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| Meta Description | Death - Afterlife, Immortality, Soul: What happens between death and reincarnation is seldom discussed in articles about Hinduism. This is regrettable, for the perception of these events helps explain some of the rites of the religion and provides unique insights into the human preference, when thinking about death, to conceptualize metaphysical developments in very concrete terms. Immediately after death, the soul is not clothed in a physical body but in a vaporous thumb-sized structure (linga ṡarīra). This is immediately seized by two servants of Yama, the god of death, who carry it to their master for a preliminary identity check. Afterward, the soul is promptly |
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| Boilerpipe Text | What happens between death and
reincarnation
is seldom discussed in articles about Hinduism. This is regrettable, for the perception of these events helps explain some of the rites of the religion and provides unique insights into the human preference, when thinking about death, to conceptualize
metaphysical
developments in very concrete terms.
News
•
Immediately after death, the soul is not clothed in a physical body but in a vaporous thumb-sized
structure
(
linga ṡarīra
). This is immediately seized by two servants of
Yama
, the god of death, who carry it to their master for a preliminary identity check. Afterward, the soul is promptly returned to the
abode
of the deceased, where it hovers around the doorstep. It is important that the
cremation
be completed by the time of the soul’s return, to prevent it from reentering the body. By the 10th day, the near relatives have purged some of the defilement (
mṛitaka sutaka
) they incurred from the death, and the chief mourner and a priest are ready to carry out the first
śrāddha
(ritual of respect). This is a step toward the reconstitution of a more substantial physical body (
yatana ṡarīra
) around the disembodied soul (
preta
) of the deceased. A tiny trench is dug in a ritually purified piece of land by a river, and the presence of
Vishnu
is
invoked
. Ten balls of barley flour mixed with sugar, honey, milk, curds, ghee, and sesame seeds are then placed, one by one, in the soil. As the first ball is offered, the priest says (and the son repeats after him), “May this create a head”; with the second ball, “May this create neck and shoulders”; with the third, “May this create
heart
and chest”; and so on. The 10th request is for the ball to create the capacity to digest, thereby satisfying the hunger and thirst of the newly created body. Bungled ceremonies can have catastrophic effects. Prayers are offered to Vishnu to help deliver the new
entity
(now perceived as some 18 inches [46 centimetres] long) into the power of Yama. The balls of barley are picked up from the trench and thrown into the river. Further
śrāddha
s are performed at prescribed times, varying according to caste; one of these rituals makes the soul an ancestral spirit, or
pitṛi
. With the completion of these rituals, the soul of the deceased leaves this world for its yearlong and perilous journey to Yama’s kingdom. The family is now formally cleansed. The men shave their heads, and the women wash their hair. The family’s tutelary god (removed by a friend at the time of the death) can be returned to its home. A feast is offered to Brahmans, neighbours, and beggars—even the local cows are given fresh grass. There is a sense of general relief: if the
śrāddha
s had not been performed, the
preta
could have become a
bhūta
(malignant spirit), repeatedly turning up to frighten the living. For the deceased, things would have been worse: the
preta
would have been left errant. (A similar fate befalls the soul of a person who commits suicide.) The horror of dying unshriven that haunted people in
medieval
Europe resembles the despair of the devout Hindu at the prospect of having no son to perform the
śrāddha
s.
The soul, in its substantial envelope, is meanwhile proceeding on its journey, holding onto a cow’s tail to cross the
Vaitarani, a horrible river of blood and filth that marks the boundary of Yama’s kingdom. Throughout, it is sustained by further
śrāddha
s, during which friends on earth seek to provide it with shoes, umbrellas, clothing, and money. These they give to a Brahman, in the hope that the deceased will benefit. During such
rituals
relatives have to avoid all sewing, which might occlude the
pitṛi
’s throat, rendering it incapable of ever
breathing
or drinking again. After a year, the
pitṛi
in its
yatana ṡarīra
reaches Yama’s seat of judgment, where it is sentenced to a strictly limited term in
heaven
(
svarga
) or
hell
(
naraka
) according to its deserts. This completed, it moves into another body (the
karaṇa ṡarīra
), whose form depends on the individual’s
karman
. It could be a plant, a cockroach, a canine intestinal parasite, a mouse, or a
human being
. Unlike Jains, Hindus believe that whatever body the soul eventually moves into, it inhabits as sole tenant, not as a tenement lodger.
Islām
Probably no religion deals in such graphic detail as does Islām with the creation, death, “life in the tomb,” and ultimate fate of humankind. Yet the
Qurʿān
, the holy book of Islām, itself provides no uniform or systematic approach to these problems. It is only in its later parts (which date from the period when the small Muslim
community
in Medina had come into contact with other religious influences) that problems such as the relation of sleep to death, the significance of breathing, and the question of when and how the soul leaves the body are addressed in any detail. Popular Muslim beliefs are based on still later traditions. These are recorded in the
Kitāb al-rūḥ
(“Book of the Soul”) written in the 14th century by the Ḥanbalī theologian Muḥammad ibn Abī-Bakr ibn Qayyīm al-Jawzīyah.
The basic
premise
of all Qurʿānic teaching concerning death is
Allāh
’s omnipotence: he creates human beings,
determines
their life span, and causes them to die. The Qurʿān states: “Some will die early, while others are made to live to a miserable
old age
, when all that they once knew they shall know no more (22:5;
i.e.,
sūrah
[chapter] 22, verse 5). Damnation and salvation are equally predetermined: “Allāh leaves to stray whom he willeth, and guideth whom he willeth” (35:8). As for those whom Allāh leaves astray, the Qurʿān states that “for them there will be no helpers” (30:29). Allāh has decided many will fail: “If We had so willed We could certainly cause proper guidance to come to every soul, but true is My saying ‘assuredly I shall fill Jihannam’ ” (32:13).
