Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 306
306 The Fourth Object of Religion Life after Death I now turn to the fourth object of religion, viz. , the explanation of the life after death. Ever since the crea- tion of man the problem which, next to the problem of the existence of God, has attracted the attention of mankind is the question of the life after death. A relig- ion that fails to throw light on this subject is like a body without a soul. Islam attaches great importance to this question, so much so, that the followers of other religions have made its insistence on this question a ground of attacks against it. The question, however, requires careful consid- eration. It is obvious that it is impossible to arrive at a true appreciation of it in the absence of revealed guid- ance, for a person living in this world cannot, by the unaided use of his own faculties, discover the conditions of life beyond the grave. It is the Omniscient Being from Whose eyes nothing is hidden and before Whose sight this world and the next are spread like a mirror Who alone can furnish a true description of the life after death. Those who have tried to discover the conditions of the life after death merely by the exercise of reason have fallen into grievous errors and their efforts have given rise to widespread misunderstanding on the subject. Some of them deny altogether that there is a life after death; others represent it as a mere copy of this