The Evolution of Self Continues after the Death of the Physical Body
That is why a believer's love continues to advance even after his death. Since it is the self that has created the body and not the body that has created the self, the self does not die with the death of the body. As such it carries into the next life the fundamental characteristic of its being which is the sole urge of its nature, i.e. its urge for Beauty. This urge impels it even there to seek Beauty and to enrich itself more and more with its light. The believers will pray in their next life for the perfection of the light of their self-consciousness and for the removal of those obstacles in the way of their evolution which were created by the slips and errors of their earthly life and the effects of which they were unable to shake off before death. "(Our Lord) make perfect for us our light, and grant us forgiveness; surely Thou art possessor of power over all things" (lxvi.8). But a believer who has had the chance to evolve his love to the highest possible stage in this life and to maintain it at that stage till his death has no obstacles in the way of his love, in the next life. Since he was able to conquer all his obstacles and have a smooth way for his love in this life, he has nothing to combat and no battles to win or lose in the Hereafter. The standard of love or the stage of self-consciousness that he was able to achieve in his earthly life enables him to advance towards Beauty automatically and continuously.
Guided by the light of his self-consciousness which illumines the path in front of him, he acquires a new glimpse of Beauty every moment without effort or struggle. "Their light gleaming before them" (Ivii. 12). "They have their reward and their light" (Ivii. 19). "Their light will gleam before them" (Ixvi.8). "Our Lord make perfect for us our light and grant us forgiveness" (Ixvi.8). This means that neither fear nor grief torments him any longer. A person fears when he thinks that he may not get what he wants and he is afflicted with grief when he thinks that he has actually failed to get what he wanted. The human self, we know, has only one desire and that is the desire for Beauty. Therefore, with this desire having a smooth and continuous satisfaction, an individual who has a highly evolved self-consciousness can face neither of these two situations in the next life. "That they have no fear, nor shall they grieve" (iii.170). It is this fact upon which depends the bliss of Paradise in all its varieties and aspects.
Guided by the light of his self-consciousness which illumines the path in front of him, he acquires a new glimpse of Beauty every moment without effort or struggle. "Their light gleaming before them" (Ivii. 12). "They have their reward and their light" (Ivii. 19). "Their light will gleam before them" (Ixvi.8). "Our Lord make perfect for us our light and grant us forgiveness" (Ixvi.8). This means that neither fear nor grief torments him any longer. A person fears when he thinks that he may not get what he wants and he is afflicted with grief when he thinks that he has actually failed to get what he wanted. The human self, we know, has only one desire and that is the desire for Beauty. Therefore, with this desire having a smooth and continuous satisfaction, an individual who has a highly evolved self-consciousness can face neither of these two situations in the next life. "That they have no fear, nor shall they grieve" (iii.170). It is this fact upon which depends the bliss of Paradise in all its varieties and aspects.
The Next Life of a Sinner
As long as the human self has not reached the goal ordained for it by the urge of its nature, that is the Divine Self, it must continue to press forward in the direction of that goal, no matter how often it slips and how great the obstacles it has to encounter. If the self is not able to atone for the errors of its earthly life (which constitute its unfortunate movements in a direction opposite to that of its destination) by means of Taubah before death, it has to atone for them in the next life. The reason is that unless it has shed the disabilities which cling to it on account of these errors, i.e. unless it has returned to the point from where it slipped, it cannot go forward on the path of its evolution. It is thus forced by its nature to re-live its wrong actions of the earthly life and to carry on a dreadful struggle against the obstacles created by them in order to conquer them finally and completely and to resume the path of its own progress. The struggle is painful and difficult in proportion to the gravity of the errors and to the harm they have done to the self's progress in love. It is this fact on which depend the tortures of Hell in all their forms and varieties.
