The question of life after death has always agitated the minds of people belonging to all religions and all ages alike. There is also the atheistic view which totally denies the possibility of life after death. The religions which believe in life after death can be divided into two categories.
Those which believe in the reincarnation of the soul of a dead person into a new human or animal form of existence.
Those which believe in an otherworldly state of existence after death. The atheistic view is outside the domain of this discussion. As far as Islamic doctrine is concerned, Islam belongs to that category of religions which totally rejects all possibilities of reincarnation in any form. But those who believe in some otherworldly form of spiritual or carnal existence are divided among themselves on so many planes. Within each religion the understanding divers. Hence, with reference to the views held by the followers of various religions, no belief can be attributed to them without fear of contradiction.
The familiar idea of reincarnation, which is actually based on Hindu philosophy of thousand of years past, is currently being reintroduced as if it were a new revelation. ...
In Islam, there are others who categorically reject this naive understanding of the Quranic references to heaven, and prove with many a reference to verses of the Holy Quran that what it describes is just metaphorical imagery which has no carnality about it....
