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Introduction
A basic belief that varies from faith to faith is that there is life after death. According to several religions, including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, where followers of a common religion have diverse afterlife concepts, life takes multiple forms when a person dies (Kippenberg 110). Afterlife, immortality as a heritage and a remembrance of others, rebirth, and resurrection are some of the beliefs connected to an afterlife. Others, however, have the opposite view and think there is no life beyond death. Although the idea of a hereafter is a core tenet of many faiths, there is currently no scientific proof to support it.
For instance, Buddhism holds that reincarnation was first introduced when the Buddha claimed to have recalled his previous life after attaining enlightenment. Both religious and non-religious individuals and, in other words, people of no faith who selected what to embrace in any religion must inherently hold the idea of an afterlife. Some persons who have had near-death experiences or seen ghosts are persuaded that there is life after death (Lee). Some people think the virtuous and the bad should be rewarded and punished according to natural justice. This essay will examine the idea of the afterlife from Judaism, Islam, and Christianity perspectives.
Islamism Afterlife Beliefs
Islamic perspectives on death and resurrection may be divided into two main categories: cosmology and interpersonal. The religions core beliefs are the presence of an afterlife for each person and the ultimate conviction of all existence. The Koran, with its abundance of eschatological symbolism, serves as the basis for Muslim conceptions of death (Wilkinson 98). Hadith, or accounts of the words and actions of the messenger Muhammad, as well as various comments and treatises, are additions to the Koran.
The afterlife, known as the Akhirah, is said to exist according to the Islamic faith (Wilkinson 98). Islam holds that Allah, their Maker, alone has the authority to choose when it is appropriate for someone to pass away. The tenth date of the month of Muharram, a Friday, is said to be the Day of Judgment (Wilkinson 98). The rise of immorality in the world, widespread contempt for seniors and parental responsibility, an uptick in vice, and unqualified persons of the low station taking on leadership roles are all indications that the Day of Judgment is drawing near. Muslims believe that once they pass away, their souls remain in their tombs till the Day of Judgement, also known as Yawm al-din. The Islamic faith holds that the body will one day be raised.
On the Day of Judgment, according to Muslims, the deceased will be exhumed from their cemeteries and condemned by Allah about how they spent their worldly lives. Muslims who were people of faith held their lifes actions record in their right hand, while Muslims who were disbelievers held their lifes actions book in their left. After then, the acts would be measured on a magnitude. The possibility to join Jannah, also called heaven, would be offered to those who had done more good actions than wicked deeds. According to legend, Jonah is a paradise of unending happiness and tranquility without suffering, sorrow, or illness (Wilkinson 98). The sinful people will be transported to Jahannam, a region of bodily and spiritual agony, sometimes described as hell. Many Muslims think that while they are prepared for the next worldthe everlasting life after deaththey are only to love for a short period while on this earth.
Judaism Afterlife Beliefs
Judaism is a religion that both affirms and teaches there is an afterlife. These opinions, nevertheless, fluctuate throughout the Jewish population. Early Jews believed that all Jews would enter a hellish location known as Sheol after passing away (Elledge 20). Judaism later claimed that Sheol changed into a place of purification or a holding area where the hearts of the deceased would be transferred while they awaited the Day of Judgment. In contrast to the wicked Jews, who would be condemned to Gehenna, the virtuous Jews would be transported to the Gan Den. Later, Pharisees said that those Jews who followed Halakhah would receive tremendous rewards in the world to come, known as Olam Ha-ba. According to some traditions, the Day of Judgment would occur after the Mashiachs arrival (Endsjø 125).
The ancient Hebrews believed that after passing away, the soul sank to Sheol, a location buried deep within the earth where the souls of the deceased were cast into obscurity and sand. By the moment the Book of Daniel was authored, it was generally accepted that the dead would someday rise from the grave and face judgment (Elledge 20). Although just a few lines from the book of Daniel expressly refer to the souls resurrection, rabbinic writings, the Kabbalah, and Jewish mythology extensively cover the topic. Generally speaking, it is thought that the soul has its origins in the heavenly realm and that following the demise of the physical existence, the soul travels back to its spiritual home. Jewish philosophers have described the souls stay on earth as an exile that must be completed before being reunited with God.
By the 2nd century, most Jewish instructors had learned of the Greek idea of the soul, defined as the basic self that predates the physical existence into which it is conceived and transcends the bodily death of the physique. However, the ancient customs still held on to the idea that one must be fully restored to life in the hereafter (Elledge 20). The Jewish understanding of the spiritual realm advanced from earlier views. A belief system held that God would bring the dead back to life and judge them when the Messiah arrived, awarding the upright and condemning the evil that emerged. The conventional concept that a living human is a psycho-physical unit rather than an immortal soul intermittently occupying a mortal flesh was reinforced by the idea that such a rebirth would restore people who would have both bodies, minds, and spirits. The scenario from the seventh chapter in the Book of Daniel is more frequently recalled while discussing a verdict of the deceased in Judaism. This is the point in time when the Ancient of Days opens the books of life and judges the earths kingdoms rather than people.
According to a few schools of Jewish theology, the reincarnation of the departed, or Yom hadin, the true Day of Conviction, will take place when the Messiah arrives. The big shofar (rams horn) will be blown that fateful day to rouse the people from their divine rest and call both Israel and the Gentile kingdoms to the site of discernment. The messenger of Yahweh Elijah will return and begin mending broken-hearted families (Elledge 20). Those who have lived righteously and fulfilled their agreement with God will be brought to eternal paradise the day the Lord judges them. In Gehenna, individuals determined to be merited of condemnation for their wrongdoings will spend the appropriate amount of time-based on the gravity of their offenses.