The Pleasures of Heaven and the Tortures of Hell are not Mere Metaphors
Every individual will make his Hell and heaven of the next world by his mental states (corresponding to and crystallised by his actions of this life) which remain preserved in his unconscious mind in this life and which he carries with himself into the next world. As he will re-live these mental states in order to avail of them or to get ride of them according as they are helpful or harmful to his progress, he will represent them by persons and objects which, in view of his experience of this life, will be best fitted to represent them and these persons and objects will be as real and tangible as any that we see in this physical world. If his, actions are in agreement with the urge of the Universe and the urge of his own nature, that is, if his actions are right, he will represent them by persons and objects which are pleasant and agreeable to him in the same proportion, e.g. gardens, sweet and refreshing drinks, loving and beautiful companions, delicious fruits, shades and verdure, etc.
The ever-increasing joy and gratitude induced by the ever-increasing pleasantness and beauty of his surroundings will be in proportion to his ever-increasing realisation of the Beauty of the Creator. Thus both his love and his Paradise will be progressing simultaneously towards an ever greater and greater perfection. If on the other hand his actions are opposed to the urge of the Universe and the urge of his own nature, in other words, if his actions are wrong, he will represent them by persons and objects which are unpleasant and disagreeable to him in the same proportion, e.g. fire, hot and filthy drinking water, obnoxious food, cruel and ugly companions, snakes, scorpions, thorny trees, etc. from which he will repel with the whole of his being. He will try to get rid of them but will be unable to do so and will instead enter into a prolonged and hopeless struggle with them. Thus neither Heaven nor Hell is a mere mental state of the individual who enters it. It is an internal mental state that takes the shape of an external objects place where he lives a happy or miserable life as dispensed by his actions. A Believer's Progress in Hell in Facilitated by his Good Deeds of the Earthly life However, the standard of love that a human self is able to achieve and the actions that it is able to perform in the service of the Right Ideal during its earthly life come to its help in this struggle and enable it to overcome its obstacles and start on the road of its endless evolution again. These actions serve it as a light which enable it to see its way in the darkness of its misdeeds. "Surely good deeds take away evil deeds" (xi. 114).
The ever-increasing joy and gratitude induced by the ever-increasing pleasantness and beauty of his surroundings will be in proportion to his ever-increasing realisation of the Beauty of the Creator. Thus both his love and his Paradise will be progressing simultaneously towards an ever greater and greater perfection. If on the other hand his actions are opposed to the urge of the Universe and the urge of his own nature, in other words, if his actions are wrong, he will represent them by persons and objects which are unpleasant and disagreeable to him in the same proportion, e.g. fire, hot and filthy drinking water, obnoxious food, cruel and ugly companions, snakes, scorpions, thorny trees, etc. from which he will repel with the whole of his being. He will try to get rid of them but will be unable to do so and will instead enter into a prolonged and hopeless struggle with them. Thus neither Heaven nor Hell is a mere mental state of the individual who enters it. It is an internal mental state that takes the shape of an external objects place where he lives a happy or miserable life as dispensed by his actions. A Believer's Progress in Hell in Facilitated by his Good Deeds of the Earthly life However, the standard of love that a human self is able to achieve and the actions that it is able to perform in the service of the Right Ideal during its earthly life come to its help in this struggle and enable it to overcome its obstacles and start on the road of its endless evolution again. These actions serve it as a light which enable it to see its way in the darkness of its misdeeds. "Surely good deeds take away evil deeds" (xi. 114).
The Misfortune of a Person who Loves a Wrong Ideal
But the self that ignores the teachings of the prophets and is thus forced to satisfy its urge of love by means of wrong ideals finds itself face to face with a huge catastrophe. If it has the misfortune to be loving and serving a wrong ideal at the time of death it has an extremely remote chance of coming back to the road of evolution again. "Those who reject Our messages and turn away from them haughtily, the doors of heaven will not be opened for them, nor will they enter the Garden until the camel pass through the eye of the needle. And thus do We reward the guilty" (vii. 40). "And whosoever associates aught with Allah, it is as if he had fallen from on high" (xxii. 31). "Surely Allah forgives not that a partner should be set up with Him, and forgives all besides that to whom He pleases" (iv. 48). Its frightful struggle with its obstacles has no redeeming aspect and no end within sight. It is utterly unable to see its way towards its destination and remains groping for it indefinitely, surrounded by the utter darkness of its misdeeds. This is because it was groping in the darkness of utter ignorance and wickedness in this life too. "And whoever is blind in this (world) he will be blind in the Hereafter, and further away from the path" (xvii. 72). All its actions, even those which it considered to be good and virtuous, philanthropic and humanistic, inspired by kindness and generosity to other's do not avail it in the least in this struggle. On the other hand they become further impediments to it in the way of its progress, since they had all emerged in the service of a wrong ideal, had strengthened the forces opposed to the Right Ideal and to the cause of evolution and had, therefore, led him in this life farther away from his own true destination. "So their deeds are vain. Nor shall We set up a balance for them on the Day of Resurrection" (xviii. 105). "And those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert, which the thirsty man deems to be water" (xxiv. 39). "The parable of those who disbelieve in their Lord: Their deeds are as ashes on which the wind blows hard on a stormy day. They have no power over aught they have earned" (xiv. 18). "Say: Shall We inform you who are the greatest losers in respect of deeds"? "Those whose effort goes astray in this world's life and they think that they are making good manufactures" (xviii. 103-104).
