Image: La Mort de Géricault by Scheffer
How is it that we know what death is all about? Many religions and cultures have their views on life after death, if any. We have interpretations of what death feels like, but is death an experience? We know what sadness feels like; we know what joy feels like because we have actually experienced those emotions and lived through those experiences, but we don’t know what death feels like, for to experience death means life is no more. To experience death means life has ended. Death is fascinating; it’s something we all will face and have to face, yet no one knows what it “feels like”.
We can predict, and we have done so, what death must feel like through interpretations and doing what we are best at: thinking. Death must feel like liberation from the stupidity of this world. We are so scared of death, for we fear it more than the dying person. We care more for what we will miss when that person leaves than we do for allowing that person to leave. Our fear of death shows our greed and our desire to hoard everything, thinking it will last forever. When a person is dying, they should be allowed to die in peace.
Life, Heaven, and Hell
My view on death is more of an Islamic perspective with some Buddhist aspects. As a Muslim I believe that there is life after death; we do not belong on this planet. I mean, look at your hand, and if you’re wearing a watch, then that’s even more proof of not belonging. What species needs a time-telling device on their body? There is heaven, where we come from, our true home, but there is also hell. If heaven is our home and hell is our prison, then what is our park? But then again, a park is our idea of relaxation. Maybe heaven and hell go beyond just heaven and hell, but what is for certain is that we do not fit the pattern of life. I think death needs to be celebrated; death needs to be recognised as the end of our vacation on earth and going back to our home, heaven. Some might get arrested along the way and sent to hell, our prison.
Freedom in Death
I think there is a kind of freedom in death, knowing all you worked for and all the objects you collected were for nothing. Death is a freedom from what we know as life. Death is beautiful; death is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you cannot share. Death is a secret which, when selected for you, should make you glad, for only you know what death feels like.
We will all die; death is trailing us every day, and it’s getting closer. We will one day take our last breath and die. Sometimes we take for granted the smallest things which we own; the ability to breathe from the day we took our first breath has been more of an extra inhale than an exhale. All must be balanced in this universe; you will have to take your last breath, which you will exhale, and in that exhale your life is complete. Your breaths are balanced, and you shall not take another, for the balance will last forever.
Heaven or Hell, The Only Choices
Make a life all you want, live all you want, but just know there are only two options: Heaven or Hell. Choose to obey in the 80 (hopefully) or so years you will live, and you can live like a king for eternity; choose to disobey those years, and you will regret that for the end of time. Then again, is there such a thing as the end of time? I think the person who said the phrase “end of time” was too tired to continue the story. The life we get on Earth is short-lived; it’s meant to be. Live to 80, and if death finds you, you are taken to heaven or hell, where you will spend the rest of your life. Death is not something which you can experience, for if you had experienced death, you should not be here.
But death doesn’t make life meaningless; if anything, it adds more meaning and purpose to life. You have a deadline by which you can do whatever you want in life; this deadline you don’t know when it’s going to be, but you have a deadline. Your time here is limited; your chance at changing the world is a short time window which will close before you can realise. Getting to death will take a long time, but looking back it will feel like it was yesterday. Death adds a reason to do that task today rather than leave it to tomorrow; you can’t guarantee when your deadline is. Today could very well be your last day amongst humans.
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