Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 309
309 Preparation for the next world. "Immediately after death a man finds himself in the other world. At such time the man who has wasted his whole life in the attainment of worldly de&ires and has not sought any connection with God, finds death a bitter cup and departs from this world in sorrow and grief. This is the beginning of his tortures because he never made any preparation for the afterlife. It is, there- fore, necessary that a man should not have the love of this world in his heart, because it is the love of this world which precludes all happiness in the next life. And since the time when death will come is not known to any one, a man should, therefore, always be prepared for that hour. This would keep him in close connection with God for he would know that his true happiness lies in the next life- This life is in fact a kind of preparation for the next, and it is here that everything should ^ be done for comfort there. If a man makes no preparation for the next life, the hour of death will find him entirely involved in the cares and anxieties of this world, and hence he will ex- perience the greatest grief and sorrow in bidding farewell to it and will have nothing but pain and torments in the next, because pain and torments are the result of the cares and anxieties of this world, Death always comes suddenly and the man of world thinks that- it has corne prematurely. This is \/ because he is not prepared for the next life, for if he had made any preparation, he would have been ready to receive it as if it were at the door. Hence all righteous men have taught that a man should always take an account of his own actions, and see whether if death carne to him just at that -moment, he was prepared for the journey or not. " (Vol. IV R. R. 1905).