If you are a Muslim, you believe that when you die...
They believe in something called “punishment of the tomb” and the angelic interrogators who question the deceased about their lives and deeds. Both features seem to arise from Hadiths suggesting that the dead retain their perceptive faculties. According to one creed, body and soul are reunited in the tomb; infidels will surely suffer there, and believers who have sinned may also suffer. In any case, even the obedient believer will experience the “pressure” of the tomb. But, according to a Hadith, no punishment will be inflicted on a Muslim who dies on Friday, and the pressure will last only an hour. The Quran mentions neither the interrogating angels, Munkar and Nakir, nor the pressure and punishment of the grave.
After the resurrection of the body, everyone will experience either reward or punishment, heaven or hell. There is no Purgatory as such, but the passageway between this life and the next, called the barzakh, could be considered a rough analogy. In addition, some hold that a temporary stay in hell serves that function
Quran insists that in the Fire one neither lives nor dies; all who end up there will beg for death. The Qur’an’s imagery of the double death is very similar to that of some early Christian literature.
For those who have spent a life of faith and good works, eternal reward awaits. As in many other traditions, the scriptural imagery of paradise describes heaven as a realm of endless pleasures. Many Muslims understand the imagery in its widest sense to refer to a state of delight that results from being forever in God’s presence.
Renard, J. (1998). 101 Questions and Answers on Islam. New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.
