses in the Qur'an is, it says: (سَنُرِيهِمْ آيَاتِنَا فِي الْآفَاقِ وَفِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّى يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ - We will continue to show them our signs, in their cells, and on the horizon, until it becomes clear to them, that what we're saying is true.) (Quran 41:53)

So, the belief in the resurrection, is absolutely fundamental to the Islamic tradition. And there is a belief, that every soul will be completely renewed. The body, but the body that's recreated, is not the same as this physical body. Yeah, no, it's not reincarnation.

The Journey of the Soul: Five Stages

Now, here's a little schematic. This was what we call the world of spirits. And from that we move into, now one of the things about the world of spirits, according to the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), if you met people, in the spiritual realm, because we actually intermingle, if you met people in the spiritual realm, you will have a natural affinity for them, in this realm.

Pre-Worldly Recognition

So there will be people that you meet in your life, that you immediately connect with. And this is believed to be, a pre-worldly meeting, that is replicated in this realm, and there's a recognition of that. And likewise, the people most distant from you, on that primordial plane, will be people that you have natural, you're not attracted to them.

And this can also be within, within families, and within religious tradition. In other words, it could be a Muslim. For a Muslim, you know, there could be Muslims you just don't feel comfortable with. And that is not seen, you know, you're not supposed to be mean or cruel to them, you know, or take them as enemies or something, but it's recognized that there are natural affinities, and these affinities are from a pre-worldly recognition.

And there's a hadith in which the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: (الْأَرْوَاحُ جُنُودٌ مُجَنَّدَةٌ، مَا تَعَارَفَ مِنْهَا اخْتَلَفَ، وَمَا تَنَاكَرَ مِنْهَا اخْتَلَفَ - Souls are like regimented ranks. Those who knew each other before, feel affinity in this realm, and those who did not, there's differences.) (Sahih Bukhari 3336)

You know, and it's like, if you look at it for a metaphor here, you know, you have the armed forces, and they're all on the same side, but when marines are at a bar drinking, and then some navy boys come in, right, there's all this kind of aggression that will often happen, you know, because they're from different regiments, you know, these guys are another group, even though it's the same army, they're another group, and there's that kind of animosity that's a result of not being from that same regiment.

The World of Life, Choice, and Effort )عالم الدنيا(

Now, this area is the world of life, choice, and effort. This is called alam ad-dunya, so you enter into this, and from here, you move into the barzakh. Now, according to the hadith, when your soul dies, it hovers above your body, and it's a very discomforting experience, and this is why sleep is considered to be the little brother of death in Islam.

Sleep: The Little Brother of Death

And the Qur'an talks about: (اللَّهُ يَتَوَفَّى الْأَنفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِهَا وَالَّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ فِي مَنَامِهَا ۖ فَيُمْسِكُ الَّتِي قَضَى عَلَيْهَا الْمَوْتَ وَيُرْسِلُ الْأُخْرَىٰ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى - We cause them to die, and there are those we return to their bodies, and others that we keep them.) (Quran 39:42)

In other words, that sleep is a death, it is a type of death. One of the things, sleep is the indication of the afterlife, because what happens when you go to sleep, is like you live your life, you go to sleep, and you enter into this barzakh, and then, waking up is like the resurrection, you come back into the body, and you wake up, you're resurrected.

The Dream Realm )عالم الخيال(

During sleep, you can live lives, you can have extraordinary dreams, you can feel like you were dreaming for, just all these things happened, and those are indications of another world, and this is why, the Muslims believe that the dream realm, is a very important realm, and they differentiate between dreams, the Qur'an differentiates between dreams, that are, what we would call in this culture, like food dreams, you eat a lot of food before you go to sleep, and then you have all these funny garbled dreams.

So there's, but you're still in that, what's called the alam al khayal, the imaginal world, it is part of the unseen realm, but there is also true dreams, and the more one's spirituality, soul work, becomes lucent, the more access they have to that realm, and the more opaque and materialistic they are, the more cut off they are from that realm.

So there are people who literally their dream world, is incredibly rich, there are people in our tradition, there are many people who saw the messenger of Allah, every night in their dreams, like Imam Malik ibn Anas, he said he never woke up without having seen the Prophet in his dreams.

Dream Interpretation in Islam

There are others, that have what are called true dreams, in which there's information given to them, and much of the dream realm is symbolic, and there is an extensive science of dream interpretation in Islam, several books written on it, where you will see very specific things, and they have very specific meanings, and this is a first century work by Ibn Sirin, which is about dream work, just very extensive, if you see this, it means this, if you see this, and there are multiple interpretations, it doesn't always mean one, but that work deals with these other realms.