Heaven and Hell Begin in this Life
This explanation of the fundamental cause of the joys of Paradise and the tortures of Hell implies that the Paradise of the believer and the Hell of the non-believer or the sinner begin in this world. As the believer acquires a foretaste of the joys of Paradise in this life, so a non-believer feels a shadow of the tortures of Hell in this world. But as the celestial joys of a believer never become perfect in this world on account of his constant fear of doing something which may be contrary to the urge of his nature and on account of his constant struggle with the force of evil in himself and in others, so the excruciating fears and anxieties of a non-believer never appear in their real form in this life on account of his easy morals in which he constantly seeks an escape from them. That is why the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: This world is a prison for the true believer and a Heaven for the non-believer.
The Evidence of the Psychoanalysts to show that Every human Action is Recorded Faithfully and Permanently in the Unconscious Mind In modern times the investigations of the psychoanalysts have established beyond all doubt that every action of an individual leaves a mark on the self and the mental state or attitude corresponding to it remains preserved in his unconscious mid faithfully and permanently without being altered with the passage of time in the least. In fact, they tell us that the unconscious mind of man lives and acts independently of the laws of space and time and there is nothing in it which can be compared to negation, because contradictory mental states exit side by side in it safely and securely "without neutralising each other or drawing apart. This view is verified by the fact that some of the most insignificant, long forgotten events of our life, even those about which we did not bother in the least in our waking life, are recalled by us automatically n our dreams and form the woof and warp of dreams symbolism. It is also supported by the fact that the hypnotist can revive the memory of any event in the life of his subject while he or she is in a state of hypnotic trance by minas of suitable questions.
Writes Freud: "In the id (unconscious) there is nothing corresponding to the idea of time, no recognition of the passage of time (a thing which awaits adequate attention in philosophic thought) no alteration of mental processes by the passage of time". "It is constantly being borne in upon me that we have made far too little use of our theory of the indubitable fact that the repressed remains unaltered by the passage of time. This seems to offer us the possibility of an approach to some really profound truths. But I myself have made no further progress here". The unconscious mind of a human individual is, therefore, a trustworthy record of all his actions which he carries with himself all the time and which is being written with perfect accuracy every moment of his life whether he may like it or not. The Quran alludes to this constantly evolving record of the human actions in the following works: "And surely there are keepers over you, honourable recorders; they know what you do "(Ixxxii. 10-12).
The Evidence of the Psychoanalysts to show that Every human Action is Recorded Faithfully and Permanently in the Unconscious Mind In modern times the investigations of the psychoanalysts have established beyond all doubt that every action of an individual leaves a mark on the self and the mental state or attitude corresponding to it remains preserved in his unconscious mid faithfully and permanently without being altered with the passage of time in the least. In fact, they tell us that the unconscious mind of man lives and acts independently of the laws of space and time and there is nothing in it which can be compared to negation, because contradictory mental states exit side by side in it safely and securely "without neutralising each other or drawing apart. This view is verified by the fact that some of the most insignificant, long forgotten events of our life, even those about which we did not bother in the least in our waking life, are recalled by us automatically n our dreams and form the woof and warp of dreams symbolism. It is also supported by the fact that the hypnotist can revive the memory of any event in the life of his subject while he or she is in a state of hypnotic trance by minas of suitable questions.