In this perspective the individual’s fate (including the mode and time of death) appears inescapably predetermined. The very term
Islām
, Arabic for “surrender,” implies an absolute
submission
to the will of God. But what freedom does this allow those predestined to continue in the path of error, or to reject God’s will? And if there is no such freedom, what sense was there in the mission of the Prophet Muḥammad (Islām’s founder) and his appeal to people to alter their ways? It is hardly surprising that arguments about
free will
and predestination broke out soon after the Prophet’s death. The ensuing tensions dominated theological (and other) controversies within Islām during many centuries.
Questions concerning the meaning of life and the nature of the soul are dealt with patchily in both the Qurʿān and the Ḥadīth (the record of the sayings
attributed
to the Prophet). The Qurʿān records that, when asked about these matters by local leaders of the Jewish faith, the Prophet answered that “the spirit cometh by command of God” and that “only a little knowledge was communicated to man” (17:85). Humanity was created from “potter’s clay, from mud molded into shape” into which Allāh has “breathed his spirit” (15:28–29). A vital spirit or soul (
nafs
) is within each human being. It is associated, if not actually identified, with individuality and also with the seat of rational
consciousness
. It is interesting to speculate on the possible relation of the term
nafs
to such Arabic words as
nafas
(“breath”) and
nafīs
(“precious”), particularly in a language where there are no written
vowels
.
Death is repeatedly compared with
sleep
, which is at times described as “the little death.” God takes away people’s souls “during their sleep” and “upon their death.” He “retains those against whom he has decreed death, but returns the others to their bodies for an appointed term” (39:42–43). During death, the soul “rises into the throat” (56:83) before leaving the body. These are interesting passages in the light of modern medical knowledge. The study of sleep has identified the episodic occurrence of short periods during which the limbs are totally flaccid and without reflexes, as would be the limbs of the recently dead. Modern neurophysiology, moreover, stresses the role of structures in the upper part of the
brain stem
in the maintenance of the waking state.
Lesions
just a little higher (in the hypothalamus) cause excessively long episodes of sleep. Irreversible damage at these sites is part of the modern concept of death. Finally, various types of breathing disturbance are characteristic of brain-stem lesions and could have been attributed, in former times, to occurrences in the throat. Nothing in these passages outrages the insights of modern neurology. The absence of any cardiological dimension is striking.
It is orthodox Muslim belief that when someone dies the Angel of Death (
malāk al-mawt
) arrives, sits at the head of the deceased, and addresses each soul according to its known status. According to the
Kitāb al-rūh
,
wicked
souls are instructed “to depart to the wrath of God.” Fearing what awaits them, they seek refuge throughout the body and have to be extracted “like the dragging of an iron skewer through moist wool, tearing the veins and sinews.” Angels place the soul in a hair cloth and “the odour from it is like the stench of a decomposing carcass.” A full record is made, and the soul is then returned to the body in the grave. “Good and contented souls” are instructed “to depart to the mercy of God.” They leave the body, “flowing as easily as a drop from a waterskin”; are wrapped by angels in a perfumed shroud, and are taken to the “seventh heaven,” where the record is kept. These souls, too, are then returned to their bodies.
Two angels coloured blue and black, known as
Munkar
and
Nakīr
, then question the
deceased
about basic doctrinal tenets. In a sense this trial at the grave (
fitnat al-Qabr
) is a show trial, the verdict having already been decided. Believers hear it proclaimed by a herald, and in anticipation of the comforts of
al-jannah
(the Garden, or “paradise”) their graves expand “as far as the eye can reach.” Unbelievers fail the test. The herald proclaims that they are to be tormented in the grave; a door opens in their tomb to let in heat and smoke from
jihannam
(“hell”), and the tomb itself contracts “so that their ribs are piled up upon one another.” The period between
burial
and the final judgment is known as
al-barzakh
. At the final judgment (
yaum al-Hisāb
), unbelievers and the god-fearing are alike resurrected. Both are
endowed
with physical bodies, with which to suffer or enjoy whatever lies in store for them. The justified enter Gardens of Delight, which are described in the Qurʿān in terms of prevalent, but essentially masculine, tastes (37:42–48). At the reception feast on the Day of Judgment unbelievers fill their bellies with bitter fruit, and “drink down upon it hot water, drinking as drinks the camel crazed with thirst” (56:52–55). They then proceed to hell, where they don “garments of fire” (22:19) and have boiling water poured over their heads. Allāh has made provision against the annihilation of the body of the damned, promising that “whenever their skins are cooked to a turn, We shall substitute new skins for them, that they may feel the punishment” (4:56). Pleas for annihilation are disregarded. Although this is sometimes referred to as the “second death,” the Qurʾān is explicit that in this state the damned “neither live nor die” (87:13).
A special fate is reserved for the
martyrs
of Islām;
i.e.,
for those who fall in a
jihād
(“holy war”). Their evil deeds are instantly expiated and the formalities of judgment are waived; they enter the Garden immediately. Similar dispensations are promised to “those who had left their homes, or been driven therefrom, or who had suffered harm” in the divine cause (3:195). For the
Shīʾites
, followers of the smaller of Islām’s two major branches, the prospects for martyrdom are even wider. A major event of the origin of Shīʾism, moreover, was the slaughter of the Prophet’s grandson, Ḥusayn, in 680; this heritage has imbued Shīʾism with a zeal for martyrdom. Some of the behaviour of Islāmic fundamentalists is explicable from this perspective.
A gentler strand in Islāmic
eschatology
produced, over the centuries, a series of reinterpretations or
adaptations
of the original doctrine, some of whose tenets were even claimed to have been only metaphorical. These tendencies, which stressed individual responsibility, were often influenced by the Ṣūfīs (Islāmic mystics).