The Mi'raj: The Prophet's Night Journey

There are also spiritual journeys that are taken in the unseen world, so people will have very profound spiritual experiences in their souls, now the mi'raj of the messenger is believed to have been, was not a dream, it was a journey of the soul and the body, although time expanded, because he returned to his bed, and it was still warm, so he went through this entire experience, he saw many things on that journey, and he described them.

He went in fact, Asín Palacios's work indicates that much of the divine comedy is actually taken from a very famous exposition of the messenger's journey through the hells and through the heavens, the seven heavens, until you have the beatific vision, which was the result of that.

Burial Rituals and the Grave

Now, during, at the point of death, it's encouraged, you wash the body, you do a ritual, you pray for the body, and then you put them into the grave, the grave, this is shoulder length, and then there's what's called a lahad, where you put the body, there's not supposed to be any coffin, it's wrapped in a white gown, white seamless garment, like the one that men wear on the hajj, both women and females, males and females are placed into this.

Burial Practices

You're placed into your grave, facing Mecca, and then, three, when they place them in the grave, everybody throws dust, the whole community, who goes to the funeral, partakes in this, they all throw dust, and they recite a verse of the Qur'an: "(مِنْهَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ وَفِيهَا نُعِيدُكُمْ وَمِنْهَا نُخْرِجُكُمْ تَارَةً أُخْرَىٰ - min-hā khalaqnākum wa fīhā nuʿīdukum wa min-hā nukhrijukum tāratan ukhrā)" - "From dust we created you, from dust we return you, and from dust we will bring you forth again."

The Barzakh: The Questioning of the Grave

And then, it is believed, that the beginning of the next stage, this is the barzakh stage, we've got these five stages, the next stage begins, in the barzakh, there are angels that come, two angels, Munkar and Nakir, these angels are very frightening, they're very powerful, they have voices like thunder, and they ask a person, who is your lord, what is your deen, your religion, your way, and who is your prophet?

The prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) said the only thing a man takes, or a woman takes into their grave, will be their actions, according to the tradition, because now you're moving into the realm of meaning, you're no longer in the realm of sensory, although the realm of sensory is a symbolic realm, according to the Qur'an, these are signs, in the next world, the signs, right, it's not sensoria that you're in, you are in meaning.

Actions Manifest as Meanings

So all of the things that you did in this life, are translated into meanings in the next life, so there are these foul creatures, that people will find in their grave, that smell, and they have a strong stench, and the soul is distressed by it, and the soul says, leave me alone, who are you? and they say, don't you know us, we're your actions, and this is people who did evil things in their lives.

And then there's others where it's very pleasant, and there's a perfume, that diffuses, and the soul finds itself in this, and he asks, who are you? and they say, we're your good actions.

The Testing in the Grave

So these angels ask, and this begins the testing phase, according to the Qur'an, it says: "(يُثَبِّتُ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِالْقَوْلِ الثَّابِتِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ - yuthabbitu Allāhu alladhīna āmanū bil-qawli ath-thābiti fī al-ḥayāti ad-dunyā wa fī al-ākhirah)" - "We will make firm, those who believed and did good works, in this life and in the next, with the true word, which is la ilaha illallah, we will make them firm, so they won't have these tribulations."

The Constriction of the Grave

And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) said that according to a person's experience in the grave, that will determine, whether what comes after it, is easy or difficult, so it's the first stage of the next journey.

At this point, the grave either becomes, a very wide and expansive, or it becomes dark and constricted, based on what people did in this life, and there's a verse, there's a hadith also that indicates, every human being will have an initial constriction, the grave will literally constrict them, to where they think they're going to burst, their soul, and then it will become either easy or difficult.

And there's a prophetic tradition of Jesus, the son of Mary, who they were looking at a man who was being buried, and all the companions said, it's so constricted and narrow, and Jesus says to them, you don't remember the wombs of your mothers, that expanded for you, in other words, that the tomb can also expand for you, if the soul grew in this life, whereas if it was stunted, it won't.

So this is the soul work, that's done in this dunya realm, that's going to determine, whether you're constricted or expanded, in this next stage here, in this stage.

The Exception: Martyrs )الشهداء

Now everybody who has died before us, is in this realm, with the exception of the martyrs, the martyrs do not go into this realm, they go directly, to the divine presence, they don't go through this stage, so they are the exception.

Who Are the Martyrs?

And Islam does not restrict martyrdom, to those who die witnessing their belief, which is the traditional meaning, including in Greek, a martyr was anybody who died witnessing their belief, a person who dies in a fire, is considered a martyr, a person who dies of a sudden disease, like cholera, a person like dies in a plague, that's a martyr death, a person whose roof falls on them, like in an earthquake, and the modern scholars have said, that includes by analogy, airplane crashes and car accidents, that these are martyr deaths, as recompense, for the trauma of that experience, and not having been able to deal with, your difficult, people who know they're going to die, it really helps them to resolve a lot of things.

Where if you die suddenly, there's a lot of untaken care of business, and so this is a recompense for that, drowning is a martyr death, those who drown, so these are all deaths of martyrs.

So in other words, if you've been a real rascal all your life, and you die in a car wreck, because you were DWI, you mean drunk? Yes. Yeah, see, I mean it's based on acceptance, yeah, like it just depends on what state you were in, because people who can die, the assumption of the community, is it's a martyr's death, but that is not an absolute.

The Hadith of Three People

Including people who die on the battlefield, we assume that they're martyrs, but there's a Hadith that said, one of the first people to go to the hellfire, is a soldier who fought to be called brave, and he tells God, no, I fought for your sake, and God says, you lied, you fought to be called a brave person, and you got your reward, they said you were brave.

And the same with a scholar who learns, that God says, why did you study? He said, I studied for your sake to teach your religion, and he said, you lied, you studied to be called a learned man, and you got your reward, and the same with a wealthy person.

The Prostitute and the Dog

On the other hand, you have a prostitute, according to the Hadith, who once came to a well, and put her shoe down, and brought water up, and drank it, and there was a dog, who was dying of thirst, and she looked at the dog and thought, that dog is like me, thirsty, and so she put her shoe down, and gave the water to this dog, and the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) said: "(فَغْفِرَ لَهَا - faghfira lahā)" - "She was forgiven all her wrong actions, for that one act." (Sahih Bukhari 3467)

(Sahih Bukhari 3467)

The Debt Forgiver

And there's another man, who said, who comes on the day of judgment, the only good action that he had, was he used to loan money to people, and when he sent his bill collector out, he said, if they don't have it, just leave them, and the Hadith says, that God said, I am more generous, in absolving my debts, than this man, so he forgives them.

Question About Soldiers on Both Sides

This man is splitting hairs, was it the case of soldiers, fighting both sides, in the name of Allah, say versus the Iran-Iraq war, if the soldiers on both sides, that can happen, that can happen, it depends on, whether it was a valid Ijtihad or not, if there's a Hadith, which says, the one killing, and the one killed, are in the fire.

So generally, it's not the case, and they said, we understand the one killed, what about the one killing, or we understand the one killing, what about the one killed, and he said, he would have wanted to kill him, had he been able, so they both have that.

Whereas, if there was a valid Ijtihad, which is, where, you know, both sides, like in Muawiyah and Ali, the initial great tribulation, between the two companions, who fought, there is a Hadith, that said, the one killing, and the one killed, are both in paradise, except the one who killed Ammar, and that is considered a, Mutawatir Hadith, which has the highest level of veracity, it's a Hadith, that so many people narrated it, it's impossible for it, to have been considered a lie, and that's in the tradition.

And that's part of, you know, human beings, do, crazy things, and this is part of the human condition, you know, that there's Fitnah, what's called sedition, and troubles, and these, are often seen also, as purification, because a lot of the tribulations, people go through, are actually purifications, and raising them to higher levels.

The Day of Resurrection

So, at a certain point, there are two trumpets, which obviously, this is not like, you know, these are, things that we don't really understand, but, these are approximations, and we have this in the, Judeo-Christian tradition also.

The First Blast: The Hour )الساعة(

The first blast, is what's called the hour, the Sa'ah, and I'm gonna talk about this, on the last lecture I have, which is about the end of time, the moment, it literally means the moment, the great moment, when the world comes to an end, and it says, in the Qur'an, that like the, the cosmos was expanded, at the end, it will be contracted, and rolled up like a scroll, right, which, you know, the modern physicists talk about the big crunch, which is, you know, when it all goes back to this initial, and that's consistent with, with the Qur'anic view, that there is a rolling up of the cosmos.

