Barzakh

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Barzakh (Arabic: برزخ‎) is the word for the term of life after death in which the soul of the deceased is transferred across the boundaries of the mortal realm into the spirit world and into a kind of "cold sleep" where the soul will rest until the Qiyamah (Judgement Day). It is a term referred to in Islamic eschatology and the Qur'an.

Barzakh is a sequence that happens after death, in which the archangel Azrael or his helper angels will separate the soul from the body, either harshfully or painlessly depending on how righteous the person was before his death. Three events make up Barzakh:

  • The separation of the soul and the body.
  • Finally, the "Waahash" or the horror of the grave, the pressure of the grave depending on whether the person was righteous or not.

The soul rests in peace or torment until Judgement Day, based on whether the soul answered the three questions correctly or falsely.

As claimed by the prophet Muhammad, "These are the worst hours of a man's life".

In Islam, there are five main stages of life:

  • The age in the Domain of the Spirits (‘Alam al-Arwah) is where the spirit of the person lives on ever since the first creation of the person in purely spiritual form, together with all other human spirits, and where all the human spirits had entered a Covenant with God whereby God was acknowledged by their as the supreme Lord, and God had promised to take care of all their needs.
  • The age in the womb is where the body acquires its soul. After around 100 or so days of the fetus in the womb, the fetus is imbued with a soul from Heaven. The soul however, is completely innocent and totally lacking of any worldly knowledge, which is reflected by a baby's helplessness.
  • The age in the mortal world is the stage of life from the moment of birth from the womb to the moment of death.
  • The age of the grave is the stage after death in the mortal world, where the soul is stored in Barzakh awaiting the Day of Judgement.
  • The age of the hereafter or rest of eternity is the final stage commencing after the Day of Judgement and all of humanity has received their judgement from God. Each person is required to cross Al-Sirât, the bridge over Hell. If they were righteous they go to Heaven and if they are unrighteous they cannot cross the bridge. This stage of life commences officially after the embodiment of Death is brought up and is slain, thus Death dies literally, and no one will ever experience or behold the concept of Death everafter. Based on the verdict received during the Day of Judgement, each human will spend this stage of life in Heaven or Hell. However, those in Hell are eligible to go to the Garden after being purified by the Hell fire at a later time if they "had an atom's worth of faith in them", making the Islamic Hell more akin to purgatory in Catholicism.
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