Christianity Afterlife Beliefs
Some of the Jewish and Muslim notions of an afterlife are shared by Christianity. According to Christian beliefs, a persons behavior while still on earth will substantially impact the course that their soul will take after mortality. Physical life is essential in preparation for everlasting existence beyond death. According to Christian doctrine, the end of the world will indicate that the day of redemption is drawing near (Kwon 148). However, the scriptures assert that the end of the universe will occur at any moment when Jesus Christ returns from heaven to collect the righteous that have followed his precepts. Christians hold that Jesus Christ will resurrect the lifeless on the Day of Judgment, at which point all people will appear before God, with Jesus on Gods right-hand side. The pious would be taken to heaven, a sanctuary in which they could live forever and only consume honey, milk, and praise. The wicked people would be consigned to hell, a region of burning misery for all eternity.
The central tenet of the Christian religion is the conviction that Jesus rose from the dead after dying of crucifixion and that everyone who acknowledges his deity and trust in him will experience eternal life. Since Christianity developed from Judaism, much of Jesus doctrines, as they are found in the scriptures, are based on Jewish ideas about the afterlife and spirit, particularly the idea that a body and mind reunion will occur in the next realm (Kwon 148). The reports of Jesus appearing to his disciples after his rising demonstrate how utterly certain they were that they had seen him physically, even to the point where doubtful Thomas poked his fingers into the torture scars that were still raw.
The ancient Christians believed that Jesus would reappear in the sky at some point and that many people alive during the era of the disciples would survive to witness it. This extraordinary occurrence would herald the culmination of time, and Christ would revive the lifeless and render judgment on those who would enter paradise and others who would endure the eternal anguish of damnation. The Church had to change its theology because of the latency in the Return of Christ to accept that each persons hour of conviction would begin at the moment of death.
The eternal home of God and the heavenly creatures who have dutifully obeyed him since the creation is heaven, according to the orthodox Christian. Believers who have been saved by trusting in Christ will spend eternity with him in paradise. Liberal Christians accept that there are numerous mansions in Jesus fathers realm where people of different religions may also reside, as he had previously promised (Stewart-Williams). Extra underlying and conservative Religious people envisage a lovely place high just above the Planets surface where only religious zealots in Jesus may reign alongside him because they believe that the horrifying, graphic depictions of the Last Judgment that have been illustrated over the millennia are too effective to be removed from church doctrine scriptures.
According to conventional Christian doctrine, hell is a region of perpetual suffering reserved for those declared condemned during the Last Verdict (Stewart-Williams). The pictures, derived from the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Underworld as the sites where the deceased were interred, are typically shown as a desolate pit engulfed in flames. While Roman Catholicism still portrays hell as a place of eternal torment for the rebellious, the conferences of Florence and Trent established the idea of eternity, a transitional stage after death where the souls have the chance to atone for some of their transgressions over five generations earlier (Henning 30). Devoted family members might give prayers and sacrifices to help those in torment reparation for their sins committed on earth and regain their relationship with God.
Although Protestantism does not provide its adherents with the prospects for afterlife salvation provided by limbo or any other transitional spiritual condition, it has significantly reduced the dread of damnation and substituted it with a focus on grace and trust. Although many modern Protestant clergypersons have dismissed the concept of an endless realm of suffering for damned souls as incommensurable with the faith in a benevolent God of forgiving, fundamentalist Protestants still hold to the traditional ideas of hell and heaven (Stewart-Williams). Hell is now a condition of existence after death without God instead of a location of eternal torture. The doctrine of an eternal hell, according to liberal Christian philosophers, has been fully discarded in the best interest of the grace of the Lord for all people.
Conclusion
After analyzing the beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on the afterlife, it can be observed that there are more aspects of these three major monotheistic traditions that are similar than they are different. Given that they all descended from the same heavenly source, this is to be anticipated. The origin of discrepancies can be traced to later interpretations and modifications made to the Jewish and Christian early religious texts. These traditions are rife with hypotheses and speculations regarding the afterlife. Still, every theologian who has offered theories about the after world has done so solely based on conjecture, as there is very little information about the specifics of life after death in the Judeo-Christian bible. No one who dies can return to the earth and tell its residents about what they encountered. Thus, an understanding of the afterlife must be obtained from scripture and the legacies of divinely designated messengers.
Works Cited
Elledge, C. D. Critical Issues in Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Judaism. Journal of Ancient Judaism 10.1 (2019): 4-33.
Endsjø, Dag Øistein. Jewish Beliefs on the Afterlife. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the Success of Christianity (2019): 121-140.
Henning, Meghan R. Assigned to Suffering: Gendered Bodily Suffering in the Ancient World. Hell Hath No Fury (2021): 23-49.
Kippenberg, Hans G. Name and Person in Ancient Judaism and Christianity. Concepts of Person in Religion and Thought (2020): 103-124.
Kwon, Heonik. Revolution in the Afterlife. Religions 8.8 (2017): 146-150.
Lee, Sherman A. Afterlife Beliefs Measure. PsycTESTS Dataset (2019).
Stewart-Williams, Steve. Afterlife Beliefs: An Evolutionary Perspective. (2018).
Wilkinson, Matthew L. Basic Beliefs, Practices and Characteristic Themes of Islam, Islamism and Islamist Extremism. The Genealogy of Terror (2018): 78-130.
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