Short answer
Life after death follows from who made us. If there is a Creator, the One who made us once can make us again. Making something again is no harder than making it the first time. And if that Creator is just, the story cannot end at the grave. Many people who do great wrong die in comfort. Many of the people they wronged die unheard. A just Maker would not treat both the same. This is not a wish turned into a belief. It follows from the Creator, and the case for Him is made on other pages. The Qur'an reasons in the same way. A man asks who can give life to rotten bones. The answer is the One who made them the first time.
Full explanation
The question turns on whether there is a Creator
Without a Creator, there is little reason to expect life after death. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell, who did not believe in God (﷾), argued in 1925 that a person probably does not survive death. Thought depends on the brain, he said, and death destroys the brain. A survey of the question in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy reaches a similar point. Without God (﷾), it says, a purely natural world holds out little hope of survival. Belief in God (﷾) and belief in an afterlife, it adds, go closely together. So this page does not argue alone. It builds on the pages that ask how we know God (﷾) exists and who created God (﷾). If those reasons stand, the rest follows.
Argues that thought depends on the organisation of the brain, so an individual's thinking cannot be supposed to survive bodily death, which destroys that organisation. He calls this only an argument of probability, but one as strong as those on which most scientific conclusions rest. He says religion has its source in terror, that he believes he will rot when he dies, and that happiness, thought and love keep their value though they come to an end.
A survey article. Without God, it says, a materialist and naturalist worldview is not at all promising for survival, while belief in God and belief in an afterlife are closely tied. Without an afterlife, the injustices of this life would never be remedied. If the soul persists between death and resurrection, the one raised is the same person. It reports Kant's view that the moral life requires us to assume both God and a future life, and judges the two inseparable: God, so that in the end happiness can match moral worth, which the present life cannot secure; and a life without end, for endless moral progress. It says the charge of wishful thinking holds only if one assumes from the outset that the universe is not friendly to human beings. It finds the debate over the evidence from near-death experiences and psychical research close to an impasse.
The One who made us once can make us again
Each of us once did not exist, and now does. Whoever brought us into being, when we were nothing, did the harder thing. Bringing us back is no harder for the same Maker. To say He cannot is to grant the first making and deny the second, with no reason given. The objection is old. The Qur'an records a man who asks who can give life to decayed bones. Its answer is a reason, not a threat: the One who made them the first time.
“And he makes comparisons for Us, and forgets his own (origin and) Creation: He says, "Who can give life to (dry) bones and decomposed ones (at that)?" Say, "He will give them life Who created them for the first time! for He is Well-versed in every kind of creation!-”
“It is He Who begins (the process of) creation; then repeats it; and for Him it is most easy. To Him belongs the loftiest similitude (we can think of) in the heavens and the earth: for He is Exalted in Might, full of wisdom.”
A survey article. Without God, it says, a materialist and naturalist worldview is not at all promising for survival, while belief in God and belief in an afterlife are closely tied. Without an afterlife, the injustices of this life would never be remedied. If the soul persists between death and resurrection, the one raised is the same person. It reports Kant's view that the moral life requires us to assume both God and a future life, and judges the two inseparable: God, so that in the end happiness can match moral worth, which the present life cannot secure; and a life without end, for endless moral progress. It says the charge of wishful thinking holds only if one assumes from the outset that the universe is not friendly to human beings. It finds the debate over the evidence from near-death experiences and psychical research close to an impasse.
A just Maker would not end the account at the grave
Look at the world as it is. Many who torture and steal die old and in comfort. Many of their victims die young, and no court ever hears them. If death is the end, the oppressor and the oppressed end the same. Their accounts close at the same line. Now suppose the Maker of the world is just. He made human beings who know justice and condemn wrong. The One who gave that sense is not less just than those He gave it to. People do wrong out of need, ignorance or spite. He needs nothing, knows everything, and gains nothing from harm. So He has no motive for it. Why He lets wrongs stand for a time is answered on the page on why God (﷾) allows suffering. A just Maker who let every account close unsettled would not be just. So, given a just Creator, a reckoning after death follows. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant argued in a similar way. He held that the moral life requires us to assume both God (﷾) and a life to come. God (﷾) is needed so that, in the end, happiness can match moral worth. This life plainly does not secure that, so it points to a life to come.
