The
torture of the grave Islam and the afterlife
International Herald Tribune | May 4, 2007 | Leor Halevi
Open Your Eyes!!! And see the giant harvest fields that God has set
before you. If you will repent and truly turn all of your heart all of your
mind all of your soul and all of your strength so as to love the Lord Jesus
Christ and God the Father then you shall be able to love with all your heart
all of your soul all of your mind and all of your strength as indeed you love
yourself this your Muslim neighbor that God has set before you and given into
your hand. Open your eyes!!!!!
Posted on 05/05/2007
Hardly a week goes by without front-page news of Muslims dying somewhere in the world in a violent way. Despite all the media attention, there is little understanding among non-Muslims of Islamic views of death and the afterlife.
Everyone knows, of course, that (In the Koran) after death (Fighting the infidels) martyrs go
straight to the
Garden of Eden, where they recline on couches, savor meats and
fruits (Drink
unlimited wine) and (Sexually) enjoy the company of dark-eyed houris while listening to the sound of flowing rivers. (We note here that
these do not go to heaven where God is but are taken instead to live in an orgy
of endless eating and gluttony an orgy of endless drunkenness with wine and an
orgy of non stop sex with 27 woman that are not there wives. Each of these are
sins unto death in the Koran – And any Muslim that were to come upon this scene
on earth would show no mercy upon such souls and destroy all of them so that it
would appear that those who are sent to this place and do such things Allah
will utterly destroy these are he already does upon the earth)
But what happens to the vast majority of Muslims, those who do not die as martyrs?
According to Islamic doctrine, between the moment of death and the burial ceremony, the spirit of a deceased Muslim takes a quick journey to Heaven and Hell, where it beholds visions of the bliss and torture awaiting humanity at the end of days.
By the time corpse handlers are ready to wash the body, the spirit returns to earth to observe the preparations for burial and to accompany the procession toward the cemetery. But then, before earth is piled upon the freshly dug grave, an unusual reunion takes place: The spirit returns to dwell within the body.
In the grave, the deceased Muslim - this composite of spirit and corpse - encounters two terrifying angels, Munkar and Nakir, recognized by their bluish faces, their huge teeth and their wild hair. (Fallen angels)
These angels carry out a trial to probe the soundness of a Muslim's faith. If the dead Muslim answers their questions convincingly
and if he has no sin on record, then the grave is transformed into a luxurious
space that makes bearable the long wait until the final judgment. (This is what
Christ spoke of as in death being in Abraham’s bosom)
But if a Muslim's faith is imperfect or if he has sinned during life by, for example, failing repeatedly to undertake purity rituals before prayer, then the grave is transformed into an oppressive, constricting space.
The earth begins to weigh down heavily upon the sentient corpse, until the
rib cage collapses; worms begin to nibble away at the flesh, causing horrible
pain. (This is
6th Century Roman Catholic Purgatory)
This torture does not continue indefinitely. It occurs intermittently and ends
at the very latest with the resurrection - when God may well forgive Muslims
who have endured the punishment. (This is Augustine’s eternal security later preached by
Luther and Calvin which later was recycled under the
name of ultimate reconciliation.)
Surely this violence sounds medieval. Belief in "the torture of the grave" indeed stretches way back in history. It appears in eighth-century epitaphs and in early Islamic traditions, which elevated this belief to the status of dogma.
But pious Muslims today continue to adhere to this belief. In invocations, funeral prayers, sermons, and popular literature, Muslims are frequently reminded to heed this punishment.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of them take it seriously. The
psychologist Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, who has studied anxieties about
death among Arab youth, has found that preoccupation with the torture of the
grave remains acute. (Here is laid out for us the way to preach Christ to these
poor and hungry Muslims – Here is the way to speak to them from scripture –
their doctrine says that the Law and the Prophets are pure scripture. Here is
where one needs to be able to discern the Love of God and to those that love
fear and serve God that He will bring them into His secret place and hide them
under His shadow.
The Egyptians
and Kuwaitis he polled worried about this torture more than they feared losing
a dear relative or succumbing to a serious, fatal disease. (Look at the fear look at the bondage look at
the darkness. Christ came to set these people free to set them at liberty as we
preach that this is the acceptable year of the Lord)
Recently, an Islamist Web site posted a picture of an 18-year-old man exhumed by the order of his father. Only three hours had passed since his burial, but already his corpse appeared aged and bruised. Scientists, according to the story, affirmed that this was caused by the torture of the grave; and the father explained that his son had been a sinner.
Many Muslims commenting on the picture took it as a sign from God to stop sinning and as a reminder to pray assiduously for relief from the punishment of the tomb. Several doubted the reality of the picture, prompting the author of the Web site to remove the posting and to apologize for it. But even a skeptic who challenged the "scientific" evidence professed in this public forum his belief in the reality of the torture of the grave.
Muslims can escape the torture of the grave by dying as martyrs. In Islam the category of martyr does not belong exclusively to those who die fighting in God's path. According to Islamic tradition, Muslims who die in a fire, by drowning, in the collapse of a building or in some other way involving great physical suffering merit the rank of martyrs in the afterlife.
This means that immediately after death, their spirits do not return to
dwell within mutilated or burned corpses. Instead they enter the Garden of
Eden, where they receive new bodies, perfectly reformed, so as to enjoy the
rewards of martyrdom until the resurrection. Those who have lost a relative in
a violent and shocking death - in the bombings in
Leor Halevi, a professor of history at