Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Islamic eschatology
Islamic eschatology includes the afterlife, apocalyptic signs of the End Times, and Last Judgment. It is fundamental to Islam, as life after death is one of the religion's Six Pillars. Resurrection is divided into Lesser Resurrection (al-qiyamah al-sughra) and Greater Resurrection (al-qiyamah al-kubra). The former deals with the time between an individual's death and the Last Judgement. Islam acknowledges bodily resurrection. Only a few philosophers are an exception.
From the 8th or 9th century onwards, Muslims increasingly believed that the day of the Greater Resurrection would be announced by several signs of an impending apocalypse. Such beliefs are recorded and elaborated upon in apocalyptic literature, which introduced new figures absent in the Quran, such as the Dajjal (Antichrist) and Mahdi (Savior). Although some themes are common across all works, there is no standardized version of apocalyptic events.
Closely related is the matter of the fate of the individual, with branches of Islam reaching different conclusions. The Mu'tazilites hold that God's goodness obligates God to reward good actions and to punish evil actions. The Asharites believe that God neither needs to punish sins nor reward good ones. Like Maturidis, Asharis hold, in contrast to Mu'tazilites, that sinners among Muslims will eventually leave Hell. Asharis and Twelver Shias generally agree that non-Muslims who refuse to acknowledge Muhammad as the last prophet go to Hell. Neo-Salafis, such as Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar, hold that Muslims of other sects also go to Hell, although Sunnis and Twelver Shias may leave Hell eventually.
Another topic of discussion is the temporal place of Paradise and Hell. According to most Sunnis and Shias, Paradise and Hell coexist with and influence the contemporary world. Throughout Muslim literature, visits to and depictions of Paradise and Hell are vividly described. Mu'tazilites, on the other hand, argue that the purpose of Paradise and Hell is to reward or punish and are thus only created after the Last Judgment.
Islam, like Christianity, conceptualizes the relationship between Dunyā (world) and Ākhirah (hereafter) in a diachronic timeline. Humanity's history in the world begins with the Fall of Adam and ends with God's Judgement. In contrast to Christianity, however, Adam's fall does not result in an utter separation from the transcendent world. The two otherworldly abodes (paradise and hell) exist in proximity, both in a spatial as well as in a temporal sense, to the Dunyā.
Since in Islamic beliefs, God does not reside in paradise, Islamic tradition was able to bridge the world and the hereafter without violating God's transcendence. Islamic literature is filled with interactions between the world and the hereafter and the world is closely intertwined with both paradise and hell. Muhammad visited during his Miʿrāj (Night Journey) both paradise and hell. The same is said about the Islamic prophet ʾIdrīs. The palm-tree as well as the pomegranate are supposed to originate from paradise. A Walī (saint) grabs a pomegranate out of a vision from paradise. Muhammad reportedly states that river flows from hell. The infernal tree Zaqqum manifests in this world. Some animals, scorpions and snakes in particular, are said to travel between the world and hell. People may interact with the souls of the deceased, receive blessings, or ease the dead's abode in the otherworld. Māturīdi scholar Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi (944–983) explains that the otherworldly abodes coexist in order to inspire hope and cause fear.
The overlap of the earthly and otherworldly domain is anchored in the Quran itself. Challenging the pre-Islamic Arabian conception of time (dahr) as a linear and irreversible process, time has become subject to God. In general, the Quran "is lacking a notion of time as divided into past, present and future." Therefore, Quranic eschatology cannot be understood through a linear conceptualization of time. The difference between the earth and the otherworld is not that of time but rather that of space. Paradise and hell are spatially connected to earth. At Judgement Day, paradise and hell do not perish, nor are they created anew, rather paradise and hell are "brought near" (26:90-91) Before that event, paradise is suggested to be somewhere in the high regions of the world and hell located in the depths.
The coexistence of the dunyā with the otherworld was contested by the Mu'tazila. They argued that since before the Day of Resurrection all except God will be destroyed by the trumpet, paradise and hell have no function until after the annihilation of the world. However, God creates only with a purpose. By denying the stay of souls in either abode, paradise and hell have no function before the Day of Judgement and thus, must be created afterwards. Māturīdism objects by asserting that paradise and hell do fulfill the before mentioned functions. Ash'ariya argued that although the trumpet's sounding will precede all being destroyed, creation was a "constant process".
