Encyclopedia of Islam

death

  

185  J

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Varied interpretations of death by Muslims 

throughout the centuries have produced a com-

plex 

eschatology

 that can be divided into the 

majority Muslim and the gnostic mystical views. 

The majority perspective adheres to the teach-

ings of the Quran as they were transmitted 

through  m

Uhammad

. These teachings warn and 

guide believers away from sin and remind them 

of the rewards and punishments of the afterlife. 

The gnostic mystical view upholds an esoteric 

understanding of death that is direct, personal, 

and unmediated. This kind of understanding 

is attained by means of mystical practices and 

through visionary discoveries. The mystics, who 

claim they have experienced death while alive, 

describe how their souls departed from their bod-

ies and the world of matter and journeyed into the 

realm of death. There they have seen the myster-

ies of Judgment Day and have experienced God’s 

attributes of might and majesty. Thus, their belief 

in the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet is 

based on the personal insights they have gained 

through the death journey. Some Muslims inter-

pret death as self-sacrifice and as an expression of 

Faith

. They refer to the Quran, which considers 

those who die on the path of Islam and for the sake 

of other Muslims to still be alive. Such a person 

(martyr, or shahid), similar to innocent children, 

escapes the intermediary stage between death and 

resurrection (barzakh) and goes to 

paradise

. The 

culture of valorizing martyrs—those who die on 

the path of Islam—has been enforced among the 

Shii Muslims for centuries. Their paradigm martyr 

is the grandson of Muhammad, Imam h

Usayn

 

ibn

a

li

, who died in battle at k

arbala

 at the hands 

of his political rivals in 680. Imam Husayn is 

the central figure in the mourning plays that are 

annually held in commemorating his death and 

in celebrating the fate and faith of the Muslim 

martyrs. In the final analysis, for Muslims, life 

and death are interconnected through one’s sus-

ceptibility to the realities of the unseen that are 

transmitted by the Prophet or experienced by the 

individual mystic.

See also 

baqa

 

and

 

fana

; 

cemetery

; 

FUnerary

ritUals

; 

martyrdom

; s

hiism

; 

sUicide

.

Firoozeh Papan-Matin