kills us but time there have said and
and will we be decayed bones dust in the
earth and brought back to life they say
who's going to revive these dead and
decayed bones the quran says paul Yoji
Haneda and shia
/ Amara the one who brought them to life
the first time he'll do it the second
time the Quran says we created you the
first time the commentators say second
time around is always easier right if it
was done once it can be done again now
how did the Quran deal with this
disbelief because it's very interesting
that the the Arabs didn't believe this
how did it deal with it the way that it
dealt with it was it told the Arabs to
look at the dead earth and instead we
take a dead earth send down rain from
the heavens it mixes with the seed
and we bring forth we bring the earth
back to life again and like that you
will be brought back now this analogy
there is a hadith that says that the
Prophet Muhammad said every human being
has what's called as Ashbaugh venom the
wondrous tale and it's it's at the tip
of the coccyx and it's the seed of the
human being so the Muslims believe that
there is a seed that every human being
has and like seeds seeds are very
interesting because they're very hard to
destroy right you swallow seeds they
come out the other end hydrochloric acid
doesn't break them down in fires seeds
stay right forests that are burned down
come back to life because of seeds that
are there that aren't destroyed drought
comes kills everything but the seeds
when the rain comes back it comes back
to life now the belief of the Muslims is
that every human being has a seed and
that seed will not be destroyed we don't
know where it is or what it is the
hadith indicates that it's in the coccyx
but we don't know what size it is what
it looks like nothing like that but from
that seed every human being will be
recreated from a divine reign and it's
interesting that we deny resurrection
and yet our own culture is talking about
recreating human beings from one cell
bringing back the entire human being by
cloning one cell because all
of the information about you is
contained in one of your cells and this
one of the verses in the Quran is it
says we will continue to show them our
signs in their selves and on the horizon
until it becomes clear to them that what
we're saying is true so the belief in
the resurrection is absolutely
fundamental to the Islamic tradition and
there is a belief that every soul will
be completely renewed the body but the
body that's recreated is not the same as
this physical body
yeah no it's not reincarnation now
here's a little schematic the this was
what we called the world of spirits and
from that we move into now one of the
things about the world of spirits
according to the prophet muhammad's
Eliza time if you met people in the
spiritual realm because we actually
intermingle if you met people in the
spiritual realm you will have a natural
affinity for them in this realm so there
will be people that you meet in your
life that you immediately connect with
and this is believed to be a pre worldly
meeting that is replicated in this realm
and there's a recognition of that and
likewise the people most distant from
you on that primordial plane will be
people that you have natural you you're
not attracted to them and this can also
be within within families and within
religious tradition in other words it
could be a Muslim for a Muslim you know
there could be Muslims you just don't
feel comfortable with and that is not
seen you know you're not you're not
supposed to be mean or cruel to them you
know or take them as enemies or
something but it's recognized that there
are natural affinities and these
affinities are from a pre worldly
recognition and there is a hadith in
which the Prophet said souls are like
regimented ranks those who knew each
other before feel affinity in this realm
and those who did not fit if there's
differences you know and it's like if
you look at it for a metaphor here you
know you have the the Armed Forces and
they're all on the same side but when
Marines are at a bar drinking and then
some Navy boys come in right there's all
this kind of aggression that that will
often happen you know because they're
from different regiments you know that
that these guys are another group even
though it's the same army there are
another group and there's that kind of
animosity that's a result of not being
from that same
Regt now this area is the world of life
choice and effort this is called anima
dunya so you enter into this and from
here you move into the butter sock
now according to the hadith when your
soul dies it hovers above your body and
it's a very discomforting experience and
this is why a sleep is considered to be
the little brother of death in Islam and
the Quran talks about we cause them to
die and there are those we return to
their bodies and others that we keep
them in other words that sleep is a
death it is a type of debt one of the
things sleep is the indication of the
afterlife because what happens when you
go to sleep is like you live your life
you go to sleep and you enter into this
this bottle Zac and then waking up is
like the resurrection you come back into
