LIFE AFTER DEATH
It was December 6, 2013. I switched on my radio to listen to the morning news. Suddenly appeared the breaking news that Nelson Mandela had passed away. Then after a moment, that speech was broadcast which Mandela had delivered as President in the South African parliament on May 10, 1994. The speaker was physically no more, but his voice could be heard by all without the slightest alteration.
I had the same experience last month on November 12, 2013. I heard the voice of Mahatma Gandhi on radio, although he had died sixty-five years ago in 1948. Gandhiji had gone to the studio of All India Radio on November 12, 1947 to give a live address to over two lakh refugees from Pakistan who had gathered at a camp in Haryana. This speech is aired every year on November 12 on All India Radio.
Death is like a door through which we go from the present world into the next world.
Experiences of this kind are very common. They remind us of the fact that when a person dies, he still lives on through his voice. Voice is part of the human personality. And, if a part of our personality is alive after death, why cannot the whole personality be alive after death?
According to dictionary, death is the permanent end of life. However, the Quran maintains that the human being is an eternal being, and death is only a phase in its eternal journey. Apart from other reasoning it offers for life after death, the Quran also gives the above argument in the chapter Al-Dhariyat (Scattering Winds) in these words:
And by the Lord of the heavens and the earth, it is most surely the truth, just as you do speak. (51:23)
Speech is part of a person, and modern technology has proved that the speech of a person is repeatable. If a person’s speech is repeatable, then certainly the personality itself is also repeatable. In previous centuries this seemed to be a claim, but now it is a verified fact.
There is also a biological phenomenon that supports this concept. The human body consists of about ten trillion tiny cells that can be seen only through microscope. Every single cell in our body is replaced every seven to ten years. That is, after an average of ten years our entire body is replaced. In other words, if a person is ninety years old, it means his physical body has been replaced nine times. But his personality remains the same without the slightest change. If in spite of nine “deaths”, the personality has remained intact, then why must it die when the physical body dies the tenth time? One philosopher has aptly stated this reality in these words: ‘Personality is changelessness in change.’ (The Urantia Book)
Death is like a door through which we go from the present world into the next world. Death is a reminder of the reality that there is a world hereafter. We must prepare ourselves to be able to find a proper place in the next world.
