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ACADEMIC ESSAYS
After Death, Life.
Society has rejected the afterlife — could this be the cause of increasing levels of anxiety and depression in the modern world?
Introduction
In the Arabian desert, prior to the arrival of Islam, death was seen as final, with no hope for life beyond dying[1]. On two Himyarite tombs in Yemen were inscribed:
The two Lords of Ḥimyar in yonder tombs are laid,
Their bodies in the earth have rott’d, their bones decayed;
By the hand of death they fell, by it were destroyed,
Death, that which on earth none can its sting avoid.
Lo, at the time of birth their bodies of dust were made.
And to dust return, when in the earth they’re laid.[2]
Prophet Muhammad brought the message that death was just a transition, just as birth was a transition from the womb to life[3]; with the Qur’an completely redrawing the worldview from one of fear and pessimism into the belief that life had a purpose, under the guidance of a just and merciful creator[4]. This belief that life continued after death in the Hereafter, however, was ridiculed by the Meccans at the time who resisted the call to…
