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When Life Begins --------- ---------
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When Life Begins ---------
Chapter 3: The Plane of
Judgement
Both of us were walking rapidly again. As soon as we left the limits
of the Throne, we encountered an extremely hot and humid
atmosphere. It felt as if the distance between the Sun and Earth had
reduced from 90 million miles to a mere mile! There was no breeze.
Everyone was drenched in sweat. There was no sign of water anywhere.
I was under the influence of the drink from Kauthar; otherwise, it would
have been impossible for me to spend even a second in this
atmosphere. However, I could see countless extremely weary people
loitering around in the same suffocating atmosphere. Their faces
displayed horror, their eyes were full of fear, and their hair was covered
in dust. Their bodies were soaked in sweat. Dirt was all over them; their
feet had blisters with pus oozing out of them. I had never seen such a
horrible scene of despair and fear in my life before! There was chaos
and disarray wherever one looked. Everyone
seemed to be concerned
only with his or her own self. I was searching for familiar faces. The first
face I recognised was that of my teacher, Farhan Ahmed. He saw me
from a distance and immediately turned away, trying to avoid eye
contact. I said to Saleh:
“Stop him Saleh! He is my teacher. I want to talk to him.”
He stopped me from moving towards him instead, and spoke in a
remorseful voice:
“Abdullah, do not add to the humiliation of your teacher. If
someone appears to you suffering here today, it means that Justice has
been done to him and he has been found lacking in deeds, as per the
scales of divine justice. That is why he is in such a state.”
I spoke in anguish:
“But Saleh, I learnt all about belief in God, focusing on the Hereafter
and ethical values from him.”
“You may have…” Saleh replied carelessly, and continued:
“However, his knowledge failed to become a part of his personality.
God does not pass a judgement based on a person’s knowledge. The
fundamental factors that determine the decision are one’s deeds,
character, and personality. The role of knowledge is really to help lay
the foundations of one’s personality on sound footing. If the personality
has not developed on the right foundations, the knowledge in fact
becomes harmful for the person. As a Persian poet once said:
When knowledge is only skin-deep, it is like a poisonous snake
Only when it sinks deep in the heart, does it become a true friend
The same thing happened to your teacher, Abdullah. He was a good
writer. He spoke well too. However, his character and personality were
not in accordance with what he preached. Therefore, in a way he was
also nurturing snakes. These snakes of knowledge have bit him hard
today. When you see people here, you will not find them as per their
appearance and words in the previous life. Instead, they will
be a true
image of what they really were in the life bygone.
Remember! God does not judge people based on their words and
external appearance. He only looks at their deeds and personality.
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