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Hi hifriend123. Do all living creatures go to hell or heaven or just the homo sapiens?

the idea of heaven and hell is such fabricated religious propaganda...

Islam teaches that only humans will be judged on the day of judgement and only humans will be rewarded or punished, based on their deeds and capacity - and all subject to God's mercy.

All living things have a life force (a 'rooh' in Arabic) which distinguishes them from in-animate objects. Only Humans have a 'soul' ('Nafs').

Therefore animals aren't punished or rewarded but all animals according to the Quran will go to heaven:

All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings, are communities like you. We did not leave anything out of this book. To their Lord, all these creatures will be summoned. [6:38]

i.e. they will go to God after death (and by definition, heaven is being in the presence of God in Islam).

There is some debate though whether animals will be in the same 'heaven' as humans. Humans will be rewarded with heaven, but animals won't be judged. My personal view is that it is the Nafs that is rewarded in the afterlife and that the rooh of the animals will not be in the same heaven, but be with God in a different form.

Cheers,
Shafique

am i the only one that thinks that God wouldnt want to put anyone in hell, regardless of how bad they were all their life?

it just doesnt add up to me.. hell in my eyes is this earth, if they were summoned to live this life after dying, thats hell in its self.


and that whole passage in the quran about heaven, full of virgins, full of pubescant young boys, full of trees and fruit, couches, golden urns, silver glasses - is seriously the biggest load of bull i ever heard... like your soul would need ANY of that when its just a soul in a higher state of being... all these items are material items that a mortal would enjoy, but the soul - something really does not add up here.


quote from someone that got it right, before he himself transitioned 5 years ago.

"life must be a preparation, for a transition, to another dimension"

ebonics - you may be surprised to hear that the Islamic concept of heaven and hell is along the lines you are thinking.

Heaven and Hell are in the same place according to one hadith - the place itself will be the same, however the state of the soul will dictate how they feel in that place.

For those that are 'healthy' and thirsty, a glass of cool water is a wonderful experience. For those who are suffering from an illness, say rabies or something similar, the same glass of water will be 'hell' for them.

Islam teaches that after death the souls will continue to make progress and improve and grow - there won' t be a constant state (that in itself would be hellish). Those going to Hell are going there basically to be reformed - eventually all will be heaven (a hadith says that one day hell will be empty).

The Quran is also clear that the afterlife is something 'we can't even imagine' - so all the references to gardens, pure spouses etc are similitudes, we don't have the senses to experience what life after death will be like. To a blind man, colour is meaningless - but you can describe colour like heat (this colour is hot, this is cold) - but it remains a similitude.

Think of how painful withdrawal symptoms are to a drug addict - is not going cold turkey 'hellish' for them? Similarly anyone with impure souls will have to go through the purification process for them to enjoy heaven.

Just to clarify - I'm not saying everyone should believe in the above or that I can prove it (I can't), but I am just stating what Islam teaches.

Cheers,
Shafique

interesting reply - some of it news to me, but i will take that on board.

the idea of the state of the soul dictating how its state of conciousness is, is accurate along the lines of what i think would go on.

but i also think the soul will reincarnate, into everything that you life didnt stand for, so your soul experiences the complete opposite end of the spectrum everytime.

i also believe that the soul can tap into what it was previously, but this is very hard to achieve... this explains some things like de ja vous, out of body momentary experiences, esp, etc....

i also believe that the soul world - or heaven or hell in a religious sense, is here and now, but is a complete parallel universe, there maybe a few of these parallel universes, and your soul is embarking on a never ending journey through these universii - increasing in power and spiritualness at every stage of the process... the life we live in now being one of the most primative (in the spiritual sense) and the next dimension will be a lot more profound.

in conclusion, i do not believe our creator would have any reason to punish us - instead he would put our soul through a specific experience, eg having to live in a decapitated body, a blind one, a body thats exposed to extreme poverty.... as a result to sins that same soul has done in the past, then the tide turns again in the life after that etc etc.

do you think im strange yet....

ebonics - no I don't think you're strange yet

Actually I agree with most of what you have written - as it is in accordance with what Islam teaches.

Whilst we do not believe in reincarnation - that the soul is re-born, everything else you wrote is along the lines of what I believe, but just use slightly different descriptions for.

For 'Other universes' - I would term this as other planes of existence. This universe is finite and a 'creation'. I believe that Angels etc inhabit a different plane of existence that also interacts with our universe - but they are not bound by the physics of this existence (eg space and time don't affect them).

Similarly the next life will take place on a different plane of existence that is not within this universe.

Your description of a soul's spiritual progress after death is exactly what Islam teaches - it will be a journey of continual progress.

For me it is no surprise to see seekers of truth arrive at principles I believe in - for when I look at all the fundamental teachings of other religions/religious teachers, I see that they taught the basics I believe in. Buddha, for example, I consider to be a true prophet of God - and I can see the elements of Buddhism in your statements.

The state of being at one with the universe or at one with God, is the ultimate aim of Islam. It is described as the state of 'Nafs Mutmainah' - the soul at rest. The Quran says that this state is characterised by 'the soul beling pleased with God and God pleased with the soul'. That is the highest aim of a human in this life. In practice this is just 'Nirvana' in another name.

Cheers,
Shafique

i think we all on earth for a test. if we pass the test we go to heave and live happily ever after. if we dont the dajaal and the devil wait for us.

our lifes our a test for which god will judge us or give us a score on, thats what i think.