Writes Freud: "In the id (unconscious) there is nothing corresponding to the idea of time, no recognition of the passage of time (a thing which awaits adequate attention in philosophic thought) no alteration of mental processes by the passage of time". "It is constantly being borne in upon me that we have made far too little use of our theory of the indubitable fact that the repressed remains unaltered by the passage of time. This seems to offer us the possibility of an approach to some really profound truths. But I myself have made no further progress here". The unconscious mind of a human individual is, therefore, a trustworthy record of all his actions which he carries with himself all the time and which is being written with perfect accuracy every moment of his life whether he may like it or not. The Quran alludes to this constantly evolving record of the human actions in the following works: "And surely there are keepers over you, honourable recorders; they know what you do "(Ixxxii. 10-12).
Some Really Profound Truths Guessed by Freud
The unconscious human mind is the human self in its entirety since what we understand as the conscious mind is only a part of the unconscious mind. The fact that the unconscious human mind functions independently of the laws of space and time and that the record of human actions maintained by it remains unaltered by the passage of time, although the atoms that constitute the brain and the entire physical form of the human being are constantly changing, could not be without a significance in Nature, as Freud has rightly guessed. The Quran explains the significance of this fact by telling us that
(a) The human self can live independently of the physical body which alone is subject to the laws of space and time. It is immortal.
(b) The actions of the self have a bearing on the nature and the joys and sorrows of its life hereafter.
(c) The self will re-live them with their good or bad consequences for it in the process of its evolutions in the next life. The Quran says: "On the day when Allah will raise them all together, then inform them of what they did. Allah records it, while they forget it. And Allah is Witness over all things" (Iviii.6). "Do you think that We have crated you in vain, and that you will not be returned to Us"? (xxiii. 115). "And they find what they did confronting them. And thy Lord wrongs not anyone" (xviii. 49).
In the next life the record of an individual's actions maintained by him unconsciously in this life will be unrolled before him so that he may see them and take their consequences whatever they may be. "And We have made every man's actions to cling to his neck and We shall bring forth to him on the Day of Resurrection a book which he will find wide open" (xvii. 13). He will be enough to reckon his own deeds on that day. "Read thy book. Thy own soul is sufficient as a reckoner against thee this day" (xvii. 14). As he will read through this record he will be astonished to find that not a single deed of his life, good or bad, great or small, is omitted by it and he will exclaim: "O woe to us what a book is this It leaves out neither a small thing nor a great one, but numbers them (all)" (xviii.49). He will be required for every deed good or bad, however insignificant it may be. "So he who does an atom's weight of good will see it. And he who does an atom's weight of evil will see it" (cxix. 7-8).
Our Next Life has a Crude Resemblance to the World of Dreams Our next life has a crude and imperfect resemblance to the world we crate in our dreams. Although the self of an individual who is asleep has nothing to do with his physical body which rests calmly on a bed for the time being, yet it has at its disposal a body which lives, acts, knows, feels, thinks and experiences all sorts of pain and pleasure in an outside world full of all varieties of persons and objects. The self lives without the use of its physical body in dreams as well as after death. That is why the Quran compares sleep to death. "Allah takes their souls at the time of their death, and those that die not, during their sleep "(xxxix. 423). While our dreams depict our future, our life hereafter depicts our past. The events of our life which remain enfolded in our conscious are unfolded in our next life as the events recorded and preserved in a film are unrolled over a screen later on.
(a) The human self can live independently of the physical body which alone is subject to the laws of space and time. It is immortal.
(b) The actions of the self have a bearing on the nature and the joys and sorrows of its life hereafter.
(c) The self will re-live them with their good or bad consequences for it in the process of its evolutions in the next life. The Quran says: "On the day when Allah will raise them all together, then inform them of what they did. Allah records it, while they forget it. And Allah is Witness over all things" (Iviii.6). "Do you think that We have crated you in vain, and that you will not be returned to Us"? (xxiii. 115). "And they find what they did confronting them. And thy Lord wrongs not anyone" (xviii. 49).
