His Kingdom of Heaven.

I asked my secondary school Islamic teacher once whether people like Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha goes to hell at the end of their lives. I got a nasty reply for asking such dumb question and cannot remember if he answered me or not. This is a favourite issue that is often raised  by non Muslims in many instances and the answer has always been that, if you die without having not said the Profess of Lailahaillallah, Muhammad Rasulullah or that there is no God, only Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, you will not enter Heaven. It has been a question i my have a whole lot of understanding to come to grip with. I do not doubt that God has the answer to this in one form or another as he is Omniscience and as is said to work in mysterious ways, but as a thinking man I needed to work the answer out for myself; some of my loved ones and families and friends are non Muslims while many so called Muslims that would rather not spend time with.

Ar Rahman is The Beneficent, Ar rahim is the Merciful, this is the Lord i surrender to as a Muslim and he is a Loving God and I am sure he extends His Love and Compassion to all who deserve it and so His wrath. I am positive that there are verses in the Quran and the Hadith on this matter of which I am not aware of. Personally, I believe that heaven and hell are already within us, at least in the mental and emotional levels; we experience pain and pleasure in everything we do through out our lives. What is hell but a place of suffering and so heaven a place of blissfulness. However most of us passes through life without being fully aware of these ups and down and most religions agrees that life is suffering, from the day we were conceived till the day we die. We are living in heaven and hell all the time switching from moment to moment as nothing is permanent, all things changes and we are never certain of when it all comes to an end; we live on borrowed time and the fear of death is always at the back of our minds.

It is my understanding that if you had lived your life well, you will move on to a higher life in your afterlife; you reap what you sow. How it will work out as far as who goes to heaven or to hell I leave  it up to The Creator to decide because it is beyond me as my mind is not capable of unravelling such delicate matters of the Soul. I know my soul will transcend all these and return to the Rightful Owner or Al Hak, He that blew the first breath of air into Adam. As a Muslim i understand as i was told form the Quran that, my soul and all souls have made a covenant with the Lord through acknowledging that he is the Creator, Lord of the Universe seen and unseen. That He is Omnipotent and Fair in Judgement as to right or wrong and that i have surrendered my will to His Will when i started my spiritual journey. I am merely an actor on the stage playing my role to the best of my ability in keeping my vows to Him. He is and has always been by my side closer than my jugular vein and without His Grace, I could not have taken one step forward on this journey.

As I have mentioned every so often in the past, I have taken a vow as a Buddhist called the Bodhisattva Vow and t is not a light commitment to have made. It is something i hold to be sacred in my life. I took the vow to serve all sentient beings I come into contact with while i am alive, at least alleviate their suffering the best way I know or can afford to do, as i am a servant of my Lord, I am serving Him through fulfilling this Bodhisattva vow of serving His creation. How well or how genuine I am in doing so is what i have to work on by my practices, my words thoughts and deeds in relation to others. Even if my hear tells me that it is all just and illusion and that I do not exist in reality, I still have to abide in being in the here and now to serve as a Bodhisattva; I am a Muslim Bodhisattva. I will remain true to my vows until there  is no more soul left crying in pain and suffering before i enter His Kingdom of Heaven.