the body or and you wake up you your
resurrected during sleep you can live
lives you can have extraordinary dreams
you can feel like you were dreaming for
just all these things happen and those
are indications of another world and
this is why the Muslims believe that the
dream realm is a very important realm
and they differentiate between dreams
the quran differentiates between dreams
that are at what we would call in this
culture like food dreams you eat a lot
of food before you go to sleep and then
you have all these funny garbled dreams
so there's but you're still in that
what's called the animal haya the
imaginal world it is part of the unseen
realm but there is also true dreams and
the more ones spirituality soul
work becomes Lucent the more access they
have to that realm and the more opaque
and materialistic they are the more cut
off they are from that realm so there
are people who literally their dream
world is incredibly rich there are
people in our tradition there are many
people who saw The Messenger of Allah
every night in their dreams like Imam
matica van Deniz he said he never woke
up without having seen the Prophet in
his dreams there are others that have
what are called true dreams in which
there's information given to them and
much of the dream realm is symbolic and
there is an extensive science of dream
interpretation in Islam several books
written on it where you will see very
specific things and they have very
specific meanings and this is a first
century work by eben Sedin which is
about dream work just very extensive if
you see this it means this if you see
this and there are there multiple
interpretations that it doesn't always
mean one but that work is deals with
these other realms there are also
spiritual journeys that are taken in the
unseen world so people will have very
profound spiritual experiences in in
their souls
now that the mirage of the messenger is
believed to have been was not a dream it
was a of the soul and the body although
time expanded because he returned to his
bed and it was still warm so he went
through this entire experience he saw
many things on that journey he described
them he went in fact if you are seen
palacios work indicates that much of the
Divine Comedy is actually taken from a
very famous exposition of the messengers
journey through the
the hell's and through the heavens the
seven heavens right
until you have the beatific vision which
is was the result of that now Dearing at
the point of death it's encouraged you
wash the body you do a ritual you pray
for the body and then you put them into
the grave the grave
this is shoulder link and then there's
what's called a nod where you put the
body there's not supposed to be any
coffin it's wrapped in a white gown
white seamless garment like the one that
men wear on the Hajj both women and
females males and females are placed
into this you're placed into your grave
facing Mecca and then three when they
place them in the grave you everybody
throws dust the whole community who goes
to the funeral partake cygnus they all
throw dust and they recite a verse of
the quran from dust we created you from
dust we return you and from dust we will
bring you forth again and then it is
believed that the beginning of the next
stage this is the barzakh stage right
we've got these five stages the next
stage begins in the Barza there are
angels that come to angels munkar and
nakir these angels are very frightening
they're very powerful
they have voices like thunder and they
ask a person who is your Lord
what is your Deen your your religion
your way and who is your prophet the
Prophet Muhammad said the only thing a
man takes or a woman takes into their
grave will be their actions according to
the tradition because now you're moving
into the realm of meaning you're no
longer in the
of sensory although the realm of sensory
is a symbolic realm according to the
Quran these are signs in the next world
the signs right it's not sensoria that
you're in you are in meaning so all of
the things that you did in this in this
life are translated into meanings in the
next life so there are these foul
creatures that people will find in their
grave that smell and they have a strong
stench and the soul is distressed by it
and the soul says leave me alone who are
you and they say don't you know us we're
your actions and this is people who did
evil things in their lives and then
there's others where it's very pleasant
and there's a perfume that diffuses and
the soul finds itself in this and and
and he asks who are you and they say
we're your good actions so these angels
ask and this begins the testing phase
and according to the Quran it says we
will make firm those who believed and
did good works in this life and in the
next with the true word which is lela
lela but we will make them firm so they
won't have these tribulations and the
prophets on the lot is that I've said
that according to the person's
experience in the grade that will
determine whether what comes after it is
easy or difficult so it's the first
stage of the next journey at this point
the grave either becomes a very wide and
expansive or it becomes dark and
constricted based on what people did in