A survey article. Without God, it says, a materialist and naturalist worldview is not at all promising for survival, while belief in God and belief in an afterlife are closely tied. Without an afterlife, the injustices of this life would never be remedied. If the soul persists between death and resurrection, the one raised is the same person. It reports Kant's view that the moral life requires us to assume both God and a future life, and judges the two inseparable: God, so that in the end happiness can match moral worth, which the present life cannot secure; and a life without end, for endless moral progress. It says the charge of wishful thinking holds only if one assumes from the outset that the universe is not friendly to human beings. It finds the debate over the evidence from near-death experiences and psychical research close to an impasse.
Not a wish turned into a belief
Russell said that religion has its source in terror. He also said that people believe in God (﷾) partly from a wish for safety. But where a belief comes from does not show whether it is true. The Stanford survey makes the point. The charge of wishful thinking holds only if one assumes from the start that there is no Maker who cares for us. That is the very question. The argument here runs from a just Creator to a reckoning, not from wanting. And the belief is hardly a soft comfort. It puts one's own deeds on trial, down to the smallest.
Argues that thought depends on the organisation of the brain, so an individual's thinking cannot be supposed to survive bodily death, which destroys that organisation. He calls this only an argument of probability, but one as strong as those on which most scientific conclusions rest. He says religion has its source in terror, that he believes he will rot when he dies, and that happiness, thought and love keep their value though they come to an end.
Answers the argument that a future life is needed to put right the injustice of this one. Russell says this world is probably a fair sample of the universe. If the top layer of a crate of oranges is bad, one does not infer that the lower layers are good, but that the whole lot is bad. He adds that most people believe in God because they were taught it as children, and next from a wish for safety.
A survey article. Without God, it says, a materialist and naturalist worldview is not at all promising for survival, while belief in God and belief in an afterlife are closely tied. Without an afterlife, the injustices of this life would never be remedied. If the soul persists between death and resurrection, the one raised is the same person. It reports Kant's view that the moral life requires us to assume both God and a future life, and judges the two inseparable: God, so that in the end happiness can match moral worth, which the present life cannot secure; and a life without end, for endless moral progress. It says the charge of wishful thinking holds only if one assumes from the outset that the universe is not friendly to human beings. It finds the debate over the evidence from near-death experiences and psychical research close to an impasse.
“And the Book (of Deeds) will be placed (before you); and thou wilt see the sinful in great terror because of what is (recorded) therein; they will say, "Ah! woe to us! what a Book is this! It leaves out nothing small or great, but takes account thereof!" They will find all that they did, placed before them: And not one will thy Lord treat with injustice.”
When the brain dies
Russell's strongest point was the brain. Thought goes with the brain, and death destroys the brain. Russell called this an argument of probability, but as strong as those on which most scientific conclusions rest. What it shows is that in this life the mind works through the brain. It does not show that a person is nothing but a brain. Leading philosophers of mind, atheists among them, argue that no physical account explains why brain activity is felt from the inside at all. The page on consciousness and matter sets this out. Above all, the claim here is not that a person survives by his own nature. It is that the Creator raises him. Russell compared a person to a drop of water, which does not survive being broken into its parts. But a drop can be made again by whoever made it the first time.
Argues that thought depends on the organisation of the brain, so an individual's thinking cannot be supposed to survive bodily death, which destroys that organisation. He calls this only an argument of probability, but one as strong as those on which most scientific conclusions rest. He says religion has its source in terror, that he believes he will rot when he dies, and that happiness, thought and love keep their value though they come to an end.
Separates the "easy problems" of consciousness (how the brain discriminates, reports and controls behaviour) from the "hard problem": why any of that processing is accompanied by experience at all. Argues that explaining the functions does not explain the experience, so the usual methods of reductive explanation fail for it.
Nagel, an atheist philosopher, argues that the materialist neo-Darwinian picture of nature is almost certainly false, because it cannot account for consciousness, reason and value. He does not accept belief in God, but holds that reason's grasp of truth cannot be explained as a by-product of natural selection.
This page does not rest on near-death reports
Some people who are revived tell of lights, tunnels or meeting the dead. Others explain these reports by the dying brain. The Stanford survey finds the debate close to an impasse. This page uses no such report as proof, and no claim to remember a past life. The case for a life to come rests on the Creator and His justice. It does not depend on any report from the edge of death.