Muslims accord a great respect to dead bodies, which have to be disposed of very promptly. The mere suggestion of cremation, however, is viewed with abhorrence. The philosophical basis, if any, of this attitude is not clear. It is not stated, for instance, that an intact body will be required at the time of
resurrection
. It is unlikely, moreover, that the abhorrence—which Orthodox Jews share—arose out of a desire to
differentiate
Islāmic practices from those of other “people of the Book” (
i.e.,
Jews and Christians). The attitude toward dead bodies has had practical consequences; for instance, in relation to
medical education
. It is almost impossible to carry out
postmortem
examinations in many Islāmic countries. Medical students in
Saudi Arabia
, for example, study
anatomy
on corpses imported from non-Islāmic countries. They learn pathology only from textbooks; many complete their medical training never having seen a real brain destroyed by a real
cerebral hemorrhage
.
In 1982
organ
donation
after death was declared
ḥallāl
(“permissible”) by the Senior ʾUlamāʿ Commission, the highest religious authority on such matters in Saudi Arabia (and hence throughout the Islāmic world). Tales
inculcated
in
childhood
continue, however, to influence public attitudes in Islāmic nations. The widely told story of how the Prophet’s uncle Ḥamzah was murdered by the heathen Hind, who then opened the murdered man’s belly and chewed up his liver, has slowed public acceptance of liver transplantation. Kidney transplantation is more acceptable, perhaps because the Ḥadīth explicitly states that those entering the Garden will never more urinate. |
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- [The biological problems](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/The-meaning-of-death#ref22174)
- [Death: process or event](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Death-process-or-event)
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- [Clinical death](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Cell-death#ref22178)
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- [Evolution of the concept of brain-stem death](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Mechanisms-of-brain-stem-death#ref22181)
- [Diagnosis of brain-stem death](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Diagnosis-of-brain-stem-death)
- [The cultural background](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Diagnosis-of-brain-stem-death#ref22183)
- [Ancient Egypt](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Ancient-Egypt)
- [Mesopotamia](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Mesopotamia)
- [Judaism](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Mesopotamia#ref22186)
- [Hinduism](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Hinduism)
- [Death practices](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Hinduism#ref22188)
- [The fate of the soul](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/The-fate-of-the-soul)
- [Islām](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/The-fate-of-the-soul#ref22190)
- [Christianity](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Christianity)
- [The Christian legacy](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Christianity#ref22192)
- [Descartes, the pineal soul, and brain-stem death](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Descartes-the-pineal-soul-and-brain-stem-death)
- [Public attitudes](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Public-attitudes)
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## The fate of the soul
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# [The cultural background](https://www.britannica.com/science/death/Diagnosis-of-brain-stem-death#ref22183)
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What happens between death and [reincarnation](https://www.britannica.com/topic/reincarnation) is seldom discussed in articles about Hinduism. This is regrettable, for the perception of these events helps explain some of the rites of the religion and provides unique insights into the human preference, when thinking about death, to conceptualize [metaphysical](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphysical) developments in very concrete terms.
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Immediately after death, the soul is not clothed in a physical body but in a vaporous thumb-sized [structure](https://www.britannica.com/topic/lingam) (*linga ṡarīra*). This is immediately seized by two servants of [Yama](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yama-Hindu-god), the god of death, who carry it to their master for a preliminary identity check. Afterward, the soul is promptly returned to the [abode](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abode) of the deceased, where it hovers around the doorstep. It is important that the [cremation](https://www.britannica.com/topic/cremation) be completed by the time of the soul’s return, to prevent it from reentering the body. By the 10th day, the near relatives have purged some of the defilement (*mṛitaka sutaka*) they incurred from the death, and the chief mourner and a priest are ready to carry out the first *[śrāddha](https://www.britannica.com/topic/shraddha)* (ritual of respect). This is a step toward the reconstitution of a more substantial physical body (*yatana ṡarīra*) around the disembodied soul (*[preta](https://www.britannica.com/topic/preta)*) of the deceased. A tiny trench is dug in a ritually purified piece of land by a river, and the presence of [Vishnu](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vishnu) is [invoked](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invoked). Ten balls of barley flour mixed with sugar, honey, milk, curds, ghee, and sesame seeds are then placed, one by one, in the soil. As the first ball is offered, the priest says (and the son repeats after him), “May this create a head”; with the second ball, “May this create neck and shoulders”; with the third, “May this create [heart](https://www.britannica.com/science/heart) and chest”; and so on. The 10th request is for the ball to create the capacity to digest, thereby satisfying the hunger and thirst of the newly created body. Bungled ceremonies can have catastrophic effects. Prayers are offered to Vishnu to help deliver the new [entity](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/entity) (now perceived as some 18 inches \[46 centimetres\] long) into the power of Yama. The balls of barley are picked up from the trench and thrown into the river. Further *śrāddha*s are performed at prescribed times, varying according to caste; one of these rituals makes the soul an ancestral spirit, or *[pitṛi](https://www.britannica.com/topic/pitri)*. With the completion of these rituals, the soul of the deceased leaves this world for its yearlong and perilous journey to Yama’s kingdom. The family is now formally cleansed. The men shave their heads, and the women wash their hair. The family’s tutelary god (removed by a friend at the time of the death) can be returned to its home. A feast is offered to Brahmans, neighbours, and beggars—even the local cows are given fresh grass. There is a sense of general relief: if the *śrāddha*s had not been performed, the *preta* could have become a *[bhūta](https://www.britannica.com/topic/bhut)* (malignant spirit), repeatedly turning up to frighten the living. For the deceased, things would have been worse: the *preta* would have been left errant. (A similar fate befalls the soul of a person who commits suicide.) The horror of dying unshriven that haunted people in [medieval](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medieval) Europe resembles the despair of the devout Hindu at the prospect of having no son to perform the *śrāddha*s.