this life and there's a verse there's a
hadith also that indicates every human
being will have an initial constriction
the grave will literally constrict them
to where they think they're going to
burst their soul and then it will become
either easy or difficult and there's a
prophetic tradition of Jesus son of Mary
who they were looking at a man who was
being buried
and all the companions said it sews
constricted and narrow and Jesus says to
them you don't remember the wombs of
your mothers that expanded for you in
other words that the tomb can also
expand for you if the soul grew in this
life whereas if it was stunted it won't
so this is the sole work that's done in
this dunya realm that's going to
determine whether you're constricted or
expanded in this next stage here in this
stage now everybody who has died before
us is in this realm with the exception
of the martyrs the martyrs do not go
into this realm they go directly to to
the divine presence they're not they
don't go through this stage so they're
there they are the exception and Islam
does not restrict martyrdom to those who
died witnessing their their belief which
is the traditional meaning including in
Greek a martyr was anybody who died
witnessing their belief a person who
dies in a fire is considered a martyr a
person who dies of a sudden disease like
cholera a person like dies in a plague
that's a martyr death a person whose
roof falls on them like in an earthquake
and the Scott modern scholars have said
that includes by analogy airplane
crashes and car accidents that these are
martyr deaths as recompense for the
trauma of that experience and not having
been able to deal with your difficult
you know people I mean it's people who
know they're going to die it really
helps them to resolve a lot of things
where if you die suddenly there's a lot
of untaken care of business and so this
is a recompense for that drowning is a
martyr death those who drown so these
are all deaths of Martin
so in other words if you've been a real
rascal all your life when you died in a
car wreck because you were DWI or
Sackett how you be drunk yes yeah see I
mean it's it's it's based on acceptance
yeah like it just depends on what state
you were in because people who can die
you know that's the the assumption of
the community is it's a martyr's death
but but that is not an absolute
including people who died on the
battlefield we assume that they're
martyrs but there's a hadith that said
one of the first people to go to the
Hellfire is a soldier who fought to be
called brave and he tells God I know I
fought for your sake and God says you
lied you fought to be called a brave
person and you got your reward they said
you were brave and the same with a
scholar who learns that God says why did
you say he said I studied for your sake
to teach your religion and he said you
lied you studied to be called a learned
man and you got your reward and the same
with a wealthy person mm-hmm on the
other hand you have a prostitute
according to the hadith who once came to
a well and and and put her shoe down and
brought water up and drank it and there
was a dog who was who was dying of
thirst and she looked at the dog and
thought that dog is like me thirsty and
so she put her shoe down and gave the
water to this dog and got and the
Prophet Muhammad said she was forgiven
all her wrong actions for that one act
right and there's another man who said
who comes on the day of judgment the
only good action that he had was used to
loan money to people and when he sent
his bill collector out he said if they
don't have it just leave them and the
hadith says that God said I am more
generous in absolving my debts than this
man so he forgives him mm-hmm
case of soldiers fighting both sides of
the name of Allah safest iran-iraq war
yeah give the souls of both sides that
can happen and be back in happen yeah it
depends on it whether it was a valid is
she hard or not if there's a hadith
which says the one killing and the one
killed are in the fire right so
generally it's it's not the case and
they said we understand the one killed
what about the one killing or we
understand the one killing what about
the one killed and he said well he would
have wanted to kill him had he been able
so they both have that whereas if there
was a valid ich T had which is where you
know both sides like in Maui and Ali
this and the initial Great Tribulation
between the two companions who fought
the there is a hadith that said the one
killing and the one killed are both in
paradise except the one who killed Ahmad
and that is considered a motivator
hadith which has the highest level of
veracity it's it's a hadith that so many
people narrated it it's impossible for
it to have been considered a lie and and
that that's in the tradition so and
that's part of you know human beings do
crazy things and and this is part of the
human condition you know that there's
fits not what's called sedition and
troubles right and and and these are
often seen also as purification because
a lot of the tribulations people go
through are actually purification and
raising them to higher levels so at a
certain point there are two trumpets
