An Introduction to the Analyses and Approaches of the Muslim Thinkers to the Issue of Eternal Punishment of man in the Hereafter

Document Type : علمی پژوهشی

Authors

• Muḥammad Riḍā Ḥājī Ismā‘īlī
• Muṣṭafā Naṣīrī

10.22067/philosophy.v43i1.11268

Abstract

The disputes of the believers in the eternality and non-eternality of punishment in the Qur’ānic and narrational evidences, lexical denotations, and rational approach, deserves deliberation. As such, the Qur’ānic evidences and lexical denotations of the believers in eternality are stronger and more valid against the evidences of those who maintain the non-eternality and the traditions also encompass both approaches. However, rational proving of the transformation of a kind of infernal human being in the Hereafter into a secondary nature, which is part of the constant creational rules, has always been faced with questions by the opponents of the eternal punishment. Furthermore, the believers in non-eternality attempting to reject the eternality of punishment by relying on their perceived rational arguments fail to answer the questions concerning such issues as “the disproportion of the crime with the punishment”, because it is true for its alternative view, as well. Therefore, it is not rationally possible to explain this issue. The article seeks to reappraise the Qur’ānic and narrational evidences as well as the rational arguments of the two parties – the believers in the eternality and non-eternality of man in the otherworldly punishment.

Keywords: immortality, eternal life, eternity, intellect, eternality, Mercy, constraint.

---