And, it's also the heat death, because everything, heat, like the, it says that the oceans boil over, everything, ends in a, in a massive heat death, so, when this moment comes, every person that's on the earth, is going to be, killed at that point, it's all over.

The Second Blast: The Resurrection )البعث(

And, and then, the second is the, what's called the Ba'ath, which is the resurrection, and then, what happens then, is a very, mapped out scenario, in the Islamic tradition, at this point, all of the souls have left the dunya, and the next stage they go to, which is the Barzakh, and then you have, the Ba'ath, you have the, what's called the Nafkha, which causes the resurrection.

The Gathering )الحشر(

Now, at the point of resurrection, all of the souls are brought to a plane, and that's what Arafah is a preparation for that, they're all brought to the plane, and then, according to the tradition, everybody is naked, and they stand, this is where they wait, for what's called the Hisab, the reckoning.

And according to the tradition, it says the waiting is 500 years, and people are in a, I mean the Qur'an talks about: "(فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ خَمْسِينَ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ - fī yawmin kāna miqdāruhu khamsīna alfa sanah)" - "you know, a year with God is like 50,000 of years." (Quran 70:4( " (إِنَّ يَوْمًا عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ - inna yawman ʿinda rabbika ka-alfi sanatin mimmā taʿuddūn)" - "a thousand." (Quran 22:47) in different verses, so the idea of time is very different, in this realm, it's not like it is where we are here.

And according to the Qur'an, when they're asked how long did they tarry in the earth, they'll say a day or part of a day, that's what our lives on earth will seem like, in relation to the next world.

The Intensity of Waiting

Now at this point, according to the Islamic tradition, all of the souls, some are shaded by their actions, and others are literally up in sweat, drowning in their own sweat, because it's so intense, and at this point, after waiting an incredible amount of time, and it literally says, that people are going in and out, like waves, in and out, it's a very, there's a lot of confusion, there's a lot of, it's actually, the descriptions are terrifying, with the exception of people that were, the good people in this world.

Seeking Intercession from the Prophets

And then what happens is, people say, let's go ask the prophets, to get us out of this, and the tradition says, they go to Adam, the first man, and they say, help us, intercede for us, and he says, my own soul, my own soul, so he refuses, he said, I can't do anything for you, people go to their mother, they go to their father, they say, this is the day, where nobody's thinking about anybody else, because the soul is looking at infinity.

The Awakening

And in the Quran it says: "(قَالُوا يَا وَيْلَنَا مَن بَعَثَنَا مِن مَّرْقَدِنَا هَذَا مَا وَعَدَ الرَّحْمَنُ وَصَدَقَ الْمُرْسَلُونَ - qālū yā waylanā man baʿathanā min marqadinā hādhā mā waʿada ar-Raḥmānu wa ṣadaqa al-mursalūn)" - "When we enter into this realm, the first thing the soul says is, O woe to us, who has woken us from our sleep, this is what the messengers promised, this is what they told us, they were truthful in telling us this, and this is the promise of the merciful." (Quran 36:52)

And they use that attribute, because that's what they want now, in the world, people like Thomas Jefferson said, I used to beg for divine justice, and still when I looked at others, and then I start examining my own soul, and started asking for mercy, so this is the day, where people aren't thinking about justice, they're thinking about divine mercy.

The Intercession of Prophet Muhammad

And what happens is, they go to each of the prophets, they go to Noah, they go to Abraham, they go to Moses, each one of them says, Nafsi Nafsi, and they give a reason, that relates to stories, that are mentioned in the Quran, and finally, all of humanity, according to the Islamic tradition, goes to the prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) all of humanity, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Hindus, everyone, goes to the prophet Muhammad.

And that's why in the Quran, he is called: "(وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ - wa mā arsalnāka illā raḥmatan lil-ʿālamīn)" - "A mercy to all the worlds." (Quran 21:107)

Because on this day, when they go to him, he according to our tradition, is uniquely the one who says, this is my place, and he takes the intercession, and it's said that he enters into the divine presence, prostrates, praises, and then it's said to him, raise your head, ask and you will be given, intercede and you will have intercession, and he asks for the judgment, because people are so terrified in this waiting period, they just want the judgment to happen, you know, it's like people that would rather just, just tell me what's gonna happen, I can't wait anymore.