which obviously this is not like you
know these are things that we don't
really understand but these are
approximations and and we have this in
the judeo-christian tradition also the
the first blast
is what's called the our the Sam and I'm
going to talk about this on the last
lecture I have which is about the end of
time at the moment it literally means
the moment the great moment when the
world comes to an end and it says in the
Quran that like the the the cosmos was
expanded at the end it will be
contracted and rolled up like a scroll
right which you know the modern
physicists talk about the Big Crunch
which is you know when it all goes back
to this initial and that's consistent
with with the Quranic view that there is
a rolling up of the cosmos and it's also
the heat death because everything heat
like the it says that the oceans boil
over everything ends in it in a massive
heat death so when this moment comes
every person that's on the earth is
going to be killed at that point it's
all over and and then the second is that
what's called the bath which is the
resurrection and then what happens then
is a very mapped out scenario in the
Islamic tradition at this point all of
the souls have left the dunya and the
next stage they go to which is the
bottle
and then you have the bath you have the
the what's called the neva
which causes the resurrection now at the
point of resurrection all of the souls
are bought brought to a plane and that's
what Auto phat is a preparation for that
they're all brought to the plane and
then according to the tradition
everybody is naked and they stand this
is this is where they wait for what's
called the that he said the reckoning
and according to the tradition it says
the waiting is 500 years and and people
are in it five I'm in the pod on talks
about you know a year with God is like
fifty thousand of years a thousand in
different verses so the idea of time is
very different in this realm it's not
like it isn't where we are here and
according to the Quran when they're
asked how long did they tear in the
earth they'll say a day or part of a day
that's what our lives on earth will seem
like in relation to the next world now
at this point according to the Islamic
tradition all of the souls some are
shaded by their actions and others are
literally up in sweat drowning in their
own sweat because it's so intense and at
this point after waiting an incredible
amount of time and it literally says
that people are going in and out like
waves in and out it's a very there's a
lot of confusion there's a lot of it's
it's actually the descriptions are
terrifying with the exception of people
that were the good people in this world
and then what happens is people say
let's go ask the prophets to get us out
of this and the tradition says they go
to Adam the first man and they say help
us intercede for us and he says nefzi
NFC my own soul my own soul
so he refuses he said I can't do
anything for you people go to their
mother they go to their father they say
nefzi NFC this is the day where nobody's
thinking about anybody else because the
soul is looking at infinity and in the
Quran it says when when we enter into
this realm the first thing the soul says
is Yahweh Lana member tottenham in
Medina oh woe to us who has woken us
from our sleep this is what the
messengers promised this is what they
told us they were truthful in telling us
this and this is the promise of the
merciful and they use that attribute
because that's what they want now in the
world people like Thomas Jefferson said
I used to beg for divine justice and
still when I looked at others and then I
start examining my own soul and started
asking for mercy right so this is the
day where people aren't thinking about
justice they're thinking about divine
mercy and what happens is they go to
each of the prophets they go to Noah
they go to Abraham they go to Moses each
one of them says nefzi NFC and they give
a reason that relates to stories that
are mentioned in the poem and finally
all of humanity according to the Islamic
tradition goes to the Prophet Muhammad
all of you met the Muslims the Buddhists
the Hindus everyone goes to the Prophet
Muhammad and that's why in the Quran he
is called a mercy to all the worlds
because on this day when they go to him
he according to our tradition is
uniquely the one who says Allah this is
my place and he takes the intercession
and it said that he enters into the
divine presence prostrates praises and
then it says
to him raise your head ask and you will
be given intercede and you will have
intercession and he asks for the
judgment because people are so terrified
in this waiting period they just want
the judgment to happen you know it's
like people that would rather just I
just tell me what's going to have I
can't wait anymore and so they that they
move to the next stage which is that he
sab because of this shafa'a
so so the intercession occurs here now
it's interesting the the Muslims
identify in the in the New Testament and
one of the names of the Prophet in the
Islamic tradition is parallels which is
the Muslims identify the Paraclete that
is mentioned in John 16 in the gospel
