Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 51
51 planation, I shall not enter into details and shall content myself with a brief mention of some of the problems relating to the conception of a life after death, and the point of view adopted by the Promised Messiah for the solution of those problems. The first question that presents itself is how would the life after death be brought about ? The answer he gave was that the life after death would not be the life of the material body that lives in this world; it would not be a resurrection of the body but of the spirit. The material body is good only for this world and shall end here. In the next world the soul would be invested with a spiritual body which would be sensible to spiritual joys and spiritual pain. The second question is, when shall the life after death com- mence ? The answer which the Promised Messiah gave to this question was that the life after death commences immediately after death, and not on any specified day after an interval of thousands of years. But that life is divided into three stages. The first stage, which is called the stage of the grave, may be com- pared to that stage of man’s life which is passed in the womb. In that stage the soul experiences various transformations and be- gins to develop new powers and faculties till, like a child in the womb which develops a soul at a certain stage, it develops another soul and itself begins to serve that soul as a body. In other words, the soul experiences a new birth and then begins the second stage, which is called the resurrection, and which may be compared to the birth of a child. During this stage the soul begins to experience the conditions of the second life, but its realization of these conditions is imperfect like that of a child. After this stage has been passed begins the third stage, which may be compared to the maturity of a youth. In this stage the soul is able to realise fully the conditions of the life after death and is then placed in heaven or hell.