One day, every person in the world is going to die. And death is not an end to our existence. But it is a passage that takes us from this world to the next world.


Muslims believe that when they die, they will stay in their graves until the Day of Judgement. On that day, they will be raised from their graves and brought before Allah and judged on how they lived their earthly lives.


Those who have performed good deeds will enter Jannah (Paradise). Jannah is a place described as a “garden of everlasting bliss” and a “home of peace." Those who have performed bad deeds will enter Jahannam (Hell). This is a place of physical and spiritual suffering.

Now in front of us, there are three stages of life.

1) Present life, which means the life of this world.

2) Life of the barzakh. [grave]

3) Life of the hereafter.

This is the most important stage of one's life. We are obliged to lead a meaningful life. This worldly life is not for decorating and earning the good things of this world. But this life of earth is for doing good deeds and the preparation for the life of hereafter. All humans will be judged for their actions of this life; those who followed God's guidance will be rewarded with paradise; those who rejected God's guidance will be punished with hell.


In this very life, our actions determine the judgments of paradise and hellfire. In this life, actions exist; there is no accountability. In the Hereafter, accountability exists; actions do not.


One day we will leave this worldly life through death. Death is not the end of life; but it is the beginning of the next stage of a new life, which means the life of Barzakh.

This stage of life will start after death and continue till the Day of Judgement.


What is Barzakh?

The life between the grave and the day of resurrection is called Barzakh.


The people who die will wait in the barzakh till the day of judgment. If the person who dies is a believer and a righteous person, the realm of barzakh will be a garden of paradise for him, and he will feel as if one day has passed even if he stays there for thousands of years.


However, the barzakh will be a place of torture for unbelievers and sinners and their one moment can be as long as thousands of years. Life and time in the realm of barzakh are not like in this world. The boons and tortures there form based on the deeds of a person.


...The Messenger of Allah (s.a.w) said: 'The grave is but a garden from the gardens of Paradise, or a pit from the pits of the Fire. [Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2460] [Grade: Da'if (Darussalam)]


O Allah, make our graves one of the gardens of paradise. Ameen ya rabbul alameen.

The third stage is again the birth after spending the life of barzakh.


"You will (all) be raised up after death," [Quran 11:7]


Surely We will give new life to the dead... [Quran 36 : 12]


The third and final stage of life is the life of the hereafter. Those who are pious believers, Allah will send them to paradise, but those who are sinful believers, Allah will send them to hell for a short time. But those who are disbelievers, Allah will send them to hell forever.


After the world will end, everyone will be brought back to life (resurrection) on an appointed day (bodies will be reconstructed and the souls will be returned to them) to face Allah’s judgment based on what they did in the world and the intentions behind them.


The pious will surely be in heaven, The wicked certainly in Hell: (Qur’an 82 : 13 - 14)


...those who obey Allah and His Messenger will be admitted to paradise, in which rivers flow, to live therein forever, and that is the Great Achievement. [Quran 4:13]


˹Allah will say to the righteous,˺ “O tranquil soul! Return to your Lord, well pleased ˹with Him˺ and well pleasing ˹to Him˺. So join My servants, and enter My Paradise.” (Quran 89 : 27 - 30)


Indeed, the righteous will be amid Gardens and springs, ˹joyfully˺ receiving what their Lord will grant them. Before this ˹reward˺ they were truly good-doers ˹in the world˺: (Qur'an 51 : 15 - 16)


But whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and exceeds their limits will be cast into Hell, to stay there forever. And they will suffer a humiliating punishment. [Quran 4:14]


And whoever comes with the bad deed, their faces will be cast in Hell. Are you not being rewarded for what you used to do. [Quran 27 : 90]


Whoever comes to his Lord as a sinner, for him indeed is Hell. He shall not die therein, nor shall he live. [Quran 20 : 74]


Surely Jahannam (the Hell) lurks in ambush. (It is) abode for the rebellious people who will be abiding in it for ages. They will taste nothing cool in it, nor a drink, except boiling water and pus, this being a punishment, fully commensurate (with their deeds). (Qur’an 78 : 21 - 26)


...so, whoever has been kept away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise has really succeeded... (Quran 3 : 185)