...Death and the Afterlife (continued)

The Traverse

Mankind, after the terrors(mentioned previously), shall be drive to the Traverse, which is a bridge stretched over the gulf of Hell, sharper than a sword and thinner than a hair. Whosoever has in the world kept upright upon the Straight Path (al-sirat almustaqim) shall bear lightly upon the Traverse (sirat) of the Afterlife, and will be saved. But whosoever deviates from uprightness in this world, and weighs down his back with burdens, and disobeys his Lord, shall slip upon taking his first step on the Traverse, and shall go to perdition.

Now mediate upon the terror which shall alight upon your heart at the time when you behold the Traverse and its slenderness, and when your eye then falls upon the core of the Inferno beneath you as your ears are assailed by the moaning and raging of Hell.

You are obliged to walk over this Traverse, despite your weak condition, your palpitating heart, your quaking feet and the burdens which lie so heavily upon your back that you would be incapable of walking upon the flat earth, let alone the sharpness of the Traverse. How shall you fare, then when you have set one of your feet upon it and felt its sharpness, and are compelled to lift your other foot up, while all the time people before you are staggering and slipping off, to be caught by the Angels of Hell with hooks and grapples. You shall watch them toppling over and falling head first towards Hell, with their feet uppermost.

O, how foul is that scene, how difficult that slope, and how narrow that crossing-place!
Look to how your condition shall be when you crawl and ascend upon it, weighed down by the burdens which lie upon your back, glancing to your rightand left at other men as they tumble into Hell. And the Emissary (s.a.w) shall be saying, 'O Lord! Deliver! Deliver!' while shrieks of woe and suffering rise up from the bottom of the Inferno (for many there are who have already slipped from the Traverse). How, then, shall you fare, when your own foot slips, and your contrition avails you not, and you cry in woe and sorrow, saying, 'This is what i used to fear!
Would that I had sent before me something for my ow life! would that I had taken a path with the Emissary! Woe is me! Would that I had never taken so and so as a friend! Would that I were dust! Would that i were forgotten, forgetting! Would that my mother had never begotten me!'....

How do you view your thinking now, when these perils are in front of you? Should you not believe in this, then how prolonged will be your abiding with the unbelievers in the Inferno's depths! Should you believe in it, however, but be heedless thereof and of making preparations for it, out of indifference, then how much have you lost, and how great is your sin! of what use to you is your faith if it does not spur you on to the diligent quest for the satisfaction of God through obedience to Him, and to abandoning acts of rebellion against Him. were there to lie before you no terror save that of the Traverse alone, and the dismay felt by your heart at the peril of crossing it, then even should you receive deliverance it would provide such horror, fear and panic as would always suffice you.... (to be continued)