Resurrection Provides Life With Meaning

Life here in this world would be in vain if the life in the other world were not taken into consideration. Life here without life in the other world resembles life as an embryo without life outside the womb.

If the fetus, which lives in a small area, in a dark room inside the mother’s womb, could think and reason, it would be amazed and wonder why it was imprisoned inside a body not knowing what its future would be like.

However, if it is informed that this restricted life is for its organs to develop and that after nine months it would get its freedom and that it could then walk in a world where there is the sun and the moon and in which there are green trees and flowing rivers, and in which there are all sorts of great things, it would then feel at ease and would say that it had found the philosophy behind its creation.

It would realize that that embryonic life was a preliminary stage for a flight into another stage, a higher one.

Now if the fetal life is disconnected from the life here of this world, everything would look dark and gloomy; life and would resemble a prison.

The same issue holds true in the comparison between life here and the future life. Why should we stay here seventy years or more and suffer?

Why should we acquire knowledge and by the time we have acquired it feel completely old? What are we living for? Why do we eat, clothe ourselves, and sleep? What is the use of this repetitive existence? Are these skies and earth created to witness us eat, drink, dress ourselves, and continue a corrupted life?

Now, the absurdity of life for those who do not believe in the resurrection becomes clear: they simply cannot fathom these minor events of life and also do not believe in the other world.

For this very reason, some of them decide to commit suicide in order to free themselves from such a boring existence.

However, life here would not seem absurd and meaningless if we believed that this world was a preparation for the other one, a place in which we could sow seeds so that later we could benefit from the harvest. If we believed that this world was a college in which we could gather information that could better our future lives, then life here would come to be regarded as an introduction for an eternal life.

So we see that the belief in the Resurrection gives content and meaning to human life and makes man free from anxieties and absurdities.

Belief in the Resurrection: an Important Factor of Education

Furthermore, a belief in the existence of a great court in the other world has a great impact on our present lives. You could imagine how life would seem during a day in an imaginary country if it were announced by the government that on that day, no police station would be opened and no court would be in session.

Belief in the Resurrection is a belief in a great court which cannot be compared with any court here in this world.

The characteristics of such a court are as follows:

1. It is a court in which there is no favoritism, in which law rules and no judge could be bribed;

2. It is a court which does not need the formalities used here; records are known instantaneously and verdicts are issued immediately.

3. It is a court in which the wrong deeds of an individual present themselves to the court to help the judge to decide.

4. The witnesses at such a court are the individual’s limbs and organs, eyes and ears, tongue and skin and even the piece of earth on which the crime or wrongdoing had taken place.

5. In this court, the judge is God who is aware of everything and who is Just.

6. The chastisement is not conventional; it is our deeds that stay next to us hurting, disturbing and torturing us.

Faith in the resurrection could raise man’s soul so high as to be able to utter the words which `Al¢(s) had uttered:

“I swear to God I would rather sleep on thorns instead of on a bed, and be chained up during the day and be dragged along the streets than partake in God’s Great Court, if I have ever committed an unjust act against anyone of God’s servants or if I have ever usurped anybody’s right.”⁽[1]⁾

It was a faith in such a court that forced Imam `Al¢(s) to threaten to burn his brother’s hand because the latter had asked him for some money from the nation’s treasury. The Imam(s) told him:

You cry because you are exposed to a small fire but force your brother to face a horrendous Fire in the other world.⁽[2]⁾

Could such a person with such a strong faith ever be deceived? Could he ever be bribed? Could he ever be driven away from his righteous path by threats?

The Holy Qur’¡n says: when sinners look at the record of their deeds, they would say:

مَا لِهَذَا الْكِتَابِ لَا يُغَادِرُ صَغِيرَةً وَلاَ كَبِيرَةً إِلاَّ أَحْصَاهَا.

Ah! Woe to us! What a book is this! It does not omit a small one [sin] nor a great one, but numbers them all. [Qur’¡n 18:49]