Introduction

The fact that the Quran often juxtaposes ‘belief in God’ with ‘belief in the Last Day’ shows exactly how central the question of the ‘hereafter’ is to the Quranic worldview. The ‘Last Day’ also constitutes one of the six ‘articles of belief ‘, with almost a quarter of the Quran devoted to eschatology, and so its conceptual importance should not be underestimated.

For the Quran, the life of man on earth represents only a fraction of his overall existence. Man’s sojourn here is alluded to almost as a temporary break in the loop of existence, necessitated by the fact that it is only by venturing outside the loop that man is able to understand that he is inside a loop in the first place.

As far as his own existence is concerned, man’s life in this world is necessary because it enables him to understand the concept of eternity – the ultimate reason for his creation. But it also serves as a training ground in which he is prepared for the eventual transition, after death, to his permanent abode in the world to come, the realm of the ‘hereafter’. This preparation comes in the form of a life-long ‘examination’, in which man is ‘tested’ by God in order that his potential as God’s representative or ‘vicegerent’ be realised, and that the extent of his knowledge, love and worship of the Creator be made known. The world is thus like a metaphorical field, which man is encouraged to cultivate with knowledge, belief, submission and good deeds, in order to be able to reap the abundant harvest of eternal joy – proximity to God – in the hereafter.

Viewed as such, this world would appear to be every bit as important as the world to come, simply by virtue of the fact that one’s position vis-à-vis God in the hereafter depends very much on the nature of one’s relationship with Him in the here-and- now. Consequently, to claim that Islam is a ‘this-worldly’ religion is as misleading as to claim that it is ‘otherworldly’, for both stances disregard the fact that this world and the next are both parts of the same continuum of existence, albeit with very different terms of reference as far as their innate natures and external conditions are concerned.