The soul, in its substantial envelope, is meanwhile proceeding on its journey, holding onto a cow’s tail to cross the Vaitarani, a horrible river of blood and filth that marks the boundary of Yama’s kingdom. Throughout, it is sustained by further *śrāddha*s, during which friends on earth seek to provide it with shoes, umbrellas, clothing, and money. These they give to a Brahman, in the hope that the deceased will benefit. During such [rituals](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/rituals) relatives have to avoid all sewing, which might occlude the *pitṛi*’s throat, rendering it incapable of ever [breathing](https://www.britannica.com/science/breathing) or drinking again. After a year, the *pitṛi* in its *yatana ṡarīra* reaches Yama’s seat of judgment, where it is sentenced to a strictly limited term in [heaven](https://www.britannica.com/topic/heaven) (*svarga*) or [hell](https://www.britannica.com/topic/hell) (*naraka*) according to its deserts. This completed, it moves into another body (the *karaṇa ṡarīra*), whose form depends on the individual’s *karman*. It could be a plant, a cockroach, a canine intestinal parasite, a mouse, or a [human being](https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-being). Unlike Jains, Hindus believe that whatever body the soul eventually moves into, it inhabits as sole tenant, not as a tenement lodger.
## [Islām](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam)
Probably no religion deals in such graphic detail as does Islām with the creation, death, “life in the tomb,” and ultimate fate of humankind. Yet the [Qurʿān](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran), the holy book of Islām, itself provides no uniform or systematic approach to these problems. It is only in its later parts (which date from the period when the small Muslim [community](https://www.britannica.com/science/community-biology) in Medina had come into contact with other religious influences) that problems such as the relation of sleep to death, the significance of breathing, and the question of when and how the soul leaves the body are addressed in any detail. Popular Muslim beliefs are based on still later traditions. These are recorded in the *Kitāb al-rūḥ* (“Book of the Soul”) written in the 14th century by the Ḥanbalī theologian Muḥammad ibn Abī-Bakr ibn Qayyīm al-Jawzīyah.
The basic [premise](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/premise) of all Qurʿānic teaching concerning death is [Allāh](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Allah)’s omnipotence: he creates human beings, [determines](https://www.britannica.com/topic/predestination) their life span, and causes them to die. The Qurʿān states: “Some will die early, while others are made to live to a miserable [old age](https://www.britannica.com/science/old-age), when all that they once knew they shall know no more (22:5; *i.e.,* *sūrah* \[chapter\] 22, verse 5). Damnation and salvation are equally predetermined: “Allāh leaves to stray whom he willeth, and guideth whom he willeth” (35:8). As for those whom Allāh leaves astray, the Qurʿān states that “for them there will be no helpers” (30:29). Allāh has decided many will fail: “If We had so willed We could certainly cause proper guidance to come to every soul, but true is My saying ‘assuredly I shall fill Jihannam’ ” (32:13).
In this perspective the individual’s fate (including the mode and time of death) appears inescapably predetermined. The very term *Islām*, Arabic for “surrender,” implies an absolute [submission](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/submission) to the will of God. But what freedom does this allow those predestined to continue in the path of error, or to reject God’s will? And if there is no such freedom, what sense was there in the mission of the Prophet Muḥammad (Islām’s founder) and his appeal to people to alter their ways? It is hardly surprising that arguments about [free will](https://www.britannica.com/topic/free-will) and predestination broke out soon after the Prophet’s death. The ensuing tensions dominated theological (and other) controversies within Islām during many centuries.
Questions concerning the meaning of life and the nature of the soul are dealt with patchily in both the Qurʿān and the Ḥadīth (the record of the sayings [attributed](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/attributed) to the Prophet). The Qurʿān records that, when asked about these matters by local leaders of the Jewish faith, the Prophet answered that “the spirit cometh by command of God” and that “only a little knowledge was communicated to man” (17:85). Humanity was created from “potter’s clay, from mud molded into shape” into which Allāh has “breathed his spirit” (15:28–29). A vital spirit or soul (*nafs*) is within each human being. It is associated, if not actually identified, with individuality and also with the seat of rational [consciousness](https://www.britannica.com/topic/consciousness). It is interesting to speculate on the possible relation of the term *nafs* to such Arabic words as *nafas* (“breath”) and *nafīs* (“precious”), particularly in a language where there are no written [vowels](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vowels).
Death is repeatedly compared with [sleep](https://www.britannica.com/science/sleep), which is at times described as “the little death.” God takes away people’s souls “during their sleep” and “upon their death.” He “retains those against whom he has decreed death, but returns the others to their bodies for an appointed term” (39:42–43). During death, the soul “rises into the throat” (56:83) before leaving the body. These are interesting passages in the light of modern medical knowledge. The study of sleep has identified the episodic occurrence of short periods during which the limbs are totally flaccid and without reflexes, as would be the limbs of the recently dead. Modern neurophysiology, moreover, stresses the role of structures in the upper part of the [brain stem](https://www.britannica.com/science/brainstem) in the maintenance of the waking state. [Lesions](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/Lesions) just a little higher (in the hypothalamus) cause excessively long episodes of sleep. Irreversible damage at these sites is part of the modern concept of death. Finally, various types of breathing disturbance are characteristic of brain-stem lesions and could have been attributed, in former times, to occurrences in the throat. Nothing in these passages outrages the insights of modern neurology. The absence of any cardiological dimension is striking.
It is orthodox Muslim belief that when someone dies the Angel of Death (*malāk al-mawt*) arrives, sits at the head of the deceased, and addresses each soul according to its known status. According to the *Kitāb al-rūh*, [wicked](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/wicked) souls are instructed “to depart to the wrath of God.” Fearing what awaits them, they seek refuge throughout the body and have to be extracted “like the dragging of an iron skewer through moist wool, tearing the veins and sinews.” Angels place the soul in a hair cloth and “the odour from it is like the stench of a decomposing carcass.” A full record is made, and the soul is then returned to the body in the grave. “Good and contented souls” are instructed “to depart to the mercy of God.” They leave the body, “flowing as easily as a drop from a waterskin”; are wrapped by angels in a perfumed shroud, and are taken to the “seventh heaven,” where the record is kept. These souls, too, are then returned to their bodies.
