Ray of Hope

The world beyond death is, as Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) put it, an “unknown country”. We are all travelling towards 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 billionaire who wanted to meet him at the earliest opportunity.

When Billy Graham reached the billionaire’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 person tends to forget death, but in the end, the hand of fate holds sway. In old age, when his strength is on the wane, he realizes the imminence of death; he is moved to wonder what 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 provide to the world. 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 who, in this life on earth, prove themselves worthy of it by their righteous actions. This message has been summed up in these words of the Quran:

“And God calls unto the home of peace.” (The Quran, 10:25)