A faith in a life after death is the last of the basic principles of Islām. The word generally used in the Holy Qur’ān to indicate this life is al-ākhirah.1 Death, according to the Holy Qur’ān, is not the end of man’s life; it only opens the door to another, a higher, form of life: “We have ordained death among you and We are not to be overcome, that We may change your state and make you grow into what you know not” (56:60-61). Just as from the small life-germ grows the man, and he does not lose his individuality for all the changes which he undergoes, so from this man is made the higher man, his state being changed, and he himself being made to grow into what he cannot conceive at present. That this new life is a higher form of life is also made plain: “See how We have made some of them to excel others. And certainly the Hereafter is greater in degrees and greater in excellence” (17:21).
The Holy Qur’ān accords to faith in the Future Life an importance which is next only to faith in God. Very often all the doctrines of faith are summed up as amounting to belief in God and the Future Life: “And there are some people who say, We believe in Allāh and the Last Day, and they are not believers” (2:8); “Whoever believes in Allāh and the Last Day and does good, they have their reward with their Lord” (2:62).
The Opening chapter of the Holy Qur’ān, entitled the Fātiḥah, is not only looked upon as the quintessence of the Book but it is actually the chapter which plays the greatest part in creating a true Muslim mentality; for the Muslim must recite it in the five prayers, over thirty times daily. In this chapter God is spoken of as the “Master of the Day of Requital”, and thus the idea that every deed must be
1 Ākhir is the opposite of awwal (which means the first), and thus signifies that which comes after, or the future or the last. Al-yaum al-ākhir or the last day is used instead of al-ākhirah (2:8, 62, etc.); sometimes al-dār al-ākhirah, the next or the future or the last abode, is used (28:77; 29:64; 33:29), and once al-nash’at al-ākhirah or the future or the next life, which is the real meaning conveyed by all these terms.
Occasionally, the word al-ākhirah is used to indicate the future condition in this very life as compared with the previous state, as in 93:4: “And that which comes after (al-ākhirat) is certainly better for thee than that which has gone before”, where the meaning is that the future had great eventualities in store for the Holy Prophet, and his cause would continue to gain as time went on.