What If the Hereafter Is Real ?

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Let us assume two hypotheses:

(1) the Hereafter exists;

(2) the Hereafter does not exist.
And we have two people:

(1) one who believes in the Hereafter;

(2) one who does not.

Analyzing this:

1- the believer will suffer no harm if he dies and nothing exists.
2- The one who does not believe, carries a high risk which is the probability that the Hereafter exists, and then he will face punishment.
= The believer, then, is between two outcomes with no third: either he will be happy and blessed, or there will be nothing and no harm will befall him.
= As for the disbeliever, he is between being punished, or there being no Hereafter and nothing happening to him.

So the question now is :
- which of the two is wiser, more sensible, and less exposed to danger?

The answer is clear.

But what if the matter is not this simple ? What if the probabilities are not equal? What if there is strong evidence and clear proof that makes one option 100% certain and the other zero?
First of all :

Who brought this worldly life into existence? Did it arise by itself? If we say it has a Creator, then who is He? And what is the proof that He is the one who created it? And if we prove that it has a Creator, and then prove who that Creator is, how could He leave us like this without teaching us, or sending us someone to speak to us about Him and explain all the questions on our minds, telling us that He is the Creator?

Has He given this world an end, or made it eternal, so that whoever dies simply perishes with no return? Or has He given it an end, and just as He created it He created the Hereafter, so that whoever dies here is resurrected there? And what will the Hereafter be like? Is it eternal, or is there something after it? Are its people there forever, or only for a time before they perish? What will their state be? Will it be like their state in this world, the rich here rich there and the poor here poor there? Who determines their state? And is there anything they can do in this world that prepares their state in the Hereafter?

The proof that answers all of this contains all the news of the Creator. It conveys the truth about this world and lays out the way, the path, and the guidance. It contains the truth about the Hereafter: whether it exists, and what life there is like, whether eternal or otherwise. And it explains what determines people’s states in the unseen abode of the Hereafter.

That proof is the Qur’an: a book held by the Muslims, containing wondrous speech that could not possibly have come from a human being.

The Qur’an contains various miracles that make it evidence that no human could have written it. Among its verses are indications of highly precise scientific matters that could not possibly have been known when this book appeared 1,400 years ago. It presents these indications with confidence, not as announcing news or a scientific discovery, but as though speaking of something known and settled, using it as a parable, a simile, or in service of guidance. This majesty and confidence in the telling lend it even more splendor and beauty.
To give an example, not an exhaustive list:
1- how could a book from 1,400 years ago describe the stages of embryonic development with such precision?

“We created man from an extract of clay. Then We placed him as a drop of fluid in a secure resting place. Then We made the drop into a clinging clot, and made the clot into a lump, and made the lump into bones, and clothed the bones with flesh; then We brought him forth as another creation. So blessed is God, the best of creators.” (Surat al-Mu’minun, 23:12–14)

Modern embryology emerged in the nineteenth century, a gap of more than 1,200 years.

So the question is: how could the book describe these stages precisely without microscopes, ultrasound, or embryology? There is no way except that this book comes from One who knows what is in the woman’s womb without modern instruments. This means He sees without imaging. Nothing prevents Him from seeing inside the human body, and He sees without devices.

Keep this example in mind as we move to another.

2- This book states that whoever turns away from faith finds his chest constricted, like someone ascending into the sky:
“Whomever God wills to guide, He opens his heart to Islam; and whomever He wills to leave astray, He makes his chest tight and constricted, as though he were climbing into the sky. Thus God places defilement upon those who do not believe.” (Surat al-An’am, 6:125)
Here it is worth noting a phenomenon: hypoxia resulting from low atmospheric pressure at high altitudes. The higher a person ascends, the lower the partial pressure of oxygen, which can cause a feeling of breathlessness.
What is remarkable is that the book presents this information confidently, as a simile, not in a place where it would need to draw attention to a scientific discovery. It is simply something known to the Author of the book, who uses it to describe something else. All of this reflects loftiness and grandeur.
Knowledge of atmospheric pressure began about 1,000 years later, in the seventeenth century.

The question now, after these two examples from very different fields, one in embryology and the other in atmospheric physics (and the book is full of other verses carrying astonishing miracles): how could the Author of this book be an ordinary person, a human like us?
The Author, who knows precisely what is inside the woman’s womb without modern means of knowledge, must be the one who made it, and He knows best what He made. Likewise, He is the one who created the air, and He knows best its components and the precise laws and phenomena He placed within it.
So we now have in our hands an extraordinary book, one we can search for answers to all our questions, and from which we can learn the truth of things and their future, or some of what is to come that it has told us about.

Within this book came the following declarations:

That this book is from God.
That God is the Creator of all things, the only God truly worthy of worship, and that all other objects of worship are false.
That the man to whom this book was revealed, Muhammad, is a messenger from God.
That God sent messengers before him, among them Moses and Jesus.
That God revealed earlier scriptures, which contained glad tidings of this final Prophet, Muhammad.
That the People of the Book, the Jews and Christians, altered their scriptures; and that the People of the Book are not all alike. Some of them believed in Muhammad and are among the righteous and successful. Others rejected him out of envy, even though they used to invoke him for victory over the polytheists; yet when there came to them what they recognized, they disbelieved in it.
This book mentions the angels and the jinn, and that they are created worlds among God’s creations, and that they see us while we do not see them. There is no basis for denying this, for science has proven that we are surrounded by many things we cannot see, since our range of vision is limited. That we do not see something does not mean it does not exist.
And since we have established that this book is from the Creator of the universe, everything in it is true, and falsehood can never approach it. It follows that everything in it is truth, and that believing in it is the path to guidance. Then faith is founded on proof and evidence, not on conjecture.
The book also speaks of the Hereafter: that it is real, that life there is eternal and everlasting, and that people there will be in two groups, one in Paradise, the believers, and one in the Fire, the disbelievers.
It also states that everything in the universe and everything that happens is decreed and written before creation was brought into being, and that this is easy for God. There is no ground for denying this merely because you cannot imagine it. Your very capacity to imagine and analyze is God’s making. He created you, placed it within you, and gave it limits. Just as your hearing is limited and your sight is limited, your mind and your conception of things are limited.
And it states that Islam is the final religion, that its Prophet is the last of the prophets, and that the Qur’an came confirming the scriptures before it and as a guardian over them. Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers.
The book also states that all the knowledge we have attained is but little, and that it is God who permitted us to know it. Had He not permitted it, we would not have known it.

Now that the path has become clear to you through evidence, hold fast to this book, reciting it, studying it, and learning from it. Believe in God, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day. Alongside it you have the sayings and actions of the Prophet, known as the Sunnah, which explain what came in the Qur’an. God said: “And We have sent down to you the Reminder so that you may make clear to people what was sent down to them…” And God said: “Nor does he speak from his own desire. It is nothing but revelation revealed.”
Have you now come to know, and found the answer to all your questions?

Knowledge alone is not enough if it stops short of faith. True faith is accompanied by submission and by action according to what came in the Book and the Sunnah.

You enter this religion by

bearing witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Then come the remaining pillars of the religion: establishing prayer, giving zakat, fasting Ramadan, and making pilgrimage to the House if you are able.