The Paraclete

And so they move to the next stage, which is the hisab, because of this shafa'ah, so the intercession occurs here, now it's interesting, the muslims identify in the new testament, and one of the names of the prophet in the islamic tradition is paracletos, which is the muslims identify the paraclete, that is mentioned in john 16 in the gospel, when he says, I'm leaving but another comforter is coming after me, the word in greek paraclete means comforter, but actually the first meaning of it is intercessor, it's the one who intercedes, who gives comfort, and the muslims traditionally have believed that that is the prophet Muhammad, the christian belief is that it's the holy spirit.

The Reckoning )الحساب(

And at this point they go now to the reckoning, the hisab, now there are people that will not get a hisab, and remember from the muslim perspective, all the traditions, the righteous of every tradition, is going to be in a good situation on this day, this is not, I mean the prophets community is only one community, there are many previous communities of prophets, and those people that were following their prophets, they will all be with their prophet, each one has their place.

Everyone Lines Up Behind Whom They Followed

And that's why according to the hadith, they line up behind the people that they were behind, including the bad ones, like false prophets, everybody is going to be with the people they followed, and those people will have the burden of leading people astray, so the marxists are going to be behind Karl Marx, the nazis are going to be behind Adolf Hitler, everybody is going to be with...

Who would materialism be behind? What's that? What's that? Yeah, big sign, right? Materialists over here. Well, yeah, I mean there's a history of materialism, so there's definitely the first philosophers of materialism, the Greeks have, in fact if you read, I really like Prometheus Press, I don't know if anybody knows about them, do you know about Prometheus Press?

It's a New York public, they publish everything against religion, they're like total materialists, and they can't stand religion, they publish books called like The Problem of God, Why I Am Not a Muslim, and they're actually really interesting, because it's always important to get reality checks, from really radically different perspectives, I like to do that for my own, just okay, I see how you're seeing it, it's helpful to clarify your own understanding, to listen to something that's so different, from what you know, it's a really good thing to do.

Taking Yourself to Account )المحاسبة(

So at this point then, at the Hisab, which is the reckoning, and this is why there's a Hadith that says, reckon yourselves before you're taken to account, in other words, if you do your work in this world, you don't have to deal with it in the next world, so there's a tradition in Islam, what's called Muhasaba, and it's also a Christian tradition, there are orders that do this as a practice in Christianity, of at the end of the day, taking oneself to

account, and really looking at one's actions during the day, if they were good, you praise, and if they're bad, you ask forgiveness, and this is also penitence, and confession in the Catholic tradition, is going and getting this stuff off your chest, admitting, I did these things, and then having some way of atoning those wrongs.

The Record of Your Life

And then, what happens is, there is a record on this day, of everything your entire life, and according to Imam Al-Awza'i, people will watch their lives in front of them, like a film, they'll literally watch their entire life, and there's a Hadith, that God will veil people, who ask for his veiling, because having to see your life, all the things that you did, so in other words, there are edited versions, there's a divine editing, that can take place, where things are removed, from your life, if you ask them to be removed with sincerity.

The Testimony of Your Body Parts

And at each stage, there will be testimony against you, the hands according to the Quran testify, the feet testify, they ask them how will they speak, and he said the one who gave them, who made your tongue speak, will make your hands speak, and the genitals testify, the tongue testifies, because all of them are afraid, the body is saying, we don't want, they know what's coming, and they're afraid, and so they're all owning up, and they're saying, he made us do this, in other words, because they don't want, to be taken to account.

The Gospel Teaching on Cutting Off the Hand

Which is also, there's an indication of this, in the Gospels, when Jesus said, if your right hand offends thee, then cut it off, for it's better to enter the kingdom of heaven maimed, than to go into the fire with that, and that is obviously a spiritual severing, it's not literal, I mean there are probably some, people out there, that take that stuff.

Yeah, there's a belief, that when you enter into Islam, that everything is erased, with the exception of debt, so, if that's the case, when you hear this, do they believe that, that all the sins that happen, before any sins, which are not good, not bad, are literally removed, from your slate, completely.

The Book of Your Life )الصحيفة(

And then what happens is, there's what's called a Sahifa, which is your, the book of your life, right, the book of your life, and, your actions are weighed, in scales, and you'll find this in Egyptian, mythology and tradition, in the Egyptian book of the dead, and there are many glyphs about this, right, the weighing of the basket, and the soul being in the basket, and the actions weighed.

And, you know, I had the same teacher, professor Kramer, you know, mentioned that, isn't that from the Egyptian mythology, and, there's absolutely no, that, that information was, available in the 7th century in Arabia, and the way the Muslims would look at that, is that much of mythology is in fact, remnants of prophetic traditions, and in fact, much of mythology, you know, some, religious scholars differentiate between, mythos

and myth, you know, mythos, is, is truth, related in symbolic, tradition, and myth is like, fables, and fairy tales, and stories, whereas mythos is, is something that's true.

