Spirit of Islam, Jan 2014

O N December 6, 2013 the radio announced the news of the death of Nelson Mandela. Then, after a moment, the radio station broadcast the speech that Mandela had delivered as President in the South African Parliament on May 10, 1994. The speaker was physically no more, but his voice could still be heard by all without the slightest alteration. On November 12, 1947, Gandhiji went to the studios of All-India Radio to deliver a live address to over two lakh refugees from Pakistan who had gathered at a camp in Haryana. This speech is still aired every year on November 12 on All-India Radio. Death is like a door through which we go from the present world into the next world. Experiences of this kind are very common. They remind us of the fact that when a person dies, he is still living through his voice. A person's voice is a part of his personality. And so, if a part of our personality is alive after our physical death, why cannot our whole personality be alive after our death? According to the dictionary, death is the permanent end of life. However, the Quran maintains that the human being is an eternal being, and that death is only a phase in our eternal journey. Apart from other reasoning it offers for life after death, the Quran also expresses the above argument in these words: And by the Lord of the heavens and the earth, it (life after death) is certainly the truth. It is as true as your ability to speak. (THE QURAN 51: 23) Speech is part of a person, and modern technology has proved that the speech of a person is repeatable. So, if someone’s speech, uttered in the distant past, can be repeated, why not the rest of his personality? In previous centuries this seemed to be just a claim, but now it is a verified fact. There is also a biological phenomenon that supports this concept. The LIFE AFTER DEATH A Perspective