The Grave
What do you know about the grave? Do you only know that people go to the grave after death and it is a scary place because it is dark and no one is there? Here are the three most important information about the grave.
The grave is our second life which is called Al-Barzakh. Our first life is Dunya which is where we live in now, on earth. The life in the grave will be punishment for people who do evil and will be convenient for those who have acted rightly in their lives. When we are in the grave, there will be a question and answer session between the angels and the person in the grave. For example, questions like who is your God and what is your Book will be asked to everyone in the grave.
After those type of questions from the angels, comes the question about the life of the person and what he did on this earth. The dead will be asked about his responsibility as Caliph on this earth as it is clearly stated in the Quran through surah Al-Baqarah ayah 30, surah An-Naml ayah 62, and surah Al-Fathir ayah 39. What will he answer?
The next question is what he has done about this responsibility. Has he carried it out? What will he answer? How will he answer? The dead was given time, health, intelligence and other good things on earth. What did he use that for? Did he use it to carry out this responsibility? If this responsibility was not carried out the way Prophet SAW and the Caliphs after that carried it out, he will face the consequences in the grave.
Finally, the grave is like a garden of paradise for those who established Deen of Islam. This is because people who do good work in establishing Islam as a Deen would be happy and they would not feel lonely. For example, Allah said in surah Al-Imraan ayah 170: Happy with what God has given them of His Grace; and they feel pleased with the good news, about those left behind them who could not join them, that there shall be no fear for them, nor shall they grieve. So if we have carried out our responsibility as Caliph on this earth by establishing the Deen of Islam following the methods of the Prophet SAW 1400 years ago, we would enjoy this garden of paradise, too.
In short, there is another life waiting for us. The life in the grave is a life where everyone will get what they actually deserve. We can still change ourselves to be the kind of Muslim who follows the footsteps of the Prophet so we can avoid the terrible torment in the grave. In order to do this, we must go back to Quran and understand the Prophet’s Sirah so we do not miss any steps in our life on this earth.
Written by Tasnim Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem Badi, Year 9 student of Abedeen International School