The Book in the Right Hand or Left Hand

And so people then are given, their, their books, and the book of their life will either be given in the right hand, or in the left hand, if it's given in the right hand, then it's an indication that, that they, they were successful in this, reckoning.

Intercession by the Righteous

Now, there's also, at this point there's intercession, so there are people, that intercede for other people, in all the traditions, the, righteous people of the traditions can intercede for other people, and the first to intercede, are the prophets, they will intercede for their communities, so Jesus will intercede for the Christians, Moses will intercede for the Jews, and, and then there are people from the community, that reached very high spiritual stations, that will be given permission to intercede also.

The Scales )الميزان( and the Final Destinations

And then, after this, the Mizan, the weighing, the next stage, is, so you have the weighing here, and you have the people of the right, and the people of the left, the people of the left, go to, the place of ultimate divine alienation, which is the fire, and the people of the right, go to the place, of, ultimate divine intimacy, which is the garden.

Inheriting Places in Paradise

Now, the Qur'an says, that the people that go to the garden, inherit, they inherit, places in the garden, because every human being, according to the Islamic tradition, has a place allotted to them in the fire, and a place allotted to them in the garden, every human being, has property in both places, and they will sell their property, from one or the other.

Those who free their souls in this world, and sell their place in the fire, then, their places are taken up by others, those, who free themselves in this world, and purchase, according to the Qur'an it says: "إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُم بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ" - "We have purchased the souls of the believers, and their wealth, and against it is paradise." (Quran 9:111)

That's the bargain, that's the transaction, that you give your soul to God, and God gives you the garden.

(الحوض) The Basin

And so, now, there's also a point here, which is known as the, the hawd, and this is a massive, according to the Prophet Muhammad ملسو هيلع هللا بلصit extends, more than the distance of between Yemen and Syria, and it is a

watering place, in which those who drink from it, will never have thirst after that, and he will, those who were the most righteous from his community, he will actually give them drink from his own hand.

The Bridge (القنطرة)

And, this is followed by, what's known as the, the Qantara, which is a bridge, and people see the hell fire, and go over this bridge to paradise.

The Most Punished and The Most Pleasured

Now according to the Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad ملسو هيلع هللا بلص said that the most punished person, who had the worst life in this world, in the next world, he will be asked, did you ever know, grief, sorrow or pain, and he'll say I never knew grief, sorrow or pain, in other words, just entering into, this divine presence, all remembrance, of the suffering of the world, is removed.

And also the person, the wretched one, who had the most pleasure in this world, is asked the same question in the fire, did you ever know pleasure, and he can't remember any pleasure in the world, so, these are the final, these are the, according to the Islamic tradition, the final abodes.

The Last Day

And that day, which is the day of judgment, is known as the last day, there is no day after it.

Questions and Answers

Is there any questions? 12 o'clock, that's pretty good, I didn't even look at my watch, everything comes to an end, uh-huh, see, this is the realm now, the soul, according to the Muslim belief, knows all of these things, what's happened in this realm, is we're in the realm of forgetfulness.

And this is why in the Qur'an, in Surah Al-Qaf, the QAF chapter, it says: "لَّقَدْ كُنتَ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مِنْ هَذَا فَكَشَفْنَا عَنكَ غِطَاءَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ الْيَوْمَ حَدِيدٌ" - "We have removed the veils from your inner sight, and now your understanding is penetrating." (Quran 50:22)

See, people will know all of these things, people are going to know these things, uh-huh, right, people do, according to Islam.

The Question About Hell

There are people that will taste the fire, and then come out of it, and there's two views, and these are not dominant views, and it's interesting because there are two extremes, who meet at this place.

There's the view of Ibn Taymiyyah, who's a very famous scholar from the 9th century Syria, Damascus, who actually believed that the fire went out, he believed that ultimately, the mercy overrides, and that was his belief.

The other extreme was somebody who he didn't even consider a Muslim at one point in his life, is the position of Ibn Arabi, the Andalusian philosopher, Sufi philosopher, who said that the fire also eventually became, it went from athab to athab, athab means punishment, athab means pleasure, so in other words, that ultimately there was, the soul was purified.

The Dominant Belief

That is not the dominant belief, the majority belief of the Muslim theologians is that there is infinite residing in these abodes, so thank you very much.