In the next life the record of an individual's actions maintained by him unconsciously in this life will be unrolled before him so that he may see them and take their consequences whatever they may be. "And We have made every man's actions to cling to his neck and We shall bring forth to him on the Day of Resurrection a book which he will find wide open" (xvii. 13). He will be enough to reckon his own deeds on that day. "Read thy book. Thy own soul is sufficient as a reckoner against thee this day" (xvii. 14). As he will read through this record he will be astonished to find that not a single deed of his life, good or bad, great or small, is omitted by it and he will exclaim: "O woe to us what a book is this It leaves out neither a small thing nor a great one, but numbers them (all)" (xviii.49). He will be required for every deed good or bad, however insignificant it may be. "So he who does an atom's weight of good will see it. And he who does an atom's weight of evil will see it" (cxix. 7-8).
Our Next Life has a Crude Resemblance to the World of Dreams Our next life has a crude and imperfect resemblance to the world we crate in our dreams. Although the self of an individual who is asleep has nothing to do with his physical body which rests calmly on a bed for the time being, yet it has at its disposal a body which lives, acts, knows, feels, thinks and experiences all sorts of pain and pleasure in an outside world full of all varieties of persons and objects. The self lives without the use of its physical body in dreams as well as after death. That is why the Quran compares sleep to death. "Allah takes their souls at the time of their death, and those that die not, during their sleep "(xxxix. 423). While our dreams depict our future, our life hereafter depicts our past. The events of our life which remain enfolded in our conscious are unfolded in our next life as the events recorded and preserved in a film are unrolled over a screen later on.
The Highest Stage of the Evolution of Self during Earthly Life
As the love of a believer grows by action and contemplation, the joy attending his love grows in the same proportion. Finally, there comes a stage when at a certain moment during his hours of contemplation he feels as if he has no control over himself and is being pulled irresistibly to the Beauty that he was seeking as a needle draws automatically to a magnet when it is sufficiently close to it, in spite of the contrary pull of gravitation. This experience is accompanied by the deepest, the most ecstatic and the most exhilarating joy known to man. At this stage his self is so deeply absorbed in the realisation of the Creator's Beauty that he feels as if he is having a direct vision of him. So great is his attraction for the Divine Being at this stage that he finds it difficult to return to the ordinary level of consciousness but his passionate desire to serve and please the Creator by his actions with a view to improving the human world, which was the cardinal factor in his love all along, brings him back to it, and he comes back to it a different man. Although this experience is temporary, it has the tendency to recur frequently during period of contemplation. It has the following result for his future.
(1) He is perfectly happy, perfectly calm and contented. He feels as if he has found out and acquired personal realisation of the meaning of his own life and the meaning of the Universe. "Those who believe and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah. Now surely in Allah's remembrance do hearts find rest" (xiii. 28). "Those who say: Our Lord is Allah, they continue in the right way, the angles descend upon them, saying: Fear not, nor be grieved" (xli.30).
(2) He is perfectly self-controlled and self-disciplined. It is no longer possible for him to fall a victim to slips and errors . His self-knowledge is at the highest possible stage of its development.
(3) Having no fear and no doubts to fetter his activity, he becomes a dynamic personality infused with a burning desire to change the world in accordance with his own wishes and the wished of his Creator. And he brings to this task a strong and noble character, a highly evolved and unified personality and a very superior knowledge of the distinction between rights and wrong_ gifts brought to him by his spiritual experience at the highest stage of his self-consciousness.
(4) He is all the more careful to abide by the vigorous discipline that has raised him to such a high level of self-knowledge and made available to him all the blessings that go with it in order to maintain and preserve this level till the ends of his earthly life.
(5) As the purpose of the Creator is merged in his purpose, so the will of the Creator too is merged in his will. The result is that whatever he wills consistently with the common purpose of the Creator and his own comes to pass.
