Dervish

This afternoon whilst I was making my prayers, a thought struck me that there is a fundamental difference between Islam and the Baha’i religion, in their theologies of the afterlife.

I may step on a few online toes here, I don’t wish to denigrate anyone else’s beliefs, except to explore some thoughts on my own religious journey between one religion to another.

As a Baha’i, I believed that previous religions used the language of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ as a sort of carrot and stick approach to the afterlife.  Make people scared of going to hell and they won’t be bad, bribe them with a luxurious picture of heaven to make them conform to the requirements of the religions.  Baha’u'llah, instead, taught that heaven and hell were just metaphors for stations of closeness (or distance) from God.

Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá regard the descriptions of Heaven and Hell given in some of the older religious writings as symbolic, like the Biblical story of the Creation, and not as literally true. According to Them, Heaven is the state of perfection, and Hell that of imperfection; Heaven is harmony with God’s will and with our fellows, and Hell is the want of such harmony; Heaven is the condition of spiritual life, and Hell that of spiritual death. A man may be either in Heaven or in Hell while still in the body. The joys of Heaven are spiritual joys; and the pains of Hell consist in the deprivation of these joys. (Esslement, Baha’u'llah and the New Era)

The soul does not die; it endures everlastingly. When the human body dies, the soul is freed from ties with the physical body and the surrounding physical world and begins its progress through the spiritual world. Bahá’ís understand the spiritual world to be a timeless and placeless extension of our own universe–and not some physically remote or removed place. (Baha’i website)

I can’t remember ever attending Baha’i talks or meetings where the theme of the afterlife was seriously discussed for any length of time, aside from learning how to tell non-Baha’is that heaven and hell are just symbolic metaphors like the baby in a womb. It–like Satan and evil–are just topics that Baha’is don’t tend to dwell on too much. (In my experience anyway).

When I first read the Qur’an (not just selected quotes here and there) I do remember becoming uncomfortably aware that the description of the Day of Judgment in that holy scripture, was far more vivid and real than ever described in the Baha’i writings.  One cannot help but be struck by the notion that the Qur’anic version of the Day of Judgment really does mean the end of time and history as we know it.  It’s not merely a metaphor for a prophet being sent and things carrying on as before.

When I became a Muslim, I sort of relegated “all the stuff to do with eschatology and the afterlife” to the “that must be a metaphor” basket and went on still pretty much believing what I believed as a Baha’i. When you die, you go to the great white light at the end of the tunnel, answer for how you lived your life, and then catch up with loved ones.  Other than that, it’s all just beatific praising of God for the rest of eternity.  A tad boring really. And not much of a carrot.  Not really.

Today, though, as I was praying, I began to sense that perhaps my notions about the afterlife were wrong.  Baha’u'llah (and Baha’is following him) had been dismissive of notions of Paradise and Hell as real places, but what if they are? What if the reality of Paradise and the Fire is more Real than the life we live here on earth?

Now, Islam does say that scripture uses metaphor because the afterlife is not what any eye has seen. But… what if there was a reason the Qur’an describes such sensual pleasures. 

“As to the righteous they will be in a position of security. Among Gardens and springs. Dressed in fine silk and in rich brocade they will face each other. And We shall wed them to spouses with beautiful, big and lustrous eyes. Then can they call for every kind of fruit in peace and security. Nor will they there taste death except the first death and He will preserve them from the punishment of the blazing Fire.” (44:51-56)

Amina Wadud argues that the Qur’an used parables and metaphors that would have made sense to the original audience, but as a 21st century woman - what do I make of those images of grapes, virgins and rivers of milk and honey?

Imagine a realm where the most beautiful pleasures exist: for me that is surfing the web without getting bleary eyed. Browsing up and down aisles of musty books that contain all the earth’s knowledge at my fingertips; playing with my little girl without getting tired or puffed out; listening to the second movement of Bach’s seventh symphony played by the best orchestra in the world… What if Paradise is the fullest, most beautiful experiences of what it is to be human but without the sin and the faults and the distractions.

And there is God.  God who relates to us, God who loves us, God who interacts with us so that we know without any doubt that He is One, He IS. 

What if Paradise was this world, but polished up, cleaned, and vacuumed? The utopia, the Kingdom of God that all have desired and longed for? What if I lived my life in this world as if it were that World! 

On the flipside, what if I neglect my relationship with God, if I treat others poorly, abuse their rights, act out every sin, end up miserable and suffering in a hell of my own creation.

Then, all the Qur’anic descriptions of Paradise and Hell become real to me.  They’re metaphors yes, but not imaginary Baha’i wordplay–numberless planes of proximity–but oh so Real!

And vie with one another to attain to your Sustainer’s forgiveness and to a Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, which has been readied for the God-conscious. (3:133)

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