Hub AI
Islamic eschatology AI simulator
(@Islamic eschatology_simulator)
Islamic eschatology
Islamic eschatology includes the afterlife, apocalyptic signs of the End Times, and Last Judgment. It is fundamental to Islam, as life after death is one of the religion's Six Pillars. Resurrection is divided into Lesser Resurrection (al-qiyamah al-sughra) and Greater Resurrection (al-qiyamah al-kubra). The former deals with the time between an individual's death and the Last Judgement. Islam acknowledges bodily resurrection. Only a few philosophers are an exception.
From the 8th or 9th century onwards, Muslims increasingly believed that the day of the Greater Resurrection would be announced by several signs of an impending apocalypse. Such beliefs are recorded and elaborated upon in apocalyptic literature, which introduced new figures absent in the Quran, such as the Dajjal (Antichrist) and Mahdi (Savior). Although some themes are common across all works, there is no standardized version of apocalyptic events.
Closely related is the matter of the fate of the individual, with branches of Islam reaching different conclusions. The Mu'tazilites hold that God's goodness obligates God to reward good actions and to punish evil actions. The Asharites believe that God neither needs to punish sins nor reward good ones. Like Maturidis, Asharis hold, in contrast to Mu'tazilites, that sinners among Muslims will eventually leave Hell. Asharis and Twelver Shias generally agree that non-Muslims who refuse to acknowledge Muhammad as the last prophet go to Hell. Neo-Salafis, such as Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar, hold that Muslims of other sects also go to Hell, although Sunnis and Twelver Shias may leave Hell eventually.
Another topic of discussion is the temporal place of Paradise and Hell. According to most Sunnis and Shias, Paradise and Hell coexist with and influence the contemporary world. Throughout Muslim literature, visits to and depictions of Paradise and Hell are vividly described. Mu'tazilites, on the other hand, argue that the purpose of Paradise and Hell is to reward or punish and are thus only created after the Last Judgment.
Islam, like Christianity, conceptualizes the relationship between Dunyā (world) and Ākhirah (hereafter) in a diachronic timeline. Humanity's history in the world begins with the Fall of Adam and ends with God's Judgement. In contrast to Christianity, however, Adam's fall does not result in an utter separation from the transcendent world. The two otherworldly abodes (paradise and hell) exist in proximity, both in a spatial as well as in a temporal sense, to the Dunyā.
Since in Islamic beliefs, God does not reside in paradise, Islamic tradition was able to bridge the world and the hereafter without violating God's transcendence. Islamic literature is filled with interactions between the world and the hereafter and the world is closely intertwined with both paradise and hell. Muhammad visited during his Miʿrāj (Night Journey) both paradise and hell. The same is said about the Islamic prophet ʾIdrīs. The palm-tree as well as the pomegranate are supposed to originate from paradise. A Walī (saint) grabs a pomegranate out of a vision from paradise. Muhammad reportedly states that river flows from hell. The infernal tree Zaqqum manifests in this world. Some animals, scorpions and snakes in particular, are said to travel between the world and hell. People may interact with the souls of the deceased, receive blessings, or ease the dead's abode in the otherworld. Māturīdi scholar Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi (944–983) explains that the otherworldly abodes coexist in order to inspire hope and cause fear.
The overlap of the earthly and otherworldly domain is anchored in the Quran itself. Challenging the pre-Islamic Arabian conception of time (dahr) as a linear and irreversible process, time has become subject to God. In general, the Quran "is lacking a notion of time as divided into past, present and future." Therefore, Quranic eschatology cannot be understood through a linear conceptualization of time. The difference between the earth and the otherworld is not that of time but rather that of space. Paradise and hell are spatially connected to earth. At Judgement Day, paradise and hell do not perish, nor are they created anew, rather paradise and hell are "brought near" (26:90-91) Before that event, paradise is suggested to be somewhere in the high regions of the world and hell located in the depths.
The coexistence of the dunyā with the otherworld was contested by the Mu'tazila. They argued that since before the Day of Resurrection all except God will be destroyed by the trumpet, paradise and hell have no function until after the annihilation of the world. However, God creates only with a purpose. By denying the stay of souls in either abode, paradise and hell have no function before the Day of Judgement and thus, must be created afterwards. Māturīdism objects by asserting that paradise and hell do fulfill the before mentioned functions. Ash'ariya argued that although the trumpet's sounding will precede all being destroyed, creation was a "constant process".