Death comes as the End (Or Does it)!

“Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.” Francis Bacon

Nothing is certain in life, except death. And we, as a race, have acquired a strange habit of avoiding discussion on or even a mention of this topic. We consider death to be a terrible phenomenon and are extremely uncomfortable with it. As a result, it has become a taboo and even educated people are prone to ignore it as an inevitable reality. We close our eyes in an attempt to wish it away and do our best to pretend that it does not exist.

Recent research has shown that after a patient is diagnosed with a terminal illness and his or her death becomes imminent, there is a marked decrease in visits from relatives as well as the interaction that doctors and nurses have with him or her.  

Such an attitude towards death results in two major problems. One, we do not think about death as much as we should and consequently lose the chance to find out that it is not something nearly as bad as we imagined. And two, we do not have a clue about how to deal with our own death or that of a dear one. We have become a people who are so scared of death that even mentioning it causes feelings of anxiety and uneasiness. If we don’t learn about death, we can never understand life.

Keeping in mind the concept of God and life after death propagated by all religions as well as the elaborate ways in which death was dealt with in ancient societies, it is surprising how the modern world can so easily shut it out of its system.

The main reason for this, in my opinion, is the widening gulf between religion and science. Science was always ridiculed by the religious classes. Priests, Mullahs, Yogis etc. always considered science as a tool of the devil and gave mankind a choice. They could either follow religion and gain eternal salvation or follow science and be led astray from the right path. That the ignorant classes listened to this ridiculous argument and left science is less surprising than the incomprehensible fact that the educated people believed in this crap and pushed religion to the background.

Innumerable scientists have admitted that there are certain phenomena which science can neither deny nor explain. These are the areas where religion comes to our rescue. However, unfortunately we either are proud to believe in science and dismiss anything which science cannot explain as dogmatic or are strict adherents of a particular religious sect and discard anything against its beliefs as blasphemous. This sort of ignorance leaves the world divided between two equally arrogant and stubborn groups always fighting for supremacy.

As Albert Einstein said “science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” We have to realize that the apparent choice between being lame or blind is an illusion. The only path to truth is by combining both science and religion.

Coming back to the main topic, it is interesting to note, as St. Augustine pointed out, that we do not remember anything about our infancy and yet are so certain about the way we lived and our general attitude at the time, for example that we cried when we needed to be fed. The basis of this knowledge is merely observation; we form opinions about ourselves in that age by watching how other babies of the same age behave. But what about life after death? How can we know about that without observation? Thanks to the useless bickering between science and religion, most of the people today either do not believe in the concept or have an unbelievably irrational and imaginary picture of it.

Isaac Asimov said “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” For anyone with a scientific bent of mind who is interested in making an effort to know the truth of this transition, I will strongly recommend three books as the starting point. The first, of course is the Quran which must be consulted in any quest for knowledge regardless of one’s personal beliefs. The other two are “Life after Life” by Dr. Raymond Moody and “Closer to the Light” by Dr. Melvin Morse. These two, along with their colleagues, have conducted a scientific study of Near Death Experiences in an attempt to ascertain what happens after death. Whoever has had the chance to come across the famous book “Maut ka Manzar; Marney ke baad kya hoga” and felt put off by the fantastic and terrifying tales, must read these books to regain a little perspective on the subject. The conclusions one draws from these researches might vary from person to person, but a study of these books along with the Quran is sure to alleviate some huge misconceptions on the subject and might force the reader to stop avoiding the topic and realize that it is one of the most interesting and important subjects to study for everyone who believes that he will die … eventually.

An experiment mentioned in the book by Dr. Melvin Morse shows that when the lateral sulcus (a structure above the right temporal lobe of the brain and commonly known as the Sylvian Fissure) was stimulated by electrical impulses during brain surgery, all patients claimed having out of body experiences, traveling at great speeds through a tunnel and observing a Being of Light who gave them feelings of extreme peace, calm and pleasure. Some patients even saw a review of their lives from a third person’s angle. Does this strengthen our belief in the soul, God and the Hereafter? I leave it for you to decide.

It is unfortunate that the Muslims have stopped taking any interest in scientific research. This sort of research is also normally ignored by the scientific community; probably because they cannot explain it in terms of the existing scientific data and such failure makes them uncomfortable (scientists are humans too, after all).

I dream of a time when we would stop blindly following religion or science and try to actually get to the truth. As always, the best time to start is ….. now.