For people brought up in a Christian or secular tradition, the concept of verbal revelation, that God speaks to man through an angel, is a difficult one. Christianity only concedes that there may be divine inspiration, which makes revelation not much different from intuition. However, the concept of verbal revelation was generally accepted prior to the establishment of the Christian Church. God spoke to Moses and dictated the Ten Commandments. He also told him that there would be raised amongst his brethren (that is the Ishmaelite or Arabs who are the brothers of the Israelites or Hebrews) a prophet like him (that is one who will receive such revelation and be a law giver). This prophet must undoubtedly be Muhammad (SAW), for Jesus only came to confirm the law, not to change it.

THE CENTRALITY OF THE AFTERLIFE...

The key to Islamic success in this world is that it aims at the next. This long term view prevents the adherents of Islam to get caught up in the meaningless nitty-gritty of everyday life, setting their aims high and spurned on by an ideal rather than being weighed down by mundane events. For a Muslim, life after death is a certainty, not a possibility. Our existence on earth is temporary, however long we might live: we enter it involuntarily and leave it involuntarily. What we can achieve during our lifespan is limited, and we can take none of our material acquisitions with us. Life becomes meaningless unless the soul lives on. A believer thus sees the material life as an intermediate stage on a greater journey. It is a test or an examination, for when we return to Allah, our Maker, we will be judged on the basis of how we conducted ourselves during our lifetime.

When we begin our life's journey, we are fully equipped by our Creator with the sensual, physical, and mental resources at our disposal, but we need to gradually learn to find our way around in this new environment. As a child grows up it discovers the self, and the demands and desires of the self lead to a life of lust and greed unless moderated by obligations and responsibilities. We learn that others also have similar demands on us as we have on them. Islamic teaching reminds us that we cannot repay Allah for His favours, but we can share them with others whenever they are in need of them. Service of Allah thus becomes service of the common good.

The Qur'an calls its own message a reminder. It reminds us of the bliss of paradise which we had to leave in order to exist on earth. It reminds us that this innocent State can be obtained once more by willingly giving up any selfishness we find in ourselves. Ultimately, we will have to leave everything behind anyway, even our own body, so there is little point in becoming obsessed with worldly accumulations nor the attempt to make our physical appearance last forever. We are more than our physical shell. We are our ideals, our beliefs, our deeds. The wealth we acquire in our lives is merely a tool to help us achieve our ideals. That's why a Muslim is prepared to sacrifice his wealth for the sake of his ideals and is even willing to die for his belief rather than live on betraying it.

Islam teaches that all souls were created long before their physical presence on earth, and that all shall be raised on the Last Day and brought before Allah for judgment. We were told of the test of life when all the souls were gathered initially, and depending on our eagerness or weariness to put ourselves Through it, Allah has adjusted the tribulations of life to what we can manage. He says in the Qur'an that no soul is burdened beyond its capacity. Some die in early childhood to save them from what they could not have handled. Life is like an examination room where people enter at different levels. Those who sit the advanced papers might have to spy on longer, and certainly their tasks are more difficult. In the end, as long as we try our best, we will get a mark. On the other hand, if we deny that there is a test and waste our time off task, we will not be graded.

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