How Does Suffering in Hell of the Soul Happen, and How Can We Get Rid of It?
We are in the heart of hell!
Don’t be amazed! It is good to know that the Siraat[1] passes through hell, not over it. Just as we understood in previous lessons, Siraat is our own soul. The fire of hell can burn and destroy our hearts even in this world. Unfortunately, instead of escaping from this fire to Heaven and moving towards lasting happiness and peace, most of us undergo suffering in hell and cannot recognize the signs of fire on time. However, is there a way to see and recognize this fire?
It is fascinating how technology has progressed, allowing us to use devices like x-ray, MRI, and ultrasound to look inside our body. One of the most incredible things that science has provided us is the ability to see a fetus in the mother’s womb. The ultrasound machine uses sound waves that bounce off the fetus’s body, creating a detailed image of his organs for us to see. Even though the fetus in the womb has no idea about the world outside, we can accurately measure the size and dimensions of all his organs, and if we notice any defects or abnormalities, we can work to cure them. However, the real question is: Is there a scale to gauge the health of our soul? Is there something like an ultrasound machine that can assure us of our spiritual well-being, or something like a blood test that can tell us if there is any disease? In order to know how we deal with issues and events around us, we need to know when we undergo suffering in hell, what is going on within us, or what the state of our soul is.
The Mirrors Showing Us the Truth of Our Soul
Even though empirical science cannot perceive or explain non-material phenomena, we are innately equipped with a mechanism that can continuously measure our soul and make us aware of its health or illness and defect. Actually, these tools are like mirrors which are placed within our heart, showing themselves as feelings of happiness and peace. The first signs of spiritual disease are negative emotions such as sadness, gloom, obsessiveness, jealousy, sensitivity, anger, bias, arrogance, grudge, and so on. We often accept these emotions as a part of our temperament, without even trying to find a way to get rid of fire and suffering in hell. In fact, we are even sometimes proud of them!
We use phrases like “I get upset very easily,” “I’m a bit moody,” “I’m quite arrogant,” “I can’t forgive others easily,” or “We’re a family of big eaters,” and many others to describe our personalities, without realizing that each of these traits is a quality of our suffering in hell of the soul. The problem is, when we keep on feeding ourselves with these negative and hellish emotions, we get used to them and we cannot even recognize the badness of theses improper emotions. This way, we do not even feel suffering in hell of the soul and the burning sensation caused by the fire of these negative emotions, but rather we enjoy living in that hell. We will confront the hellish nature of these temperaments at a time when it is too late. In other words, when our soul moves to the realm of Barzakh, the opportunity, i.e., the required tools, to change and transform ourselves is lost.
Our soul has the ability to keep a world as expanded as heaven or as restricted as hell within itself. The soul with such a quality is the main criterion for measuring our closeness to God. Our heart is like a mirror which reflects all our past, present, deeds, and thoughts, revealing the truth of our soul. Even if a little dust settles on the mirror, the mirror becomes less effective or useful.
Getting Away from Hell
The first step to get away from hell is to detest it and its manifestations. Since we are constantly in contact with others, we are in danger of suffering in hell of the soul. Therefore, we must always see ourselves doing an examination or a test and never enter into relationships under the illusion that we are a good person. Until we have not learned to be neglectful of and indifferent to the lower dimensions of our being, we only add more fire to hell of our soul, the hell that we cannot easily cool down.
Recognizing the suffering in hell of the soul or getting away from it requires a lot of practice and mental imagery. With each practice, we will experience troubles and failures. But we should start over and resume practicing, just like an athlete who spends years trying to become the best in the world.
God’s remembrance is one of the most effective and quickest ways to distance oneself from hell and heal mental diseases. If one equips himself with the remembrance of God, he will find nothing more valuable than his connection with Him, and he will not let any thought, relationship, or choice interfere with or ruin that relationship. For such a person, God is the best Trustee. He puts all his trust in God and does not get involved in harmful or hellish relationships to obtain his rights. Actually, such a person has one main aim behind all his deeds, and that is God’s satisfaction. As a result, he does not expect or demand anything from others in his interactions, and nobody can create hell in his soul.
Intimacy with Hell
It is true that suffering in hell of the soul is not good, but we should remember that we are all influenced by our deeds and our past to some extent. If someone denies that he will meet God soon and does not manage his life in pursuit of this ultimate goal, he will fall into polytheism and disbelief. Even a small amount of these two qualities can ruin all our good deeds. A person with these qualities ends up in the hereafter with a kind of defect and illness that even the intercession of the Infallibles cannot save him. That is because he has distanced himself from the Infallibles- who are the best examples of a perfect human and manifest the attributes of God- to the extent that he is not willing to approach them even to be saved from hellfire. In fact, his intimacy with hell in this world will not be weakened and the fire he has made in his heart will never cool down or be put out by any means. So all our deeds and perfections are only valuable and carry weight when our heart is free from any kind of disbelief or polytheism and is in complete health.
In this lesson, we learned that certain emotions can lead to suffering in hell. We cannot free ourselves from this hell until we are able to recognize it. Our heart acts like a mirror to identify these fires, but the first step to cross through this hell is to detest this hell and its manifestations. It takes practice to recognize suffering in hell, and remembering God can help us get out of this difficult state in the best way. In fact, the condition for passing through hell of the soul is not to have intimacy with hell in this world and not be tainted with disbelief and polytheism.
How good are you at recognizing the signs of suffering in hell? Have you ever been familiar with the manifestations of hell of the soul?
We are really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
[1]. Siraat means a ‘path.’ The pathway between two houses is called as Siraat, which is mostly marked with a sign. But the words of ‘Siraat’ and ‘path’ are also sometimes used for things other than pathways related to space or place. It is often said: Path of life, path of prosperity, path of progress…and this term is also used in the sense of the medium of reaching one’s destination. In this world, willingly or unwillingly, man is headed to death and the world of the hereafter.