What is the Muslim view of the Afterlife?
Muslims believe that death is not the end of life, but rather a transitory state. After death, life continues in a different form. Various verses in the Qur’an describe Heaven as a place of blissful gardens and rivers, where all of one’s desires may be fulfilled, while Hell is described as a place of fire and torment. Some scholars believe that such descriptions are in part allegorical, and serve to provide in human terms a symbol for the experience of the afterlife. Even so, no matter what form they take, physical or ethereal, reward and punishment are considered patently real by Muslims. “O my devotees! No fear shall be on you that Day, nor shall you grieve. Tell those who believe in Our signs and surrender themselves: ‘Enter the Garden rejoicing, both you and your spouses!’ To them will be passed round dishes and goblets of gold; there they will have all that the souls could desire; all that the eyes could delight in; and you shall abide therein forever. Such will be the Garden of w