UI – Part 395 – Muslim Afterlife

When the last breath is taken the next adventure is with unsullied virgins ready to accommodate a stud capable of repeated 24/7 copulation from one welcoming beauty to another. In Islam it is not this life, but the afterlife that is the focus of their attention. We are born to this world for a reason, but the Imam’s immediately dismiss trying to understand living for today and preach, at the earliest grades, and to mothers and fathers, that dying acting for Allah, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ is the purpose of a believer. Martyrdom cleanses a Muslim of sin at the presence of blood.

Arafat – Lit the First Islamist Suicide Bomb

Arafat, in Palestine (PA), made suicide bombing by Islamists popular along with the benefits of martyrdom that it portrayed. He was personally willing to pay $2,000 to ‘fighting brethren’ to commit suicide attacks on Israel.  (He later reduced that to $800 – the value of an Islamist.)  Causing death to infidels while leaving this life, many Islamists claim, only enhanced the rewards to follow in the afterlife.

A US marine base in Lebanon was struck in October 23, 1983, by a suicide bomber who detonated 2000 pounds of explosives packed in a truck. 241 were killed. The marines were present to aide in ridding the area of the PLO attacking Israel.  Later another bomber struck a base of French paratroopers killing 58.  Hezbollah was responsible.  This tactic was thus popularized, the logic – if they can succeed to bring about political change weighing in proportion the passion that would incite a person to become a human bomb, then martyrdom by suicide is justified, even now encouraged.

Arafat was the Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee (from 1969 until his death in 2004). It can be said that Arafat was the one who initiated the use of suicide bombing by Islamists as a method of their jihad. He thus lit the first such bomb. It was man, not Allah, that suggested suicide bombing in the name of god would grant the killer a key to the Garden.

Such actions, martyrdom murder by suicide, is as wrong in Islam as it is in Christianity.  Those martyred were tricked, as were the many that have followed.

Wanting to Die

Why do Islamists want to die? Chapter 4 of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book Heretic is entitled, Those Who Love Death. There are several points she makes that are worthy of emphasis:

• “Muslims…are educated to venerate death over life – to value the promise of eternal life more highly that actual life here on earth.”
• “They see their primary purpose in this life as preparing for death.”
• “Death is the goal, the event that matters because it leads to the prize of eternal life.”
• A core teaching of the Quran, “life is transitory and that it is the next one that matters.”
• “Such is the importance of martyrdom in Islam that martyrs have all their sins forgiven and automatically ascend to the highest of the seven levels of paradise.”
• “All across the Muslim world children are being inculcated with a death wish.”
• “Islam’s fatalism is a more plausible explanation for the Muslim world’s failure to innovate.”
• “While the martyrs ultimate goal might be paradise, for years there were also significant monetary incentives for suicide bombers.”
• “What is unique to Islam is the tradition of murderous martyrdom, in which the individual martyr simultaneously commits suicide and kills others for religious reasons”.

Sura 3.185 reads, “…the life of this world is nothing but a provision of vanities.” This suggests being humble. But it also can be interpreted as being alive, living in the temporal world, is not what matters. The verse also refers to “whoever is removed from the Fire and is made to enter the Garden, he indeed attains the object” which recommends being as ‘good’ as possible, earning a secure place in Paradise.  It does not suggest, however, suicide, even suicide bombing of infidels.

It was not until the 1980’s that murder by martyrdom, suicide, became a practice by Islamists. Arafat may be credited with this insane habit. He paid suicide bombers, Sadam Hussein paid as much as $25,000, and even charities from Saudi Arabia and Qatar have funded families of Palestinians killed in suicide operations against the Jews.

Today in much of the Muslim world it seems death is preferred to education, to achievement, and to making a life in this life. What is the justification for doing anything in this life, if the life hereafter is the objective?  This is for me a painfully ignorant line of reasoning.  A common excuse for adverse conditions, unruly children, indolence, and unkempt surroundings in Muslim occupied areas, most would refer to this as laziness, is that it is Allah’s Will. If Allah wanted it clean, it would be clean. If Allah wanted the children to be quiet or not roam about late at night, then they would stay home and be quiet. If Allah wanted man to be productive, they would be, naturally so. As for the oil heirs, that is Allah’s Will, as too the Mercedes or Rolls Royce in which a Sheik rides comfortably (even when designed, created and manufactured by an infidel).  It makes for a great excuse.  From poverty to wealth for the individual, it is as Allah Wills. “If Allah has willed it, Allah will provide.  It is an unbreakable ring of circular logic,” so states Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Heretic.

But killing oneself for a life after this life, makes no sense. I question if such an act is as Allah Wills.

This apocalyptic mentality that can be most troubling. It’s a major impediment to negotiating or reasoning with Muslims. A fear of Iran and its nuclear programs is this End of Life (eschatology) logic embedded in the teaching and cultures of Islam. Non-Muslims accept life on earth may be short, but there must be an explanation as to why we were born and are alive, and to just die as soon as possible in the commission of a terrorist act for Allah is counter intuitive. Life is an opportunity! We will all die. By why rush into it, or just end it asap. That cannot be why God placed us here. If from whence we came is where we are going, why be put here in the first place.