when he says I'm leaving but another
comforter is coming after me the word in
Greek Paraclete means comforter but
actually the first meaning of it is
intercessor it's the one who intercedes
who gives comfort and the Muslim
traditionally have believed that that is
the Prophet Mohammed the Christian
belief is that it's the Holy Spirit and
at this point they go now to the
reckoning that he Sam now there are
people that will not get up and remember
from the Muslim perspective the all the
traditions the righteous of every
tradition is going to be in a good
situation on this day this is not you
know I mean the prophets community is
only one community there are many
previous communities of prophets and
those people that were following their
prophets living according with their
prophet each one has their place and
that's why according to the hadith they
line up behind the people that they were
behind including the bad ones like false
prophets and say everybody's going to be
with the people they followed and those
people
the burden of leading people astray so
you know the Marxists are going to be
behind Karl Marx the whole it's it's the
Nazis are going to be behind Adolf
Hitler everybody's going to be with
what's that a big sign right
materialists over here well yeah I mean
there's a history of materialism so
there's there's definitely the first
philosophers of materialism the Greeks
have you know there in fact if you read
I really like Prometheus press I don't
know if anybody knows about them do you
know about Prometheus press it's a New
York public they publish everything
against religion right there they're
like total materialists and they can't
stand with it they publish books called
like the problem of God right why I am
NOT a Muslim and they're actually really
interesting because it's it's always
important to get reality checks right
from really radically different
perspectives you know I like to do that
for my own you know just okay I see how
you're seeing it's helpful to clarify
your own understandings to listen to
something that's so different from what
you know it's a really good thing to do
so at this point then at the hey sab
which is the reckoning and this is why
there's a hadith that says reckon
yourselves before you're taken to
account in other words if you do your
work in this world you don't have to
deal with it in the next world so
there's a tradition in Islam of what's
called Mahasabha and it's also a
Christian tradition they're they're
they're orders that do this as a
practice in Christianity of at the end
of the day taking oneself to account and
really looking at one's actions during
the day if they were good you praise and
if they're bad you ask forgiveness right
and this is also penitence and you know
confession in the Catholic tradition is
going and getting this stuff off your
chest admitting
you know I did these things and then
having some way of atoning those wrongs
and then what happens is there is a
record on this day of everything your
entire life and according to the Imam at
Ozaki people will watch their lives in
front of them like a film they'll
literally watch their entire life and
there's a hadith that God will veil
people who for his veiling because
having to see your life you know all the
things that you did so in other words
there are edited versions right there's
a divine editing that can take place
where things are removed from your life
if if you ask them to be removed with
sincerity and at each stage there will
be testimony against you the hands
according to the Quran testify the feet
testament they ask them how will they
speak and he said the one who gave them
who made your tongue speak will make
your hand speak and the genitals
testified the tongue test because all of
them are afraid well the body is that we
don't want they know what's coming and
they're they're afraid and so they're
all owning up and they're saying he made
us do this in other words they don't
want to be taken to account which is
also there's an indication of this in
the Gospels when Jesus said if your
right hand offends thee then cut it off
for it's better to enter the kingdom of
heaven Maine right then than to go into
the fire with that you know it and and
that is obviously a spiritual severing
it's the it's not you know it's not
literal right I mean they're probably
some people out there they take that
stuff out and
oddly center yeah those are values that
when you enter into Islam everything is
erased with the exception of debt so so
in that case we may believe that all the
seems to happen for anything that you
have not taken on a literally removed
from your slate completely and then what
happens is there's what's called a
sahifa which is your the book of your
life right the book of your life and
your actions are weighed in in scales
and you'll find this in Egyptian
mythology and tradition in the Egyptian
Book of the Dead the way and there are
many glyphs about this right the
weighing of the basket and the soul
being in the basket and the actions
weighed and you know I had a in the same
teacher professor Kramer you know
mention the you know that isn't that
from that Egyptian mythology and there's
