Islam

In class we read and discussed judgment day, the ethical behaviors of it. It is believed to be God's final assessment of humanity. On judgment day a persons life long path of life, mistakes and the good things you have done in life are judged. It is like God has a book of all of the events. The exact time when these events will occur is unknown, however there are said to be major and minor signs which are to occur is unknown, but there sins that occur near the time of the end time (Qiyamah). Judgment day sounds scary to me. I don't know if I would want to spend my whole life having to think about this list that God keeps of the good and bad I have done in my life, but at the same time I think it might make the world a better place. If you think about doing something bad and then realize that God is judging you, if it keeps you from doing this immoral thing than it might be beneficial to have something like judgment day.

We also read about heaven and hell. I think about heaven and hell from what I have learned from synagogue and the church that I used to attend at my Episcopalian school. In synagogue and the religion classes I have taken they teach us that we as Jews don't go to hell only to heaven. We don't believe in hell. In church they would talk about going to heaven or hell according to if you were a good or bad person in life. If you committed many sins you go to hell. When talking about heaven (mostly) and hell in class for the Islamic religion we learned that heaven is very indulgent. Heaven is also know as Paradise. There are different levels of this paradise. I believe that the different levels come from what kind of person you were on earth. Judgment day determines this.

Muslims believe in heaven as part of their faith. We read about heaven in class. We read about how once a Muslim reaches heaven or paradise this is where they will stay. We read about the abundance of wealth and beauty. When reading about this I had to ask myself would I want my heaven to be like this? Or do I even believe in this kind of heaven?

This past week my brother had a friend die suddenly. Out of frustration and confusion I was asking my mom why would this ever happen to such a young boy? At the same time I was asking her what was going to happen to him now that he was gone. Of course my mom knowing nothing more about heaven than I do simply said, "he will go to heaven, I don't know what that means but he is in heaven now. I like to think that my brothers friend is in a wonderful heaven where he has everything that he desires.

I don't know if I want heaven to be like the descriptions we read about in class. I think that once you die, money, sex and material objects just aren't that important anymore. I think heaven should be a simple, comfortable place to go after living a long wonderful life.