God and the Hereafter

place to punish rebellious people who were addicted to falsehood. The understanding that emerges in line with this is that the present world has been made as a testing ground, and the next world as a place for acquiring the results of one’s actions performed on Earth. Each person has been bestowed with a being that shall never die. However, man’s life is like an iceberg, a tiny portion visible above the water while the rest is sunk deep in the sea. Man’s lifespan is divided into two portions— one, a small part, which has been kept in this world, and the remaining portion of his lifespan, which has been kept in the world of the Hereafter and will last forever. There is an ‘examination paper’ for every person that he must ‘answer’ in this present world. Everything in this world exists so that man can seek to perfect his personality. For example, this present world is full of bitter experiences. It is so that man, passing through these experiences, can prove that he can live with positive feelings even in negative conditions. Only