In the past week, I have been treated to the most bizarre of the stories – about my own cousin who I will call Wilson. A robust young professional with a promising career, a young family and a crowd of admirers in the community around him, Wilson, shocked everyone after, falling ill for about three months and unexpectedly ending his short promising life. His funeral was a story of shock and disbelief, pain and anger at nobody in particular. To cap the whole story, a few months later, it is reported the young industrious young man is back from the dead with so much fury at some individuals who are suspected to be responsible for his sudden demise. Am not the kind to believe in superstitious matters like dead people coming back to haunt the living, reason being the religious and pragmatic side in me believes that life should be left to the living and eternal life to those who have left the realm of this earth. So the question begs, how does one avenge a successful murder of oneself? Are man’s laws which are seldom effectively fair enough, take charge of matters that many times are out of man’s hands? Wilson may have been or been not killed. One medical science almost always gives a medical reason for death, yet African tradition makes space for such reasons as witchcraft which life religious faith reinforces the idea of miracles and the power of inexplicable. When we fall sick we go to hospital yet when medical science fails we turn to faith. Do medical doctors use faith in order to execute their calling effectively? In some Asian faiths, life after death or after life is common, as humans who sin have their afterlife as animals while those who lead a good life have their afterlife as humans. According to online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Christian Science teaches that the after-death state consists of a form of “probation” and spiritual development / progress whereby the experience of the deceased is in proportion to their ability to avail of the unlimited love of God. Consequently, a person dying in a state of sin would experience God’s love as suffering (like a person used to darkness whose eyes are hurt by the light) while someone who passed on in a state of spiritualized consciousness would experience a corresponding level of happiness. Radiation oncologist and author of Evidence of the Afterlife Dr. Jeffrey Long says that if you look at the scientific evidence, the answer (to whether there is an afterlife) is unequivocally yes. Drawing on a decade’s worth of research on near-death experiences — work that includes cataloguing the stories of some 1,600 people who have gone through them — he makes the case for that controversial conclusion in his book. Wilson and many other loved ones are clearly past his life on earth, whether they has an afterlife or not, is not something we can prove beyond doubt, as much we would like to see them alive. According to Islam, true justice can only be meted out in the afterlife, which will have none of these limitations. The Qur’an states that the Day of Judgment must come and that God will decide the fate of each soul according to his or her record of deeds. I wish you a thoughtful Sunday. kelviod@yahoo.com
