Death Is the Final Frontier

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 12 July 2022 Shops of Spirituality, the New-Age Fad, and the Business of All Bogus Man-Made Faiths Are Thriving On the Glorification and Glamourisation of Death Main Points: 1. Fear of death is not just limited to Muslims, but is universal. 2. Death is the cornerstone of all theological, esp. eschatological, beliefs and it's integral to all religions, quasi-religions, cults and sub-cults. 3. All religions concocted a common lie, known as 'soul' and this is indestructible. ----- “Peacefully they'll die, peacefully they'll expire in your name, and beyond the grave they'll find only death. But we'll keep the secret, and for their own happiness, we'll entice them with a heavenly and eternal reward." The Grand Inquisitor to His “Saviour “in ' The Brothers Karamazov’ Two articles on death, “Muslim’s Fate In The Afterlife” and ” Death Makes Us Realize How Powerless We Are Before The Divine”, underline humans' ingrained and atavistic fear of death and a wishfully romantic idea of afterlife (Aaqibat in Arabic). This fear is not just limited to Muslims, but is universal. In fact, death is the cornerstone of all theological, esp. eschatological, beliefs and it's integral to all religions, quasi-religions, cults and sub-cults. From the perspective of human belief/s, now anthropologists, psychologists and neuro-scientists unanimously believe that the fear of unknown plus humans' reluctance to accept the fact that death is the last post or the final frontier, gave birth to all religions and the concept of god. Death has intrigued as well as frightened humans from the very beginning of civilization. Jean Paul Sartre called it, ' Mankind's Cardinal Conundrum ' and Camus believed that the death was man's ultimate fear. “What happens when we die “and” Where do we all go to after death" have always puzzled homosapiens. That's the reason, not just Islam but all faiths are actually death-centric. Even when all religions profess to celebrate life, they're all terribly fearful of death and because of this inveterate fear, the most idiotic concepts of moksha, salvation, Roz-e-Qayamat, heaven/hell and all that baseless scriptural ' axioms ' came into existence. If you carefully study the Afterlife Phenomenon of Semitic as well as Eastern faiths, you'll realize that all these imaginary concepts are actually miserably failed attempts to perpetuate life; a sort of a morphine-induced anaesthesia to make the perpetually frightened humans see some purpose in existence. In other words, the false and misleading idea of Afterlife cushions us against the deep-seated fear of death. In other words, it's a religion's lullaby to make the ill-evolved humans, who're but infants of a larger growth, sleep! To cut the matter short, nothing exists after one kicks the bucket. Since this very thought is so discouraging and disheartening, all religions concocted a common lie, known as 'soul' and this is indestructible. This gives a false hope to all humans that their existence, like energy, is everlasting. This is the biggest lie our ancestors ever fabricated that we've been believing blindly and unquestionably till date despite so much 'advancement' in all spheres. The shops of spirituality, the new-age fad, and the business of all bogus man-made faiths are thriving on the glorification and glamourisation of death. Your spiritual gurus, clerics, clergy, priests and scriptures have been leading you up the garden path that the life after death is eternal and so blissful! My foot! This unnecessary glamourisation has spawned a battery of suicide bombers who blow themselves up, labouring under the misconception that Houries will welcome them in the heaven. This is also an indication of human greed. If you do good here, you'll be rewarded there. It means, if you're being good, you're not good because you just want to be good sans expectations and hopes. You're good because you look forward to getting rewarded for being good after death. What a big nonsense, nay, cheapness! The very thinking is so selfish and hidebound. But religions know how to exploit your hidden apprehensions and baser instincts, dwelling upon Afterlife. Don't sleep around on earth, Allah will provide a retinue of Houries in heaven to make love to! Don't drink wine in this life, Allah, the greatest tantalizer, will give you Tahoor (name of some fictional wine, available only in the paradise!) to quaff from the golden goblets! So, continue to believe in the imaginary enjoyments of Afterlife and keep deceiving yourselves. Don't we say, who has deceived thee as often as thyself? ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/death-spiritual-houries-faith-religions/d/127462 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism