Over the weekend i bought Mitch Albom's latest novel, "The Five People We Meet in Heaven" -- his first work, "Tuesdays with Morrie" had a significant impact on how i looked at life, so i wasn't going to miss Albom's latest book.
As i read it, all sorts of thoughts have filtered into my mind, mostly surrounding religion and its purpose in our lives. A significant reason why religion exists, imho, is to provide answers to the unknown; one of the biggest unknowns out there is "what happens to us when we die?". The Big Question all religions seem to have The Answer to.
For Muslims, Heaven is... well, an interesting place -- rivers of alcohol (Muslims are allowed to drink alcohol in Heaven), throngs of virgin women to cater to our every whim, a place of light, serenity, full of beautiful things and happiness. At least this is what i was told Heaven was like by the ustaz and imams who were largely responsible for my religious tuition.
For some reason, this just seems so... strange. I've got a feeling heaven isn't like that at all. "Rivers of fine wine" and "busty virgin women" -- such a machoistic heaven just doesn't sound right.
What i do expect is a Heaven of happiness and peace and forgiveness. And these things can be very different depending on who you ask. For some, "rivers of wine" may be heaven. For others, an old library full of mankind's most splendid literature may be heaven. With this in mind, perhaps "heaven" will be different for each of us?
For me, a reunion with my family and loved ones would be heaven. A heaven of forgiveness, compassion and mercy, lorded by a God that judges us on the merits of our lives as a whole rather than the direction in which we offer our prayers. Heaven is, as heaven will be.
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