God’s Kingdom

First, realize earth is within God’s Kingdom. Earth is his creation. And man is too. The Bible makes note that God knew us before we were born, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…” (Jeremiah1:5).  Why then mix men who are born to live with those born to commit suicide killing others.

Those wanting to kill others have been infected by evil forces whose denial of the true Lord seems to have led to Islam.  Why would such an action be encouraged except as a tool, a technique requiring much brainwashing, to aide a military operation for an ideology or possibly another purpose?  Zealots, Imams, and autocrats wanting to protect their own turf, their fiefdoms, sheikdoms, or Islamic-doms have crafted in the name of Islam, Muhammad the primary example, an army to aide them in building their treasuries.  They use an innate quality of every individual to believe there are supernatural forces at work, a god, and suggest it is Allah’s Will to promote Islam as a martyr if it’s required. The Islamists use students, engineers, educated persons, and children convinced that dying in the cause of their leaders, for Allah, is an assurance of the nirvana of paradise.  But is that god Allah?  The Christian God, not Allah, would never permit such actions against other human beings.

Fear

Look at the numbers, the people, in Muslim countries that live in fear of their own leaders, who disagree but can never speak out due to reprisals – death to the apostate or heretic.  The Arab Spring was an example of the pent-up desire to be free.  It was an expression by those who wish no longer to be trapped in a 7th century Islam and the arcane inhumane Sharia Law. It was a plea for Islam to modernize, to revise its structure and become part of the 21st Century.

The desire for territorial conquest by Islam, a world All for Allah, is fraught with uncertainties and many questions as to the logic of the evil that is required to achieve an ill-conceived end.  It brings to mind Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.”  Also Proverbs 16:27, “A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.”  Proverbs 16:29, “A man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good.”  The human element in Islam uses Allah’s Will as an inducement to commit evil acts, as if Satan is whispering over their shoulders.

There is Earthly Purpose

Romans 8:28-29 reads, “And we know that for those who love God all things work for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Christ)…”  Humans are on earth to live a full life to serve God.  Suicide is not an option.  Killing of another, even of yourself, is a sin, “You shall not murder; and whosoever murders will be liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:21).

Christians believe in a life hereafter also.  But we are not in a hurry to get there.  Also convicted Christians are not afraid should our time come sooner than we may have planned.  Our objective is to live a life on earth loving God and being an example for others in our daily activities, that of work, play, relationships with others, our cleanliness, our respect for others, our treatment of the environment, and to be at peace with our neighbors.

After all God charged man with the responsibility to subdue the earth, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the seas and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).  To do so, to subdue, we must produce, work diligently, innovate, be creative, to tend the soil, to build cities, help others, to care for the sick, to provide for the poor, to educate, to invest wisely, to live, and to be good citizens of the earth.  In so doing we need to live a full life.  It is about taking care of this planet that God created humans, as God breathed, and the rewards in the afterlife will follow.

Christians wish to promote what we believe (proselytize), not at the point of a sword, but by sharing and making known the good news of the gospel, the gracious gift God provided everyone who believes.  Death for God’s cause is never at one’s own hand. Christian martyrs were killed by third parties, as was the case for all the apostles, except John.  He was beaten badly and left to die on a prison island, Patmos. They all died believing in the salvation Jesus made possible for all believers, sharing the joy and hope of the gospel.  Those in denial were the perpetrators.

The first commandment, ‘Thou shall not murder (or kill),’ includes self.

Islam and Suicide – Perdition

The Quran, as the Bible, says Muslims shall not kill.  Sura 6.151 states, “I will recite what your Lord has forbidden to you: …do good to parents and slay not your children…and kill not the soul of which Allah has made sacred….” This suggests suicide is not right and may not provide the pleasures expected, as told by those who command or pay the suicide bombers.  Sura 4.29 outlaws suicide, it is a grave sin, “And kill not your people  (‘anfusa-kum,’ which means your people or yourselves).” And from a few Hadiths: “Do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden.” (Al Issra 17:33).  “And spend in the way of Allah and do not throw (yourselves) with your (own) hands into destruction.  And do good; indeed.  Allah loves the doers of good (Al-Baqara 2.195). “Do not kill yourselves, or another (Al-Baqara 2:29).

From the above Arafat got it wrong, and those who do commit suicide, as a suicide bomber, are committing a grave sin and headed in a direction opposite of what their commanders may have told them, even their Imam’s.  Read for yourself what the Quran and the Hadith’s say.  As in the Bible, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ and that means you. Perdition awaits.

Live

Have patience.

For the Muslim, earn your way to Paradise. Do not rush it believing by killing yourself while killing infidels or heretics, even if so informed by your military commander or Imam, that you will awake in the Garden. That sulfur you smell is not paradise. That is a lie and a misinterpretation of your religion.  It is a ploy to get you to become a weapon for them, not a martyr for Allah.

For the Christian an eternal life cannot be earned.  It is a gift from God provided by his son, god-incarnate, who was punished for our sins so we can be made right with God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Grace and Peace

Don’t forget to get your copies of the books, The Damascus Quran – a Novel, and The Wonder of Terra.  Available online: Amazon and TomBalderston.TateAuthor.com

 

others.