Ray of Hope

Death is lying in wait for everyone. God’s prophets have taught man that there is another world—eternal and ideal Paradise—after death. Those who prove themselves worthy by their righteous actions will be admitted into Paradise

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) put the world beyond death as an “unknown country”. We are all travelling toward that unknown country. The strangest and the most mysterious event of our lives is death. Everyone is anxious to know what will become of him after death.

The American evangelist, Billy Graham, has written a book called The Secret of Happiness. He writes in this book that he once received an urgent message from a famous political leader who wanted him to meet him at the earliest opportunity.

When Billy Graham reached the politician’s residence, he was ushered into a separate room. There the politician addressed him in a heart-rending tone. “I am an old man,” he said, “life has lost all meaning. I am ready to take a fateful leap into the unknown. Young man, can you give me a ray of hope?”

It was, indeed, only a man of religion who could give him an answer.

Death is lying in wait for everyone. In his youth, a man tends to forget death, but the hand of fate holds sway in the end. In old age, when his strength is on the wane, he realizes the imminence of death; he is moved to wonder about that which lies in store for him in the Hereafter; he searches for a ray of hope which can illuminate the world he will have to face after death.

It is this ray of hope that God’s prophets have come to the world to provide. The prophets have taught man that there is another world—one that is both eternal and ideal—after death.

Those who will be admitted to this perfect world in the Afterlife are they who prove themselves worthy of it in this life on earth by their righteous actions.

This message has been summed up in these words of the Quran: “God calls man to the home of peace.”
(The Quran, 10:25)