THE AFTERLIFE

[Warning: This is my personal struggling experience. Kindly proceed with kindness and open mind]

Assalamualaikum

Something that I realised recently,

this world is temporary!

duhhh. Semua orang tau kot -____________- okay in my defense, I know that this is temporary. I know that everyone will die and we'll be woken up on Day of Judgement, I know that. But knowing doesn't really translate to believing.

Take me for example. While I know that the afterlife is real, it's also hard for me to fully submit to something that hasn't happen yet, something that I can't see, something that no one has survive to tell a story about it. So, I lived for this world. While I told myself that I am a muslim, I also bend some rules because, well, everyone does it. In a way, I made my own rules. I had my own idea on how my life should be, then I would choose how I wanted to live, I did what I wanted to do, irregardless of what God told me. I also feared death. It is all so confusing and complicated at the same time. I said I believe in the after life, but I also believe that death is it, like the ultimate end, untuk selama lamanya. So if I really believe in the after life, how can death be the end? You get what I am saying?

So I realised, while I knew about the afterlife, I hadn't fully submit to it. Because if I did, I wasn't supposed to love this world so much. I wasn't supposed to pick what rules to follow. If I really believe in Heaven and Hell, Islam should be my way of life, not some ideology I created myself. The "ermmmm takpe nanti bertaubatlah," shouldn't happen.

"The world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the unbeliever," - Prophet Muhammad

I used to think that we are supposed to feel like we're in a "prison" because of all the rules, halal and haram, whereas there's no rules for the unbelievers, hence it's paradise for them. Yasmin Mogahed makes me realised that I was wrong. Soooo wrong. 

In her book, this was written,

"What happen when the soul already think it's in paradise? Would that soul ever want to be somewhere else? Somewhere better? No. It is exactly where it wants to be. To that soul, there is no 'better'. When you're in paradise, you can't imagine being anywhere greater. You yearn for nothing else. Nothing more. You are satisfied, content with where you are. That is the condition of the disbeliever. This is all they strive for. Every effort, every ability, every opportunity, every gift endowed to them by their Creator, is employed for the sake of seeking this life.

For the believing soul, it's different. The believer is in prison - not paradise. Why? What is a prisoner? A prisoner is someone who is trapped. A prisoner is kept from his home, stuck, while he wishes to be somewhere better. The worldly body is a prison for the believer, not because this life is miserable for the believing soul, but because the soul years to be somewhere greater. It yearns to be Home. No matter how wonderful this life is for the believer, it is a prison compared to the Perfect Life that awaits them. This soul attachement is to God and the true paradise with Him."

"What is the life of this world but amusement and play? The Home in the Hereafter, that is the life, if only they knew," 29:64

God told us that the life we're going to have in the Hereafter, that's the life. The realest life. It is so perfect, it's beyond anything that our limited brain can ever imagine. So if wanting the best is in our nature, shouldn't we strive to get the best? Shouldn't we all be greedy and want that life? Berapa lama ye dunia sana? Eternity!!!! Compare eternity to maybe 100 years of this life? Is it worth trading your afterlife with this life?

***

Dear Allah, I am sorry it took me this long, but I hereby believe in the existence of the Afterlife, of the Day of Judgement, of heaven and hell.