Sheikh Yahya Safi | Religious Minister / Imam
Faith and belief in life after death is one of the six fundamental beliefs required of a muslim in order to complete his religion. In Islam, death is a passing from this world onto the next. The purpose of life is to be tested in our belief and choice of deeds whether good or bad. Allah states in the Qur'an: (Allah is He who created death and life to test you as to which of you is best in deed). Qur'an67:2 Therefore, the afterlife will either be one of reward or punishment which is commensurate with the person's earthly conduct.
The dead have a continued and conscious existence in the grave. That is, when a person's soul is removed, a person enters an intermediate phase of life between death and resurrection.
Sheikh Yahya Safi outside the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney.
Straight after being buried, each person will be questioned by the Angels about their Lord, religion and the Prophet. The grave is either a garden of paradise for the true believers or a pit of hell for those who don't believe. Resurrection will be preceded by the end of the world. Allah will command a magnificent Angel to blow the Horn. At its first blowing, all the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth will fall unconscious, except those spared by Allah. The earth will be flattened, the mountains turned into dust, the sky will crack, planets will be dispersed, and the graves overturned. The Horn will blow again upon which everyone will rise up from their graves to the ground of resurrection. Allah will gather His creation to judge them. The deeds of people will be weighed and each person will receive their records of deeds from this life. The one who receives their record in their right hand will enter Paradise.
However, the person who receives their record in their left hand will be sent to Hell. Allah describes Paradise as: (Verily, the dwellers of the Paradise, that Day, will be busy in joyful things. They and their wives will be in pleasant shade, reclining on thrones. They will have therein fruits [of all kinds] and all that they ask for). Qur'an 36:55-57 And Hell as: (Indeed, Hell has been lying in wait for the transgressors, a place of return, in which they will remain for ages [unending]. They will not taste therein any coolness or drink except scalding water and dirty wound discharges - an appropriate recompense [according to their evil acts]. Qur'an 78:21-26.
—Sheikh YAHYA SAFI (2018)
Editor's note: Sheikh Yahya Safi is head Imam at the Imam Ali Mosque at Lakemba, Sydney—the largest Mosque in Australia.
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