Understanding this, most people now days do believe in God and in the afterworld. It is not as if they deny these things; however their actions bear no relation to their belief. In practice, all that people are concerned about is ‘worldly success’. Let us understand this with the help of an example: if we were told that the earth’s gravitational pull had ceased to exist and that the planet was being pulled towards the sun at a speed of 6,000 m.p.h., can you think what would happen? There would definitely be a total and complete panic in the entire world, as this would imply that within a few weeks all life would be obliterated from the face of the earth.

However, no one realizes that this world is perpetually facing a peril much greater than this. What is this peril? It is the peril of the Last Day in which man will be called to account for his deeds in this world. The Day, which has been destined for the world since the creation of the universe, which we are all careering towards at a reckless speed. As an article of faith, most of us accept this reality, but there are indeed very few who actually feel compelled to give it serious thought and even less who feel the need to prepare for the afterworld.

The fact of the matter however is that the present world is nothing but a tiny interlude in our never-ending life span. The Creator of man has created him as an eternal creature and divided his life into two parts: the present world where he lives after birth till death and the after-world where he lives after death till eternity. The present world has been designed as a ‘testing ground’ for man; the Last Day as the ‘result day’ of man’s test; and the after-world as the time for man to have the eternal ‘reward’ or ‘punishment’, depending upon how he fared in his ‘test’.

We are told that everyone who dies must eventually find his eternal abode in one of the two places, based on the ‘Judgement’ received on the Last Day. Those who are obedient to God in this world and act in a virtuous fashion will be rewarded with a place in paradise, while those who are evil and rebellious towards God find their abode in hell.