The World That Comes After

So tawḥīd is a very important theme. The next idea is the idea of ākhirah. And ākhirah means what comes after. It means the end. The hereafter.

The interesting thing about the Arabs is that the Arabs did not believe in a hereafter. Many traditions have a hereafter; the Arabs did not believe in a hereafter. They thought this is it: when you die, it is over. And they said: if we are bones and dust, will we be brought back to life? The Qurʾān says that the One who brought you, who created you the first time, is capable of creating you a second time. In other words, the fact that one has come into existence one time means that a second time, even by our own logic, would seem to be easier — because if something has been made one time, it is generally easier the second time around. So there is the logic behind that.

The Arabs denied this idea of ākhirah, or the next world. Now, the next world in the Qurʾān is quite descriptive, and traditionally the Europeans often had a difficult time with it, because there are aspects of it that are quite sensual: the idea of gardens under which rivers flow, of fruits, of maidens, of beautiful youths, and these types of things. So this idea of an ākhirah is being introduced into the culture. Obviously they had some exposure — they were meeting the Christians and the Jews on their caravan routes and hearing about these things — but they really had an attitude that was basically characterised as disbelief. They did not believe in some other world. They thought this is it; and for them the world was what they called murūʾah: virility, manhood, chivalry, poetry, women, wine. This was really the environment of the era, and they praised these qualities and praised these aspects of the world. Much of their poetry is about wine and women. This is what they were interested in.

Suddenly there is a book that is radically challenging that worldview — radically challenging it. A very powerful experience for these people, who are forced to begin to think about these things.