Two angels coloured blue and black, known as [Munkar](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Munkar) and [Nakīr](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nakir), then question the [deceased](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/deceased) about basic doctrinal tenets. In a sense this trial at the grave (*fitnat al-Qabr*) is a show trial, the verdict having already been decided. Believers hear it proclaimed by a herald, and in anticipation of the comforts of *al-jannah* (the Garden, or “paradise”) their graves expand “as far as the eye can reach.” Unbelievers fail the test. The herald proclaims that they are to be tormented in the grave; a door opens in their tomb to let in heat and smoke from *jihannam* (“hell”), and the tomb itself contracts “so that their ribs are piled up upon one another.” The period between [burial](https://www.britannica.com/topic/burial-death-rite) and the final judgment is known as *al-barzakh*. At the final judgment (*yaum al-Hisāb*), unbelievers and the god-fearing are alike resurrected. Both are [endowed](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/endowed) with physical bodies, with which to suffer or enjoy whatever lies in store for them. The justified enter Gardens of Delight, which are described in the Qurʿān in terms of prevalent, but essentially masculine, tastes (37:42–48). At the reception feast on the Day of Judgment unbelievers fill their bellies with bitter fruit, and “drink down upon it hot water, drinking as drinks the camel crazed with thirst” (56:52–55). They then proceed to hell, where they don “garments of fire” (22:19) and have boiling water poured over their heads. Allāh has made provision against the annihilation of the body of the damned, promising that “whenever their skins are cooked to a turn, We shall substitute new skins for them, that they may feel the punishment” (4:56). Pleas for annihilation are disregarded. Although this is sometimes referred to as the “second death,” the Qurʾān is explicit that in this state the damned “neither live nor die” (87:13).
A special fate is reserved for the [martyrs](https://www.britannica.com/topic/martyr) of Islām; *i.e.,* for those who fall in a *[jihād](https://www.britannica.com/topic/jihad)* (“holy war”). Their evil deeds are instantly expiated and the formalities of judgment are waived; they enter the Garden immediately. Similar dispensations are promised to “those who had left their homes, or been driven therefrom, or who had suffered harm” in the divine cause (3:195). For the [Shīʾites](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shii), followers of the smaller of Islām’s two major branches, the prospects for martyrdom are even wider. A major event of the origin of Shīʾism, moreover, was the slaughter of the Prophet’s grandson, Ḥusayn, in 680; this heritage has imbued Shīʾism with a zeal for martyrdom. Some of the behaviour of Islāmic fundamentalists is explicable from this perspective.
A gentler strand in Islāmic [eschatology](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eschatology) produced, over the centuries, a series of reinterpretations or [adaptations](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adaptations) of the original doctrine, some of whose tenets were even claimed to have been only metaphorical. These tendencies, which stressed individual responsibility, were often influenced by the Ṣūfīs (Islāmic mystics).
Muslims accord a great respect to dead bodies, which have to be disposed of very promptly. The mere suggestion of cremation, however, is viewed with abhorrence. The philosophical basis, if any, of this attitude is not clear. It is not stated, for instance, that an intact body will be required at the time of [resurrection](https://www.britannica.com/topic/resurrection-religion). It is unlikely, moreover, that the abhorrence—which Orthodox Jews share—arose out of a desire to [differentiate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/differentiate) Islāmic practices from those of other “people of the Book” (*i.e.,* Jews and Christians). The attitude toward dead bodies has had practical consequences; for instance, in relation to [medical education](https://www.britannica.com/science/medical-education). It is almost impossible to carry out [postmortem](https://www.britannica.com/topic/autopsy) examinations in many Islāmic countries. Medical students in [Saudi Arabia](https://www.britannica.com/place/Saudi-Arabia), for example, study [anatomy](https://www.britannica.com/science/anatomy) on corpses imported from non-Islāmic countries. They learn pathology only from textbooks; many complete their medical training never having seen a real brain destroyed by a real [cerebral hemorrhage](https://www.britannica.com/science/stroke-medical-condition).
In 1982 [organ](https://www.britannica.com/science/organ-biology) [donation](https://www.britannica.com/science/transplant-surgery) after death was declared *ḥallāl* (“permissible”) by the Senior ʾUlamāʿ Commission, the highest religious authority on such matters in Saudi Arabia (and hence throughout the Islāmic world). Tales [inculcated](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/inculcated) in [childhood](https://www.britannica.com/science/childhood) continue, however, to influence public attitudes in Islāmic nations. The widely told story of how the Prophet’s uncle Ḥamzah was murdered by the heathen Hind, who then opened the murdered man’s belly and chewed up his liver, has slowed public acceptance of liver transplantation. Kidney transplantation is more acceptable, perhaps because the Ḥadīth explicitly states that those entering the Garden will never more urinate.
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# [Christianity](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity)
## The Christian legacy
The spread of rationalistic and scientific ideas since the 18th century has undermined many aspects of religion, including many Christian beliefs. The church, moreover, although still seeking to exert its influence, has ceased to dominate civil life in the way it once did. Religion is no longer the pivot of all social relations as it once was in [ancient Egypt](https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Egypt) and still is in some Islāmic countries. The decline of the church is epitomized by the fact that, while it is still prepared to speak of the symbolic significance of the death of [Jesus Christ](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus) (and of human death in general), it has ceased to emphasize many aspects of its initial [eschatology](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eschatology) and to concern itself, as in the past, with the particular details of individual death. In the age of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the elaborate descriptions of [heaven](https://www.britannica.com/topic/heaven), purgatory, and [hell](https://www.britannica.com/topic/hell) in Dante’s *Divine Comedy*, while remaining beautiful literature, at best raise a smile if thought of as outlines for humanity’s future.