A survey article. Without God, it says, a materialist and naturalist worldview is not at all promising for survival, while belief in God and belief in an afterlife are closely tied. Without an afterlife, the injustices of this life would never be remedied. If the soul persists between death and resurrection, the one raised is the same person. It reports Kant's view that the moral life requires us to assume both God and a future life, and judges the two inseparable: God, so that in the end happiness can match moral worth, which the present life cannot secure; and a life without end, for endless moral progress. It says the charge of wishful thinking holds only if one assumes from the outset that the universe is not friendly to human beings. It finds the debate over the evidence from near-death experiences and psychical research close to an impasse.
Islam's answer: the One who made you the first time
The Qur'an answers the man who asks who can give life to decayed bones. He will give them life, it says, who created them the first time. It says God (﷾) begins creation and then repeats it, and that this is most easy for Him. To anyone in doubt about the Resurrection, it points to his own beginnings in the womb. It points too to dead earth that stirs to life when rain falls. Others said that a return after turning to dust was far-fetched. The Qur'an replies that God (﷾) knows what the earth takes from them, and that with Him is a record that guards it.
“And he makes comparisons for Us, and forgets his own (origin and) Creation: He says, "Who can give life to (dry) bones and decomposed ones (at that)?" Say, "He will give them life Who created them for the first time! for He is Well-versed in every kind of creation!-”
“It is He Who begins (the process of) creation; then repeats it; and for Him it is most easy. To Him belongs the loftiest similitude (we can think of) in the heavens and the earth: for He is Exalted in Might, full of wisdom.”
“O mankind! if ye have a doubt about the Resurrection, (consider) that We created you out of dust, then out of sperm, then out of a leech-like clot, then out of a morsel of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed, in order that We may manifest (our power) to you; and We cause whom We will to rest in the wombs for an appointed term, then do We bring you out as babes, then (foster you) that ye may reach your age of full strength; and some of you are called to die, and some are sent back to the feeblest old age, so that they know nothing after having known (much), and (further), thou seest the earth barren and lifeless, but when We pour down rain on it, it is stirred (to life), it swells, and it puts forth every kind of beautiful growth (in pairs).”
“"What! When we die and become dust, (shall we live again?) That is a (sort of) return far (from our understanding)." We already know how much of them the earth takes away: With Us is a record guarding (the full account).”
Islam's answer: the same person, not a copy
Islam does not teach that a new person is built from a plan. The Qur'an says that Allah (﷾) takes the souls of people at death and keeps them back. Between death and the Day they are raised, there is a barrier, the barzakh. Islam teaches that on that Day God (﷾) raises the body and returns to it the soul He has kept. The Qur'an says He will give life to the very bones. He is able, it says, to put together even the tips of a man's fingers in perfect order. So the one who is raised is the same person, body and soul. The page on what happens after death in Islam describes the time of waiting.
“It is Allah that takes the souls (of men) at death; and those that die not (He takes) during their sleep: those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back (from returning to life), but the rest He sends (to their bodies) for a term appointed verily in this are Signs for those who reflect.”
“(In Falsehood will they be) Until, when death comes to one of them, he says: "O my Lord! send me back (to life),- "In order that I may work righteousness in the things I neglected." - "By no means! It is but a word he says."- Before them is a Partition till the Day they are raised up.”
“And he makes comparisons for Us, and forgets his own (origin and) Creation: He says, "Who can give life to (dry) bones and decomposed ones (at that)?" Say, "He will give them life Who created them for the first time! for He is Well-versed in every kind of creation!-”
“Does man think that We cannot assemble his bones? Nay, We are able to put together in perfect order the very tips of his fingers.”
A survey article. Without God, it says, a materialist and naturalist worldview is not at all promising for survival, while belief in God and belief in an afterlife are closely tied. Without an afterlife, the injustices of this life would never be remedied. If the soul persists between death and resurrection, the one raised is the same person. It reports Kant's view that the moral life requires us to assume both God and a future life, and judges the two inseparable: God, so that in the end happiness can match moral worth, which the present life cannot secure; and a life without end, for endless moral progress. It says the charge of wishful thinking holds only if one assumes from the outset that the universe is not friendly to human beings. It finds the debate over the evidence from near-death experiences and psychical research close to an impasse.
Islam's answer: not made for nothing, and not treated the same
The Qur'an asks whether people thought they were created in jest, and would not be brought back to give account. It asks whether those who do evil think they will be treated the same as those who believe and do good. It says God (﷾) created the heavens and the earth for just ends, so that each soul finds what it earned. Delay is not neglect. God (﷾) gives wrongdoers time, until a Day. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that on the Day of Resurrection every right will be given back to its owner. Even the sheep without horns will be paid back by the sheep with horns. He also told anyone who has wronged another to put it right now, before the Day when there is no money.