absolutely no indication that that
information was available in the 7th
century in Arabia and the way the
Muslims would look at that
is that much of Mythology is in fact
remnants of prophetic traditions and in
fact much of mythology you know some
religious scholars differentiate between
mythos and myth you know mythos is is
truth related in symbolic tradition and
myth is like fables and fairy tales and
stories whereas mythos is is something
that's true
and so people then are given their their
books and the book of their life will
either be given in the right hand or in
the left hand if it's given in the right
hand then it's an indication that they
they were successful in this reckoning
now there's also at this point there's
intercession so there are people that
intercede for other people in all the
traditions the righteous people of the
traditions can intercede for other
people and the first to intercede are
the prophets they will intercede for
their communities so Jesus will
intercede for the Christians Moses will
intercede for the Jews and and then
there are people from the community that
reached very high spiritual stations
that will be given permission to
intercede also and then after this the
Me's on the wing the next stage is so
you have the weighing here and you have
the people of the right and the people
of the left the people of the left
go to the place of ultimate divine
alienation which is the fire and the
people of the right go to the place of
ultimate divine intimacy which is the
garden now the Quran says that the
people that go to the garden inherit
they inherit places in the garden
because every human being according to
the Islamic tradition has a place
allotted to them in the fire and a place
allotted to them in the garden every
human being has property in both places
and they will sell their property from
one or the other
those whose free their souls in this
world and sell their place in the fire
then their places are taken up by others
those who free themselves in this world
and purchase according to Quran it says
we have purchased the souls of the
believers and their wealth and against
it is paradise that's the that's the
bargain that's the that's the
transaction that you give your soul to
God and God gives you the garden and so
now there's also a point here which is
known as the the hole and this is a
massive according to the Prophet
Muhammad it extends more than the
distance of between Yemen and Syria and
it is a watering place in which those
who drink from it will never have thirst
after that and he will those who were
the most righteous from his community he
will actually give them drink from his
own hand and this is followed by
what's known as the the qantarah which
is a bridge and people see the hellfire
and go over this bridge to paradise now
according to the hadith the Prophet
Muhammad said that the most punished
person who had the worst life in in this
world in the next world he will be asked
did you ever know grief sorrow or pain
and he'll say I never knew grief sorrow
or pain in other words just entering
into this divine presence all
remembrance of the suffering of the
world is removed and also the person the
wretched one who had the most pleasure
in this world is asked the same question
in the fire did you ever know pleasure
and he can't remember any pleasure in
the world
so these these are the final the these
are the according to the Islamic
tradition the final oppose then and that
day which is the day of judgement is
known as the last day there's there's no
day after it is there any questions
twelve O'Clock that's pretty good I
didn't even look at my watch everything
comes to an end
see this is the realm now the soul
according to the Muslim belief knows all
of these things what's happened in this
realm is were in the realm of
forgetfulness and this is why in the
quran in surah turn off the the QAF
chapter it says a young chef Narang
kelapa vibhava
waka chef Nawab autocad Yamaha D we have
removed the veils from your inner sight
and now your understanding is
penetrating see people will know all of
these things right people are going to
know these things
is there God is a fire in the city well
this possibility right now there people
do according to some tuition there were
people that will taste the fire and then
come out of it and there's two views and
these are not dominant views but there
and it's interesting because there are
two extremes who meet at this place
there's the view of eben tamiya who's a
very famous scholar from the 9th century
Syria Damascus who actually believed
that the fire went out he believed that
ultimately the mercy overrides and that
was his bleep the other extreme was
somebody who he didn't even consider a
Muslim at one point in his life is the
position of even our abhi the Andrew
Seon philosopher Sufi philosopher who
said that the fire also eventually
became it went from a DAB to a dub ad
that means punishment ad that means
pleasure so in other words that
ultimately there was the soul was
purified that is not the dominant belief
the majority belief of the Muslim
theologians is that that there is
infinite residing in these in these
abodes so thank you very much