Death is at the very core of the Christian religion. Not only is the cross to be found in cemeteries and places of worship alike, but the [premise](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/premise) of the religion is that, by their own action, humans have forfeited [immortality](https://www.britannica.com/topic/immortality). Through abuse of the freedom granted in the [Garden of Eden](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Garden-of-Eden), Adam and Eve not only sinned and fell from grace, but they also transmitted sin to their descendants: the sins of the fathers are visited on the children. And as “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), death became the universal fate: “Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men” (Rom. 5:12). Christian theologians spent the best part of two millennia sorting out these [implications](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implications) and devising ways out of the dire prognosis [implicit](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implicit) in the concept of [original sin](https://www.britannica.com/topic/original-sin). The main salvation was to be baptism into the death of Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:3–4).
Among early Christians delay in the promised [Second Coming](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Coming) of Christ led to an increasing preoccupation with what happened to the dead as they awaited the [resurrection](https://www.britannica.com/topic/resurrection-religion) and the [Last Judgment](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Last-Judgment-religion). One view was that there would be an immediate individual judgment and that instant [justice](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/justice) would follow: the deceased would be dispatched forthwith to hell or paradise. This notion demeaned the impact of the great prophecy of a [collective](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/collective) mass resurrection, followed by a public mass trial on a gigantic scale. Moreover, it deprived the dead of any chance of a [postmortem](https://www.britannica.com/topic/autopsy) (*i.e.,* very belated) expiation of their misdeeds. The Roman Catholic notion of [purgatory](https://www.britannica.com/topic/purgatory-Roman-Catholicism) sought to resolve the latter problem; regulated torture would expiate some of the sins of those not totally beyond redemption.
The second view was that the dead just slept, pending the mass resurrection. But as the [sleep](https://www.britannica.com/science/sleep) might last for millennia, it was felt that the heavenly gratification of the just was being arbitrarily, and somewhat unfairly, deferred. As for the wicked, they were obtaining an unwarranted respite. The Carthaginian theologian [Tertullian](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tertullian), one of the Church Fathers, outlined the possibility of still further adjustments. In his *Adversus Marcionem*, written about 207, he described “a spatial concept that may be called Abraham’s bosom for receiving the soul of all people.” Although not celestial, it was “above the lower regions and would provide refreshment (*refrigerium*) to the souls of the just until the consummation of all things in the great resurrection.” The [Byzantine](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Byzantine) Church formally [endorsed](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/endorsed) the concept, which inspired some most interesting art in both eastern and western Europe.
During its early years, the Christian Church debated death in largely religious terms. The *acerbitas mortis* (“bitterness of death”) was very real, and pious deathbeds had to be fortified by the acceptance of pain as an offering to God. Life expectancy fell far short of the promised threescore years and 10. Eastern [medicine](https://www.britannica.com/science/medicine) remained for a long time in advance of that practiced in the West, and the church’s interventions were largely spiritual. It was only during the Renaissance and the later age of Enlightenment that an [intellectual](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual) shift became perceptible.
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External Websites
- [Frontiers - The Neurology of Death and the Dying Brain: A pictorial essay](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.00736/full)
- [Cleveland Clinic - What Happens When You Die](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23144-what-happens-when-you-die)
- [Australian Museum - Death: the last taboo](https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/death-the-last-taboo/)
- [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Death](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/death/)
- [National Center for Biotechnology Information - What and When Is Death?](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK464649/)
- [JewishEncyclopedia.com - Death, Views and Customs Concerning](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5019-death-views-and-customs-concerning/)
- [EWTN - Death and the Hope of Immortality](https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/death-and-the-hope-of-immortality-21313)
- [Live Science - What happens when you die?](https://www.livescience.com/42955-what-happens-when-you-die.html)
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- [death - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)](https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/death/399421)
- [death - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)](https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/death/273938) |
| Readable Markdown | What happens between death and [reincarnation](https://www.britannica.com/topic/reincarnation) is seldom discussed in articles about Hinduism. This is regrettable, for the perception of these events helps explain some of the rites of the religion and provides unique insights into the human preference, when thinking about death, to conceptualize [metaphysical](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphysical) developments in very concrete terms.
## News •
Immediately after death, the soul is not clothed in a physical body but in a vaporous thumb-sized [structure](https://www.britannica.com/topic/lingam) (*linga ṡarīra*). This is immediately seized by two servants of [Yama](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yama-Hindu-god), the god of death, who carry it to their master for a preliminary identity check. Afterward, the soul is promptly returned to the [abode](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abode) of the deceased, where it hovers around the doorstep. It is important that the [cremation](https://www.britannica.com/topic/cremation) be completed by the time of the soul’s return, to prevent it from reentering the body. By the 10th day, the near relatives have purged some of the defilement (*mṛitaka sutaka*) they incurred from the death, and the chief mourner and a priest are ready to carry out the first *[śrāddha](https://www.britannica.com/topic/shraddha)* (ritual of respect). This is a step toward the reconstitution of a more substantial physical body (*yatana ṡarīra*) around the disembodied soul (*[preta](https://www.britannica.com/topic/preta)*) of the deceased. A tiny trench is dug in a ritually purified piece of land by a river, and the presence of [Vishnu](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vishnu) is [invoked](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invoked). Ten balls of barley flour mixed with sugar, honey, milk, curds, ghee, and sesame seeds are then placed, one by one, in the soil. As the first ball is offered, the priest says (and the son repeats after him), “May this create a head”; with the second ball, “May this create neck and shoulders”; with the third, “May this create [heart](https://www.britannica.com/science/heart) and chest”; and so on. The 10th request is for the ball to create the capacity to digest, thereby satisfying the hunger and thirst of the newly created body. Bungled ceremonies can have catastrophic effects. Prayers are offered to Vishnu to help deliver the new [entity](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/entity) (now perceived as some 18 inches \[46 centimetres\] long) into the power of Yama. The balls of barley are picked up from the trench and thrown into the river. Further *śrāddha*s are performed at prescribed times, varying according to caste; one of these rituals makes the soul an ancestral spirit, or *[pitṛi](https://www.britannica.com/topic/pitri)*. With the completion of these rituals, the soul of the deceased leaves this world for its yearlong and perilous journey to Yama’s kingdom. The family is now formally cleansed. The men shave their heads, and the women wash their hair. The family’s tutelary god (removed by a friend at the time of the death) can be returned to its home. A feast is offered to Brahmans, neighbours, and beggars—even the local cows are given fresh grass. There is a sense of general relief: if the *śrāddha*s had not been performed, the *preta* could have become a *[bhūta](https://www.britannica.com/topic/bhut)* (malignant spirit), repeatedly turning up to frighten the living. For the deceased, things would have been worse: the *preta* would have been left errant. (A similar fate befalls the soul of a person who commits suicide.) The horror of dying unshriven that haunted people in [medieval](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medieval) Europe resembles the despair of the devout Hindu at the prospect of having no son to perform the *śrāddha*s.