“"Did ye then think that We had created you in jest, and that ye would not be brought back to Us (for account)?"”
“What! Do those who seek after evil ways think that We shall hold them equal with those who believe and do righteous deeds,- that equal will be their life and their death? Ill is the judgment that they make. Allah created the heavens and the earth for just ends, and in order that each soul may find the recompense of what it has earned, and none of them be wronged.”
“Shall We then treat the People of Faith like the People of Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge ye?”
“Think not that Allah doth not heed the deeds of those who do wrong. He but giveth them respite against a Day when the eyes will fixedly stare in horror,-”
Abu Huraira reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: on the Day of Resurrection every right will be given back to the one it belongs to, so that even the hornless sheep will take its due from the horned sheep.
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: whoever has wronged another, in his honour or in anything else, should seek his release from it today, before the Day when there will be no money. If he has good deeds, they will be taken from him in proportion to the wrong. If he has none, some of the wronged person's bad deeds will be laid on him.
“We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Judgment, so that not a soul will be dealt with unjustly in the least, and if there be (no more than) the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it (to account): and enough are We to take account.”
A whole life lived toward the return
For Islam, belief in the return shapes a whole way of life: belief, worship and character together. The Qur'an says God (﷾) created death and life to test which of us is best in deed. It says that full payment comes only on the Day of Judgement. It tells of Qarun, a rich man among the people of Moses. It records with approval the advice his people gave him: seek the Home of the Hereafter, but do not forget your portion in this world. And do good, as God (﷾) has been good to you. This life is not cheapened by the next. Every deed done in it will be weighed.
“He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving;-”
“Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.”
“"But seek, with the (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on thee, the Home of the Hereafter, nor forget thy portion in this world: but do thou good, as Allah has been good to thee, and seek not (occasions for) mischief in the land: for Allah loves not those who do mischief."”
The replies answered
Russell, "Why I Am Not a Christian" (1927)
Answers the argument that a future life is needed to put right the injustice of this one. Russell says this world is probably a fair sample of the universe. If the top layer of a crate of oranges is bad, one does not infer that the lower layers are good, but that the whole lot is bad. He adds that most people believe in God because they were taught it as children, and next from a wish for safety.
Cited for
From the world we know, the fair guess is that there is injustice elsewhere too, and that justice does not rule the world. A bad top layer means a bad crate.
The response
Russell's guess fits a crate whose sender we know nothing about. This page starts from a Creator known on other grounds, and from His justice. A just ruler who has not yet held court has not ruled unjustly. Why God (﷾) lets the wrong stand for a while is answered on the page on why God (﷾) allows suffering. The Qur'an says the delay is respite, not neglect.
Where it lands — Russell's crate argument judges the Maker by the top layer alone. It does not touch an argument that starts from a Maker who needs nothing and waits for the whole account.
Russell, What I Believe (1925)
Argues that thought depends on the organisation of the brain, so an individual's thinking cannot be supposed to survive bodily death, which destroys that organisation. He calls this only an argument of probability, but one as strong as those on which most scientific conclusions rest. He says religion has its source in terror, that he believes he will rot when he dies, and that happiness, thought and love keep their value though they come to an end.
Cited for
Thought depends on the brain, and death dissolves the brain. A drop of water that is dissolved does not keep its wetness.
The response
That is a claim about what a person can do by his own nature. Islam's claim is about what the Creator does. A drop that is dissolved can be made again by whoever made it the first time. Russell judged his argument as strong as most scientific conclusions. But science measures what nature does by itself, not what its Maker can do.
Where it lands — The brain argument shows the mind works through the brain now; it says nothing against a Creator raising the person.
van Inwagen, "The Possibility of Resurrection" (1978)
Argues that if a thing is wholly destroyed, a re-created one would be a perfect duplicate and not the thing itself. His example is a manuscript in Augustine's own hand, burnt in 457 and said to be re-created by God in 458. Van Inwagen is himself a Christian who believes in the resurrection, and holds that a person is wholly material. To show that resurrection is at least possible on that view, he suggested that God might, at death, take away the body, or only its core (the brain and central nervous system), for safekeeping and leave a stand-in in its place. He later wrote that there may be other ways.
Cited for
Even God could only make a perfect duplicate of a person who has rotted away. The duplicate would not be me.
