THE RETURNING (MA'AD)
Ma'ad is derived from the root word Aud which means to return. Hence. the returning of the spirit (rooh) back to it's body is called Ma'ad. Ma'ad is one of the fundamental principals of Islamic faith and belief in it is incumbent upon all muslims. After death every soul shall arise to see the reward or retribution (as the case may be) of their deeds.
Ma'ad consists of five stages - Death (Maut), Grave (Qabr), Intermediate Stage (Barzakh), Resurrection (Qayamat) and Paradise (Jannat) or hell (jahannam). Ma'ad can not be perceived by the five senses of man, but can be comprehended by reasoning alone. What happens after death? The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.S.) through the medium of Revelation (Wahy) has explained to us in detail regarding it. Man's senses has it's own limitations beyond which it is not possible for him to understand. For example a child in the mother's womb can not perceive the vastness of the outside world. In the same manner, a soul captivated by the influences of matter cannot easily understand the hidden world and it's realities. The knowledge of this unseen world is concealed from man and he can only understand it through the medium of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.S.) and his Vicegerents, the Holy Aimmah (A.S.). Hence to have a better comprehension of the hereafter, we have to rely totally upon Them, because They are the Inheritors of the knowledge of Allah and His Hidden Wisdom.
Is a person's body effected after death?
Many are of the opinion that after death man's body becomes an absolute nothing like a dry wood, hence the question of reckoning in the grave does not arise.Such doubts are the out come of sheer ignorance and lack of belief in the unseen (Ghaib). Speech is the effect of the tongue and movements are impressions of a living body. But the spirit (rooh) is motionless and is hence independent of movements. Whilst dreaming a man's tongue or his lips do not move, and a person awake will bear witness to it. After awakening the person will narrate the discussions he had with people, he will also claim to have travelled far off cities, but his body in reality having laid motionless on the bed all throughout the night.
Dreams (Ru'ya)
Imam Moosa-al-Kazim (A.S.) states that in the former part of creation, man did not dream. Allah sent upon the people His Apostle to guide them towards virtue and warn against evil. The Prophet advised them that if they followed the Right Path as preached by Him, they would be successful and be rewarded in Paradise. But if they erred and did not avoid sin, they would face tribulation in hell. They asked the Prophet as to how could they rely on something which they had never seen. They said that they observed that after death a man's body become motionless and turns into dust, how could then he be rewarded or chastised for his actions. It is after this incident that they started dreaming in which they witnessed Allah's rewards in Paradise and His wath in hell. They went to the Prophet and narrated this to him. The Prophet replied that as in the dreams they met people, conversed with them, and visited far off places, after death even if their bodies would be reduced to dust, they would still taste chastisement or reward (as the case may be) in Paradise or hell.
No comments:
Post a Comment