Death Concept in Islam - The Life After Death

What does Islam say about life after death? 

 

 All of the prophets sent by Allah for the benefit of humanity called upon their people to worship God and to believe in life after death. 

Death is inevitable. It is the one thing that we can be certain about in life. We are born to die. Every soul shall have a taste of death no matter who they are.

 Qur'an says:

"Every soul shall have a taste of death: and only on the Day of Judgement shall you be paid your full recompense." (Quran 3:185)

 "You (Allah) bring the Living out
of the Dead, and You bring the Dead out of the Living" (3:27)

 "Say: 'The Angel of Death, put in charge of you, will (duly) take your souls. Then shall you be brought back to your Lord." (32:11) "Wherever you are, Death will find you out, even if you are in towers built up strong and high! " (4:78)

 Who will revive these bones when they have rotted away? Say: He will revive them who produced them at the first, for He is the knower of every creation, Who has appointed for you fire from the green tree, and behold, you kindle from it. Is not He who created the heavens and the earth, able to create the like of them? Yes, and He is indeed the Supreme Creator, the All-knowing". (36: 78-81)

In another verse, the Qur'an says very clearly that non believers do not have a sound basis for their denial of life after death. It is based on pure conjecture:
"They say, There is nothing but our present life; we die, and we live, and nothing but Time destroys us. Of that they have no knowledge; they merely conjecture. And when our revelations are recited to them, their only argument is that they say, 'Bring us our fathers, if you speak truly"/ (45:2425)".

 The prophet (saw) said:

  "Live in this world as though you are a stranger or a traveler (passing through it)." [Muslim] 

 Whenever someone died, the prophet (saw) would stand for awhile at the burial site and then say, "Seek forgiveness for your (Muslim) brother and pray for his steadfastness since he is now being questioned." [Abu Dawud]

Munkar and Nakir:

 Munkar and Nakir are angels who test the faith of the dead in their graves.

 

 Nakir and Munkar prop the deceased soul upright in the grave and ask three questions: 

1: "Who is your Lord? 

2: Who is your Prophet? 

3: What is your religion?

". A righteous believer will respond correctly, saying that their Lord is Allah, that Muhammad is their prophet and that their religion is Islam. If the deceased answers correctly, the time spent awaiting the resurrection is pleasant. 

Those who do not answer as described above are chastised until the day of judgment. These angels are described as having solid black eyes, having a shoulder span measured in miles, and carrying hammers "so large, that if all of mankind tried at once to move them a single inch, they would fail". When they speak, tongues of fire come from their mouths. If one answers their questions incorrectly, one is beaten every day, other than Friday, until Allah gives permission for the beating to stop. Muslims believe that a person will correctly answer the questions not by remembering the answers before death  but by their iman and deeds such as salat and shahadah (the Islamic profession of faith).

 At the death of the Momin, the angels of death come and extend salaam to the Momin, at this time the Momin in the throes of death��. smiles. (Perhaps some of you may have seen this in a pious relative) The angels of death then gently call for the soul to come out.

If the person is a Kafir or Munafiq then the angels of death look frightening to him and the dying person is terrified at the time of death.

Barzakh:

Soul awaits after death and before resurrection on Qiyamah.

Many Muslims believe that, after death, a person's soul passes through a stage called barzakh, where it exists in the grave (even if the person's body was destroyed, the soul will still rest in the earth near their place of death)

 Death is a blessing for a true Muslim:

 Life is temporary, it is going to end. After that, begins another world. Death leads to what is beyond death.

This is why the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wassallam) has said, that wise is the man who understands the purpose of his life, and is aware of the reason which brought him into this world, then remember death abundantly and consistently, this keeps preparing for what is after death, doing everything he could do for the life after death, a person finally leaves this world having lived in it like a traveller.

The Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wassallam used to say this: �Be in the world as if you are a traveller (away from home) a same wayfarer.�

It also narrated by Ubaid ibn Usman that he (all of a sudden) asked  Aishah Radiallaho Anha about death. �Should it be hated?� She replied �Why? Why should it be hated, when I asked the Holy prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wassallam) about it, he said: Death is nothing but peace for true Muslim, but for evildoers it is no doubt nothing but remorse.�

Punishment  of the Grave for Non Believers:

Punishment of the Grave is an Islamic concept of the period following death but prior to the Day of Judgement, when the souls of the unrighteous are punished in the grave.

The punishment of the grave applies regardless of manner of death or of the corporeal state of the deceased, and is measured by criteria unlike those of the living. The living cannot perceive these things with their eyes, ears or inner senses. However, the dead person is completely aware of them, but according to the criteria of the afterlife. Animals are able to hear the Punishment of the Grave while human beings cannot.