PARABLE OF UNBORN TWINS
Similitude of Life Before Life and Life After Life.
By Babatunde Jose
The Unbelievers say, “Never to us will come the Hour”: Say, “Nay! But most surely, by my Lord, it will come upon you; –by Him Who knows the unseen, –From Whom is not hidden the least little atom in the Heavens or on earth: Nor is there anything less than that, or greater, but is in the Record Perspicuous. (Quran 34:3)
The above Ayat is exemplified by the similitude of life before life:
In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?” The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”
The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”
The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.” The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there is after life, why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.” The first replied “Mother? Who is Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists, then where is she now?” The second said,
“She is all around us. She is taking care of us even as we are here. We are surrounded by her. It is in her that we live. Without her our world would not and could not exist.” Said the first: “Well I don’t see her, so it is only logical that she doesn’t exist.” To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive her presence, and you can hear her loving voice, calling down from outside.”
Soon after this conversation, the babies were born! ALLAHU AKBAR.
Are you the first baby (a doubter) or the second baby (a believer)? Are you of those who doubt the life after this present life, who believe death is final and there will be no hereafter? No punishment for your sins and iniquities? Think again and PREPARE before you’re confronted by the reality yonder.
The question of whether or not there is life after death does not fall under the field of science, because science is only concerned with the classification and analysis of recorded data. Moreover, man has been busy with scientific enquiries and research, in the modern sense of the term, only for the last few centuries, while he has been familiar with the idea of life after death since times immemorial.
All the prophets of God called their people to worship God and to believe in life after death. They laid so much emphasis on the belief in life after death that even a slight doubt in it meant denying God and made all other beliefs meaningless. The very fact that all the prophets of God have dealt with this metaphysical question so confidently and uniformly – the gap between their ages being thousands of years – goes to prove that the source of their knowledge of life after death, as proclaimed by them all, was the same; that is, Divine revelation.
God has given man, besides perceptual consciousness, rational, aesthetic and moral consciousness too. It is this consciousness that guides man regarding realities that cannot be verified through sensory data.
That is why all the prophets of God, while calling people to believe in God and the life hereafter, appealed to the aesthetic, moral and rational sides of man.
For example, when the idolaters of Makkah denied even the possibility of life after death, the Qur’an exposed the weakness of their stand by advancing very logical and rational arguments in support of it:
Doth not man see that it is We Who created him from sperm? Yet behold! He (stands forth) as an open adversary! And he makes comparisons for Us, and forgets his own (origin and) Creation: He says, “Who can give life to (dry) bones and decomposed ones (at that)?” Say, “He will give them life Who created them for the first time! For He is well-versed in every kind of creation!
“The same Who produces for you fire out of the green tree, when behold! Ye kindle therewith (your own fires)! “Is not He Who created the heavens and the earth able to create the like thereof?” –Yea, indeed! For He is the Creator Supreme, of skill and knowledge (infinite)! Verily, when He intends a thing, His Command is, “Be”, and it is! So, glory to Him in Whose hands is the dominion of all things: And to Him will ye be all brought back. (Quran 36:77-83)
On another occasion, the Qur’an very clearly says that the disbelievers have no sound basis for their denial of life after death. It is based on pure conjectures:
And they say: “What is there but our life in this world? We shall die and we live, and nothing but Time can destroy us.” But of that they have no knowledge: They merely conjecture: And when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed to them, their argument is nothing but this: They say, “Bring (back) our forefathers, if what ye say is true!” (Quran 45:24-25)
Surely God will raise all the dead. But God has His own plan of things. A day will come when the whole universe will be destroyed and then again the dead will be resurrected to stand before God. That day will be the beginning of the life that will never end, and that Day, every person will be rewarded by God according to his good and evil deeds: Day of Retribution.
The explanation that the Qur’an gives about the necessity of life after death is what the moral consciousness of man demands. If there is no life after death, the very belief in God becomes irrelevant, or even if one believes in God, that would be an unjust and indifferent God: having once created man only to be unconcerned with his fate.
Surely, God is just: He will punish the tyrants whose crimes are beyond count; having killed hundreds of innocent persons , either by omission or commission; created great corruptions in the society; enslaved numerous persons to serve their whims, and so forth; stolen and looted the national treasury; stole the people’s pension; committed war crimes and crimes against humanity; pauperization and impoverishment of their people through misrule; stealing in the name of God and desecrating the house of God by lying on the pulpit and Minbar; conspiracy against the people and outright brigandage. The Qur’an very emphatically states that the Day of Judgement must come and God will decide about the fate of each soul according to his or her record of deeds: see (Quran 34:3-5)
The Day of Resurrection will be the Day when God’s attributes of Justice and Mercy will be in full manifestation. God will shower His mercy on those who suffered for His sake in the worldly life, believing that an eternal bliss was awaiting them. But those who abused the bounties of God, caring nothing for the life to come, will be in the most miserable state. Drawing a comparison between them the Qur’an says:
Are (these two) alike? –One to whom We have made a goodly promise, and who is going to reach its (fulfillment), and one to whom We have given the good things of this life, but who, on the Day of Judgment, is to be among those brought up for (punishment)? (Quran 28:61)
The Qur’an also states that this worldly life is a preparation for the eternal life after death. But those who deny it become slaves of their passions and desires, and make fun of virtuous and God-conscious persons. Such persons realize their folly only at the time of their death and wish in vain to be given a further chance in the world. Their miserable state at the time of death, and the horror of the Day of Judgement, and the eternal bliss guaranteed to the sincere believers are very beautifully mentioned in the following verses of the Qur’an.
(In Falsehood will they be) until, when death comes to one of them, he says: “O my Lord! Send me back (to life), “In order that I may work righteousness in the things I neglected.” “By no means! It is but a word
he says.” Before them is a Partition till the Day they are raised up. Then when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no more relationships between them that Day, nor will one ask after another! Then those whose balance (of good deeds) is heavy, they will attain salvation: But those whose balance is light, will be those who have lost their souls; in Hell will they abide. The Fire will burn their faces, and they will therein grin, with their lips displaced. (23:99-104)
The belief in life after death not only guarantees success in the Hereafter, but also makes this world full of peace and happiness by making individuals most responsible and dutiful in their activities.
Similarly, the denial of life after death has its consequences not only in the Hereafter, but also in this world. When a nation as a whole denies it, all kinds of evils and corruptions become rampant in that society and ultimately it is destroyed.
The Qur’an mentions the terrible end of ‘Aad, Thamud and the Pharaoh in some detail: See Quran (69:4-29)
Thus, there are very convincing reasons to believe in life after death. God’s attributes of Justice and Mercy have no meaning if there is no life after death.
May Allah count us among the believers, Amen.
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend
Babatunde Jose