The response
The puzzle arises only if nothing of the person lasts between death and rising. Islam teaches that God (﷾) takes the soul at death and keeps it until the Day. Then He raises the body and returns the soul to it. As the Stanford survey notes, a soul that lasts keeps the person the same.
Where it lands — The soul God (﷾) keeps joins the person who died to the person raised, so the one raised is not a copy.
Qur'an 36:78-79 — Surat Ya Sin (Yaseen), verses 78-79
“And he makes comparisons for Us, and forgets his own (origin and) Creation: He says, "Who can give life to (dry) bones and decomposed ones (at that)?" Say, "He will give them life Who created them for the first time! for He is Well-versed in every kind of creation!-”
Cited for
"God can do it" is no evidence. It only moves the question to whether God exists.
The response
The verse does not ask anyone to take God's (﷾) power on trust. It answers a man who forgets his own creation: the One who made the first can make the second. For someone who doubts the Creator, the reasons for Him come first. They are on the pages that ask how we know God (﷾) exists and who created God (﷾). Once they stand, making again is no harder than making the first time.
Where it lands — The verse's reason holds for anyone who grants the first making, and the case for the Maker of that first making is made openly elsewhere.
Perspectives
Atheist: death is the end
Thought depends on the brain, so it ends when the brain does. The injustice we see is a fair sample of the universe. Belief in a life to come grows from fear and the wish for safety. Love and happiness keep their worth though they end.
Thought depends on how the brain is put together, and death destroys that. So it is reasonable to suppose that the life of the mind ends at death.
Rebuttal
This shows the mind works through the brain in this life. It cannot show that the One who made a person once cannot raise him. Russell judged his argument as strong as most scientific conclusions. But science measures what nature does by itself, not what its Maker can do.
This world is probably a fair sample. A crate whose top layer of oranges is bad is probably bad all through. So injustice here is a reason to think that justice does not rule the world.
Rebuttal
The orange guess fits a crate from an unknown sender. This page starts from a Creator who needs nothing and knows everything, so He has no motive for injustice. Then injustice here means the account is not yet closed.
Belief in a life after death grows out of fear of death and the wish for safety.
Rebuttal
Where a belief comes from does not show it is false. The charge assumes there is no caring Maker, which is the question. The belief also puts one's own deeds on trial.
A body rebuilt after it has rotted would be a perfect copy, not the person who died. A re-created manuscript would not be the one Augustine wrote.
Rebuttal
That problem arises only if nothing of the person lasts between death and rising. Islam teaches that God (﷾) keeps each soul until the Day, then returns it to the raised body. So the same person is raised.
Happiness, thought and love keep their value though they end, so life needs no afterlife to matter.
Rebuttal
This life matters greatly in Islam, because every deed done in it will be weighed. But whether life has value does not settle whether death is the end. And without a return, the tyrant who dies in comfort and his victim end the same.
Near-death experiences can be explained by the dying brain, so they give no evidence of a life to come.
Rebuttal
This page uses no near-death report as evidence. Its case rests on the Creator and His justice, which need no report from the edge of death.
The case from reason
Life after death follows from there being a Creator. It is not a separate proof, and not a wish. The One who made us once can make us again. And a just Maker would not close every account at the grave.
Without a Creator there is little reason to expect survival; with a Creator, an afterlife closely follows.
The One who brought a person into being from nothing can make him again. The second making is no harder than the first.
A just Creator would not let the oppressor and the oppressed end the same way. So a reckoning after death follows from His justice.
The charge of wishful thinking assumes that there is no Creator, which is the point in question.
In this life the mind works through the brain. That does not show that the Creator cannot raise the person.
The Islamic perspective
The One who created people the first time will raise them again. God (﷾) keeps each soul at death, and raises the body on the Day. So it is the same person who is raised. He created the world for just ends, and every right will be given back on the Day of Resurrection.
Someone asks who can give life to bones that have rotted away. The Qur'an answers: the One who created them the first time.
The Qur'an says God (﷾) begins creation and repeats it, and that this is most easy for Him.
The Qur'an says God (﷾) takes the souls at death and keeps them. A barrier, the barzakh, lies between death and the Day of rising.
The Qur'an says God (﷾) will give life to the very bones. He is able to put together even the tips of a man's fingers.
The Qur'an asks whether people thought they were created in jest and would not be brought back for account.
The Qur'an says God (﷾) will not treat wrongdoers the same as believers who do good. He created the heavens and the earth for just ends.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said that every right will be restored to its owner on the Day of Resurrection.