The Hereafter

to prevent the good and the evil from living cheek by jowl in this world, they will be separated in the Hereafter like the wheat from the chaff, and will be judged in strict accordance with their record in this life. Some will be condemned to an eternal Hell of pain and distress, while others will be blessed with eternal bliss and pleasure. Each will ineluctably get his deserts. Two men once brought a case before the Prophet for judgement. One had misappropriated the other’s land, but because of certain legal quirks, it was difficult to pass a verdict against him. After due consideration, the Prophet warned him: “If the court gives a verdict in your favour, think of it as being fire and brimstone which you have been awarded.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 26717) The piece of land might, in terms of this world, have been a prized possession, but in the perspective of the Hereafter it would assume the terrible properties of fire and brimstone. These two sides of human deeds have been beautifully described through allegories and symbols in the hadith of the mi‘raj (The Prophet’s Journey to the Heavens). When the Prophet reached Sidrah al-Muntaha (the lote tree at the end of the Seventh Heaven), he saw four rivers: two flowing inward and two flowing outward. It was explained to him by the angel Gabriel that the two inward-flowing were rivers of Paradise, and the outwardflowing were the Nile and the Euphrates. By analogy, the present world and the Hereafter are two sides of the same event. The worldy side is trivial and temporary, while the Hereafter side is substantive and permanent. It is to the latter side that we must face up after death. Here one has complete freedom to live out one’s worldly existence as one wills; in the life-to-come, one will have no choice about the future course of one’s life. One will