What Determines Our Situation in the World of the Grave?
Death and the life after it are two subjects that we have always been curious about and connected with directly or indirectly. Of course, part of our curiosity may stem from knowing that ultimately we will also tread this path ourselves. Normally, our departure from this world means our entry into the “world of the grave” or the “realm of Barzakh.” Therefore, it is normal that many questions arise in our minds about our future and after death, questions such as:
– What is the world of the grave?
– What will my situation be like after death?
– What is the relationship between our soul and the grave?
– What can we do to protect ourselves from the hardships of the world of the grave?
In previous lessons, we learned that there are mirrors in this world that have been placed for us to understand the current state of our soul.
Just as it is not difficult to predict a student’s final grades from his performance during the school term, to understand our situation in the hereafter and the world of the grave, we have to realize how we are living now and how the quality of our life is. Are we getting closer to the purpose of our creation every day or getting further away from it? Where do our thoughts, desires, affections, and concerns take us? Are we aware of the role our deeds and behaviors play in our future life? Whether we like it or not, our deeds in the world shape our hereafter and the world of the grave. Therefore, it is enough for us to evaluate our souls and understand whether we are in hell or not.
Indeed, our soul is our grave. This means whatever will happen to us in the hereafter is based on what we save in our soul in this world. Therefore, to understand our situation in the realm of the hereafter or the grave, it is better to understand the deeds that have put pressure on our soul or resulted in its expansion or peace in this world.
Our Situation in the World of the Grave
If someone asks us about the quality of our grave or the situation of our life in Barzakh and the hereafter, we will undoubtedly describe an ideal situation. A vast environment, free from any limitation or disturbance, where we can enjoy all the blessings of the hereafter. All our weakness comes from not having a proper understanding of the relationship between our world and our hereafter. We do not know that now we are allowed to build the palace of our dreams, and we are laying every brick of our home with our thoughts, deeds, decisions, and behaviors.
In reality, the word “grave” is synonymous with the soul, and it is the same as our truth and spirit, which we must build in the short and limited opportunity of this world. The type of peace we expect in heaven must be created for us in this world. If we are always under pressure in this world, after death and in the hereafter, we will have the same assets that we have sent ahead, and we will suffer hardships. One who builds his house with unsuitable materials cannot expect a sturdy house in the end. Similarly, if we allow any kind of impurity into our soul, we will carry all that impurity with us to Barzakh. In this case, expecting a healthy birth into the world of the grave and the hereafter will be an unjustified expectation for us.
Right Now, We Are in the Hereafter
You would agree that one of the most beautiful moments in life is when a baby is born. The moment when a healthy child is born into this world and those around him are filled with indescribable joy. At that moment, the baby is the only one crying because he has left his safe and familiar environment and suddenly entered a world that is a thousand times bigger. However, the mother’s embrace takes out all his worries. While in the womb, the baby has taken comfort in the sound of his mother’s heartbeats and her whispers, and now he sees himself as part of the mother’s body, which he has rejoined.
The baby has not been outside the world before birth, yet he has always lived in the world. The world has surrounded the womb and the mother herself. Both the mother and the fetus are in the world, separated only by a cover. The mother is aware of the presence of the fetus and awaits his birth, while the fetus does not know the world, the mother, or what has been prepared for him.
In the mother’s womb, the distance between the fetus and the world is only a birth. After this short distance, the fetus enters a new world, a world with all its wonders that seems to have been prepared just for him. As soon as a baby enters the world, it becomes evident how much he can make use of the world’s resources. Likewise, everything about our ultimate fate is determined at the moment of birth into the hereafter. At that time, each of us will know where we are going, and our deeds in this world will determine whether our eternal life will be one of difficulty and pressure, or ease and comfort.
A Simple Example to Understand the Relationship Between This World and the Hereafter
Imagine a parent in your neighborhood who treats her children badly, being indifferent to their physical and emotional needs. She does not spend time educating her children and does not use appropriate language to talk to them. It will not be difficult to guess these children’s future. The parent’s present behavior is shaping their future personality. She will face the consequences of her actions in the near future.
Similarly, after death, which is our birth into the hereafter, we will go through a similar process and have to answer the questions that arise from our conduct in this world. Our ability or inability to answer those questions will determine our situation in the world of the grave. Just as a fetus confronts the achievements acquired or efforts made in the mother’s womb, the hereafter is the scene of confrontation with our achievements in this world.
The Amount of Our Gains in the Hereafter
Our level of comfort or discomfort and our situation in the hereafter depends on our decisions and actions in this world. We will make use of infinite perfections in the hereafter as much as we move towards becoming infinite in this world, yet simply knowing these subjects and being aware of them is not enough for us. We need to ‘become,’ which is the same as transforming ourselves and getting close to infinite perfections.
If we want to easily use the blessings of the hereafter, we must move towards infinite perfections as much as possible. Indeed, we must be able to transform our soul into infinity, a soul without anger, impatience, hatred, attachment to limitations, and jealousy. Infinite kindness, infinite forbearance, infinite forgiveness, and infinite generosity are attributes of God. We must strive to put into practice our knowledge about God’s attributes. This means that we must first develop the attributes of God within ourselves and then apply them in life, because sooner or later each of us will need them like our body parts in the hereafter and the grave. Actually, hell is lack of assets while we are in desperate need, and heaven is filled with delightful chants and melodies, but when someone does not have ears to hear these sounds, he definitely suffers from his own disability.
The Grave and Its Related Questions
In this world, we are like a writer who has written his own story and will choose its ending. How we face the questions of the grave and the hereafter and what awaits us depends entirely on our deeds and behaviors in this world. However, the world of the grave and its questions or what we will face in the hereafter are not written or spoken questions. Indeed, the answers to these questions are the same attributes that we need to transform into and make them a part of our soul’s assets. Therefore, we can say that the structure of our soul causes either the pressure of the grave or lack thereof and is equivalent to our answers to the questions of the grave and the hereafter.
If there is a little bit of hatred, pride, greed, or anger in our souls, we have to separate them from ourselves in hell so that we can acquire the ability to use the blessings of the hereafter because the level of our spiritual assets determines our status in the hereafter.
In fact, our grave is our soul and spirit. If our soul is in pain and torment in this world, it will also be under pressure and hardship in the hereafter. If we are plagued by envy, impatience, and sensitivity in this world, we will also suffer in hell after death.
The only thing we need in the hereafter and determines our status is a sound heart. Indeed, our status in the hereafter depends on the purity of our hearts, our level of profound knowledge, and our assets. As our skin reveals our general health condition or illness, the happiness and peace in our hearts also indicate our status in the hereafter. A sound heart is happy and peaceful in this world, and a heart that is under pressure in this world will also suffer hardship, distress, and pressure in hell after death.
In this article, we learned that our soul is our grave. Our current situation in the world indicates our status in the world of the grave and the hereafter. We are already in the hereafter and the distance between us and the world of the grave is only our birth to another world, which is death. The world has been given to us as an opportunity to follow the path of infinite perfection. Once we enter the hereafter, we will be confronted with the result of our deeds in the world.
What do you think about the grave? Did you know that currently our actions are giving shape to events in our world of the grave?