The soul, in its substantial envelope, is meanwhile proceeding on its journey, holding onto a cow’s tail to cross the Vaitarani, a horrible river of blood and filth that marks the boundary of Yama’s kingdom. Throughout, it is sustained by further *śrāddha*s, during which friends on earth seek to provide it with shoes, umbrellas, clothing, and money. These they give to a Brahman, in the hope that the deceased will benefit. During such [rituals](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/rituals) relatives have to avoid all sewing, which might occlude the *pitṛi*’s throat, rendering it incapable of ever [breathing](https://www.britannica.com/science/breathing) or drinking again. After a year, the *pitṛi* in its *yatana ṡarīra* reaches Yama’s seat of judgment, where it is sentenced to a strictly limited term in [heaven](https://www.britannica.com/topic/heaven) (*svarga*) or [hell](https://www.britannica.com/topic/hell) (*naraka*) according to its deserts. This completed, it moves into another body (the *karaṇa ṡarīra*), whose form depends on the individual’s *karman*. It could be a plant, a cockroach, a canine intestinal parasite, a mouse, or a [human being](https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-being). Unlike Jains, Hindus believe that whatever body the soul eventually moves into, it inhabits as sole tenant, not as a tenement lodger.
## [Islām](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam)
Probably no religion deals in such graphic detail as does Islām with the creation, death, “life in the tomb,” and ultimate fate of humankind. Yet the [Qurʿān](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran), the holy book of Islām, itself provides no uniform or systematic approach to these problems. It is only in its later parts (which date from the period when the small Muslim [community](https://www.britannica.com/science/community-biology) in Medina had come into contact with other religious influences) that problems such as the relation of sleep to death, the significance of breathing, and the question of when and how the soul leaves the body are addressed in any detail. Popular Muslim beliefs are based on still later traditions. These are recorded in the *Kitāb al-rūḥ* (“Book of the Soul”) written in the 14th century by the Ḥanbalī theologian Muḥammad ibn Abī-Bakr ibn Qayyīm al-Jawzīyah.
The basic [premise](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/premise) of all Qurʿānic teaching concerning death is [Allāh](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Allah)’s omnipotence: he creates human beings, [determines](https://www.britannica.com/topic/predestination) their life span, and causes them to die. The Qurʿān states: “Some will die early, while others are made to live to a miserable [old age](https://www.britannica.com/science/old-age), when all that they once knew they shall know no more (22:5; *i.e.,* *sūrah* \[chapter\] 22, verse 5). Damnation and salvation are equally predetermined: “Allāh leaves to stray whom he willeth, and guideth whom he willeth” (35:8). As for those whom Allāh leaves astray, the Qurʿān states that “for them there will be no helpers” (30:29). Allāh has decided many will fail: “If We had so willed We could certainly cause proper guidance to come to every soul, but true is My saying ‘assuredly I shall fill Jihannam’ ” (32:13).
In this perspective the individual’s fate (including the mode and time of death) appears inescapably predetermined. The very term *Islām*, Arabic for “surrender,” implies an absolute [submission](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/submission) to the will of God. But what freedom does this allow those predestined to continue in the path of error, or to reject God’s will? And if there is no such freedom, what sense was there in the mission of the Prophet Muḥammad (Islām’s founder) and his appeal to people to alter their ways? It is hardly surprising that arguments about [free will](https://www.britannica.com/topic/free-will) and predestination broke out soon after the Prophet’s death. The ensuing tensions dominated theological (and other) controversies within Islām during many centuries.
Questions concerning the meaning of life and the nature of the soul are dealt with patchily in both the Qurʿān and the Ḥadīth (the record of the sayings [attributed](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/attributed) to the Prophet). The Qurʿān records that, when asked about these matters by local leaders of the Jewish faith, the Prophet answered that “the spirit cometh by command of God” and that “only a little knowledge was communicated to man” (17:85). Humanity was created from “potter’s clay, from mud molded into shape” into which Allāh has “breathed his spirit” (15:28–29). A vital spirit or soul (*nafs*) is within each human being. It is associated, if not actually identified, with individuality and also with the seat of rational [consciousness](https://www.britannica.com/topic/consciousness). It is interesting to speculate on the possible relation of the term *nafs* to such Arabic words as *nafas* (“breath”) and *nafīs* (“precious”), particularly in a language where there are no written [vowels](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vowels).
Death is repeatedly compared with [sleep](https://www.britannica.com/science/sleep), which is at times described as “the little death.” God takes away people’s souls “during their sleep” and “upon their death.” He “retains those against whom he has decreed death, but returns the others to their bodies for an appointed term” (39:42–43). During death, the soul “rises into the throat” (56:83) before leaving the body. These are interesting passages in the light of modern medical knowledge. The study of sleep has identified the episodic occurrence of short periods during which the limbs are totally flaccid and without reflexes, as would be the limbs of the recently dead. Modern neurophysiology, moreover, stresses the role of structures in the upper part of the [brain stem](https://www.britannica.com/science/brainstem) in the maintenance of the waking state. [Lesions](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/Lesions) just a little higher (in the hypothalamus) cause excessively long episodes of sleep. Irreversible damage at these sites is part of the modern concept of death. Finally, various types of breathing disturbance are characteristic of brain-stem lesions and could have been attributed, in former times, to occurrences in the throat. Nothing in these passages outrages the insights of modern neurology. The absence of any cardiological dimension is striking.
