Life Death and Beyond

something that requires medical treatment. They make the rounds of doctors and hospitals and then finally die, in utter helplessness. What they obtain isn’t cure and good health but, rather, frustration and death. Period for Preparation If you check the word ‘death’ in a dictionary, you might find that it is defined as ‘the permanent cessation of life’. This dictionary meaning of death presents a negative picture of death. It suggests that a human being was born as a complete being but after living a short time here, he has been extinguished forever. With his death, all his desires, hopes and abilities have completely disappeared, and in such a way that they can never come back. In contrast to this, Islam presents a positive concept of death. According to Islam, death is not the end of life. Rather, it marks the beginning of a second phase of human life. Man was created as an eternal being. Then, his lifespan was divided into two parts—the pre-death period, and the post-death period. The former is the period for sowing the seeds of actions. The latter is the period for reaping the results of one’s actions. All this is part of God’s creation plan. In line with this creation plan, we should regard the predeath period of our life as the preparatory period. We should spend it in preparing ourselves for the eternal life that follows death by leading a God-oriented life. This phase of life is the only one we have to engage in this preparation, because in the