Life Death and Beyond

Introduction to Paradise message is given to the living, telling them that they too will meet the same fate one day. In this way, those who are living should see themselves in the form of the dead. They should experience death before dying. According to the Islamic custom, when a corpse is being buried in the grave, those who are participating in the burial take some mud in their hands three times and put it in the grave. When they do this the first time, they say Minha khalaqnakum (‘From the earth We [God] have created you’). The second time, they say Wa fiha nuidukum (‘And We return you to it’). And the third time they say Wa minha nukhrijukum taratan ukhra (‘And from it We shall bring you forth a second time’). This putting of mud in the grave is the climax of the whole process. In this way, it is explained to those who are still alive what their own fate will be one day. Introduction to Paradise Once, a man was on an island, where he happened to observe the sun setting. It really moved him. “I wish I could see this sunset forever”, he wrote about this experience. Nature is astoundingly beautiful. One can never get tired admiring it. One can watch it forever! But of course, we can’t do that, for we have to leave this world one day. In this world, nature is a glimpse of Paradise. The finesse of Paradise, its beauty and its immense attractiveness—a distant glimpse of all this is available in this world itself, in the form of nature.