Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 334
334 even better. Excellent indeed is the abode of the righteous. … To those whom the angels cause to die while they are pure they will say: ‘Peace be unto you! Enter heaven because of what you used to do” (16:31 ⎯ 33). It is obvious that the conditions of the life after death, though capable of being expressed to some degree in terms of human speech, have not the same character as the conditions of this life. Compared with the conditions of this life, they are purely spiritual, and yet they are so manifested that they are felt and experienced and realised with far greater intensity than are the conditions of this life in the course of existence here. It is not possible with our present faculties to realise the true nature of the conditions of the life after death. All that is possible is to attempt some approximate, intuitive understanding of them. As the Prophet has said, it is not possible for the mind of man to conceive of the true reality of these conditions. The Quran states: “No soul knows what bliss is kept hidden for it as a reward for its good works” (32:18). A study of the Quran reveals that each human being through his or her conduct during this life develops certain qualities or defects in the soul which render it capable of the appreciation and enjoyment of the conditions of the life after death or which cause it to react painfully to those conditions. We see, for