It is orthodox Muslim belief that when someone dies the Angel of Death (*malāk al-mawt*) arrives, sits at the head of the deceased, and addresses each soul according to its known status. According to the *Kitāb al-rūh*, [wicked](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/wicked) souls are instructed “to depart to the wrath of God.” Fearing what awaits them, they seek refuge throughout the body and have to be extracted “like the dragging of an iron skewer through moist wool, tearing the veins and sinews.” Angels place the soul in a hair cloth and “the odour from it is like the stench of a decomposing carcass.” A full record is made, and the soul is then returned to the body in the grave. “Good and contented souls” are instructed “to depart to the mercy of God.” They leave the body, “flowing as easily as a drop from a waterskin”; are wrapped by angels in a perfumed shroud, and are taken to the “seventh heaven,” where the record is kept. These souls, too, are then returned to their bodies.
Two angels coloured blue and black, known as [Munkar](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Munkar) and [Nakīr](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nakir), then question the [deceased](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/deceased) about basic doctrinal tenets. In a sense this trial at the grave (*fitnat al-Qabr*) is a show trial, the verdict having already been decided. Believers hear it proclaimed by a herald, and in anticipation of the comforts of *al-jannah* (the Garden, or “paradise”) their graves expand “as far as the eye can reach.” Unbelievers fail the test. The herald proclaims that they are to be tormented in the grave; a door opens in their tomb to let in heat and smoke from *jihannam* (“hell”), and the tomb itself contracts “so that their ribs are piled up upon one another.” The period between [burial](https://www.britannica.com/topic/burial-death-rite) and the final judgment is known as *al-barzakh*. At the final judgment (*yaum al-Hisāb*), unbelievers and the god-fearing are alike resurrected. Both are [endowed](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/endowed) with physical bodies, with which to suffer or enjoy whatever lies in store for them. The justified enter Gardens of Delight, which are described in the Qurʿān in terms of prevalent, but essentially masculine, tastes (37:42–48). At the reception feast on the Day of Judgment unbelievers fill their bellies with bitter fruit, and “drink down upon it hot water, drinking as drinks the camel crazed with thirst” (56:52–55). They then proceed to hell, where they don “garments of fire” (22:19) and have boiling water poured over their heads. Allāh has made provision against the annihilation of the body of the damned, promising that “whenever their skins are cooked to a turn, We shall substitute new skins for them, that they may feel the punishment” (4:56). Pleas for annihilation are disregarded. Although this is sometimes referred to as the “second death,” the Qurʾān is explicit that in this state the damned “neither live nor die” (87:13).
A special fate is reserved for the [martyrs](https://www.britannica.com/topic/martyr) of Islām; *i.e.,* for those who fall in a *[jihād](https://www.britannica.com/topic/jihad)* (“holy war”). Their evil deeds are instantly expiated and the formalities of judgment are waived; they enter the Garden immediately. Similar dispensations are promised to “those who had left their homes, or been driven therefrom, or who had suffered harm” in the divine cause (3:195). For the [Shīʾites](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shii), followers of the smaller of Islām’s two major branches, the prospects for martyrdom are even wider. A major event of the origin of Shīʾism, moreover, was the slaughter of the Prophet’s grandson, Ḥusayn, in 680; this heritage has imbued Shīʾism with a zeal for martyrdom. Some of the behaviour of Islāmic fundamentalists is explicable from this perspective.
A gentler strand in Islāmic [eschatology](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eschatology) produced, over the centuries, a series of reinterpretations or [adaptations](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adaptations) of the original doctrine, some of whose tenets were even claimed to have been only metaphorical. These tendencies, which stressed individual responsibility, were often influenced by the Ṣūfīs (Islāmic mystics).
Muslims accord a great respect to dead bodies, which have to be disposed of very promptly. The mere suggestion of cremation, however, is viewed with abhorrence. The philosophical basis, if any, of this attitude is not clear. It is not stated, for instance, that an intact body will be required at the time of [resurrection](https://www.britannica.com/topic/resurrection-religion). It is unlikely, moreover, that the abhorrence—which Orthodox Jews share—arose out of a desire to [differentiate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/differentiate) Islāmic practices from those of other “people of the Book” (*i.e.,* Jews and Christians). The attitude toward dead bodies has had practical consequences; for instance, in relation to [medical education](https://www.britannica.com/science/medical-education). It is almost impossible to carry out [postmortem](https://www.britannica.com/topic/autopsy) examinations in many Islāmic countries. Medical students in [Saudi Arabia](https://www.britannica.com/place/Saudi-Arabia), for example, study [anatomy](https://www.britannica.com/science/anatomy) on corpses imported from non-Islāmic countries. They learn pathology only from textbooks; many complete their medical training never having seen a real brain destroyed by a real [cerebral hemorrhage](https://www.britannica.com/science/stroke-medical-condition).
In 1982 [organ](https://www.britannica.com/science/organ-biology) [donation](https://www.britannica.com/science/transplant-surgery) after death was declared *ḥallāl* (“permissible”) by the Senior ʾUlamāʿ Commission, the highest religious authority on such matters in Saudi Arabia (and hence throughout the Islāmic world). Tales [inculcated](https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/inculcated) in [childhood](https://www.britannica.com/science/childhood) continue, however, to influence public attitudes in Islāmic nations. The widely told story of how the Prophet’s uncle Ḥamzah was murdered by the heathen Hind, who then opened the murdered man’s belly and chewed up his liver, has slowed public acceptance of liver transplantation. Kidney transplantation is more acceptable, perhaps because the Ḥadīth explicitly states that those entering the Garden will never more urinate. |
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