(1) He is perfectly happy, perfectly calm and contented. He feels as if he has found out and acquired personal realisation of the meaning of his own life and the meaning of the Universe. "Those who believe and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah. Now surely in Allah's remembrance do hearts find rest" (xiii. 28). "Those who say: Our Lord is Allah, they continue in the right way, the angles descend upon them, saying: Fear not, nor be grieved" (xli.30).
(2) He is perfectly self-controlled and self-disciplined. It is no longer possible for him to fall a victim to slips and errors . His self-knowledge is at the highest possible stage of its development.
(3) Having no fear and no doubts to fetter his activity, he becomes a dynamic personality infused with a burning desire to change the world in accordance with his own wishes and the wished of his Creator. And he brings to this task a strong and noble character, a highly evolved and unified personality and a very superior knowledge of the distinction between rights and wrong_ gifts brought to him by his spiritual experience at the highest stage of his self-consciousness.
(4) He is all the more careful to abide by the vigorous discipline that has raised him to such a high level of self-knowledge and made available to him all the blessings that go with it in order to maintain and preserve this level till the ends of his earthly life.
(5) As the purpose of the Creator is merged in his purpose, so the will of the Creator too is merged in his will. The result is that whatever he wills consistently with the common purpose of the Creator and his own comes to pass.
The Direct Vision of the Creator_ (Ihsan)
It is possible to have a direct vision of the Creator? This question will be better answered if we study the process by which it becomes possible for us to see the material objects around us. The rays of light coming from an external object fall upon the retina and converge behind it to form an image of the object. The sensation of the image is conveyed by the optical nerve to the brain from which our consciousness derives an idea of the object. The final agency that completes the act of vision is, therefore, our self and the real nature of the act of vision is no more than the formation of an idea by the self. The idea consists of a set of qualities of shade and shape, the sum total of which, supplemented by a few more qualities not actually conveyed by the rays of light but attributed to the object by our imagination, is taken for the object. What we see is not the material object but its idea consisting of a congeries of these qualities. The brain, the optical nerve and light are simply the instruments which provide our consciousness with the knowledge of the qualities of this idea.
When consciousness has once acquired this knowledge of self regarding the qualities of the object, the clearer will be our unaided vision of it. When continued moral action and contemplation have raised the love of a believer to a very high stage of evolution and his knowledge of the qualities of the Creator has become very clear, it so happens that in moments of contemplation he becomes deeply absorbed in the love of these qualities till they dominate his consciousness completely. In this state the believer sees his Creator exactly as he would see any object of this world. The experience is ineffable and cannot be described fully to those who have not had it. The believer's stage of evolution in which he has a vision of Reality is known as Ihsan and is alluded to by the Quran in the following words: "Surely Allah loves the doers of good" (ii. 195). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) defined Ihsan as follows: Doing good means worshipping Allah as if you see Him. The greater and deeper is the love of a believer, the clearer is his vision of Reality and the deeper is his joy resulting from it. The Israelites demanded of Moses that they may be allowed to have a direct vision of the Creator so that they may enter his faith. This was no more than an excuse to disbelieve and disobey because belief and obedience are the first requisites for a direct vision of the Creator. Hence they were chastised for this unreasonable demand.
When consciousness has once acquired this knowledge of self regarding the qualities of the object, the clearer will be our unaided vision of it. When continued moral action and contemplation have raised the love of a believer to a very high stage of evolution and his knowledge of the qualities of the Creator has become very clear, it so happens that in moments of contemplation he becomes deeply absorbed in the love of these qualities till they dominate his consciousness completely. In this state the believer sees his Creator exactly as he would see any object of this world. The experience is ineffable and cannot be described fully to those who have not had it. The believer's stage of evolution in which he has a vision of Reality is known as Ihsan and is alluded to by the Quran in the following words: "Surely Allah loves the doers of good" (ii. 195). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) defined Ihsan as follows: Doing good means worshipping Allah as if you see Him. The greater and deeper is the love of a believer, the clearer is his vision of Reality and the deeper is his joy resulting from it. The Israelites demanded of Moses that they may be allowed to have a direct vision of the Creator so that they may enter his faith. This was no more than an excuse to disbelieve and disobey because belief and obedience are the first requisites for a direct vision of the Creator. Hence they were chastised for this unreasonable demand.
