You Are Building Your Barzakh Daily

Staying aware of our thoughts and actions on a daily basis will help you and me to create a peaceful existence on the Earth plane and the spiritual Alam-e-Barzakh

What is Alam-e-Barzakh or simply Barzakh?

Alam means world and Barzakh means separation or barrier. So, Alam-e-Barzakh is a world of separation, or a barrier to something. It is a world that separates the physical plane (Earth) that we know and the relatively unknown, the spiritual plane.

This plane of spirituality is also called the afterlife, the next life, the hereafter and the next world. So, Alam-e-Barzakh is an area where the souls that rest in human bodies on the physical plane go towards Barzakh when the human body breathes its last. The soul then leaves the body.

Barzakh is essentially a resting place for souls until the day of judgement, or the day of resurrection or Qayamat. When will Qayamat come? Only god knows.

New souls enter Barzakh as the same consciousness as they were in a physical body. The soul that leaves the body after death or inteqaal is the same person or consciousness, but the only difference is that this person does not have a body now. This thinking person now finds himself in a new world or realm immediately after death and is very surprised by everything.

This new person, who was in an ageing body or any kind of body five minutes back, now finds himself without a body five minutes after death. Actually, it’s seconds after death that the same person realises that he has left the body and can now see his own lifeless body lying at home, in the hospital or anywhere else.

He is so surprised by this transformation, that he is left confused and disoriented. He has no idea what to do. But gradually other things start happening and understanding begins to dawn on him that something major has happened and that, maybe, he has died and really left his body. Then the realisation also comes to him that now he cannot go back inside his body and that he has to go someplace else.

This ‘some place else’ is Alam-e-Barzakh, the barrier between the physical plane and the soul world.

All human souls that leave Earth arrive in Barzakh for their new orientation and training. They now begin to learn the ways of the soul and the rules and recommendations to be followed.

Journey of the soul

As the soul continues on its journey in Barzakh, it learns new things, expands its consciousness and then with every set of new lessons learned, the soul ascends and rises higher to a new level, that is above its current level.

Learning and soul transformation in Alam-e-Barzakh raises the vibration and frequency of the soul. The soul is then taken to the next higher level of transformation that matches its current vibration and frequency. It is completely up to the soul and its wish to grow forward, move upward and rise higher and higher, expanding its consciousness.

We have talked about what the soul can do once it reaches Barzakh. But what will the new soul find in Barzakh? The soul will get to meet all those friends, family and relatives who had departed before him or her on Earth. They will be there and share their love, compassion and understanding with him.

What the soul finds

Every soul that lands in Alam-e-Barzakh will find things reaching out to him from all directions. These things will be in different shapes and sizes - some pleasant to look at, while others looking unpleasant and ugly, even horrible.

What would these ‘things’ in so many forms be actually? These multiple forms whose looks will either fill your heart with happiness or fill it with fear will in reality be your aamaal.

They will be your positive and negative deeds, actions and thoughts that you had on the Earth plane. As a soul in a physical body, you thought and did so many good and not-so-good things in your life. They will all come back to haunt your spirit or uplift it in the afterlife in a physical form.

Your aamaal and Barzakh

What becomes important here is your aamaal, your deeds and actions that you performed as a human being on Earth, the physical plane.

You do so much, put in so much effort into building your successful life here on Earth. You are seeking to build a great life for yourself daily, aren’t you? Right from morning to evening, or even late at night, many of you are sacrificing so much to build your dream and make it concrete and visible.

What if I say that as you go about your life every day, every hour in following your dream, you are also doing one more thing simultaneously. You may ask, “What thing?” My reply, “You are building your Barzakh daily.”

Yes. In the seen and known world, your actions and thoughts are building a world that you wish to live in. But, what you are also doing at the same time is building a world for yourself in the unseen and unknown (to you) — the world of Alam-e-Barzakh.

On the Earth, you are building your world consciously. You seek tirelessly to get everything that you wish for here, but you are not really sure what you will get and what will remain unreachable for you.

But silently and unconsciously, brick by brick, your own personal Barzakh is getting created in the next world, the afterlife, by you. Even more important, you will receive and get everything in Barzakh exactly what you created yourself here on Earth.

Importance of ‘small’ things

Small things that you and I may consider unimportant here on Earth become big and important, even crucial in Alam-e-Barzakh.

Here are two ‘small things’ that we don’t pay much attention to on Earth, but they result in you and me either experiencing ‘cool or pleasant air’ or ‘a blast of hot fiery air’ that can burn our skin in Barzakh.

First thing —> Backbiting (gheebat, chugli karna or gossiping)

Backbiting is what you and I do when we discuss someone we know - who also knows us - in a critical way when he or she is not present in front of us. We may think we are speaking the truth about the person, but many times we may be indulging in false and hurtful statements about that person.

This small action on our part is considered a major sin in Islam, haraam and categorised as ‘Gunah-e-Kabeera’.

Interestingly, backbiting has become so common in our society that most of us don’t even consider it as any kind of ‘gunah’ or sin. We just think of it as normal conversation and remain critical or make false statements about some person easily and smoothly. We don’t even feel guilty about this act of ours.

But what happens when that person ‘X’ who is the topic of my backbiting conversation with you, he/she comes to know that Raza was talking ‘this and that’ about him/her?

Let me tell you what happens as a result of my ‘gheebat’ or backbiting.

• That person X now feels bad, angry and hurt that Raza spoke such a thing about him or her, which is obviously wrong. He keeps thinking, “I never did what Raza was saying; I never said what Raza was saying I said and I never meant anything like that which Raza talked about. It’s all wrong.”

This person X may also be so surprised that Raza spoke like this at all about him or her. Moreover, the relationship of X with Raza is close to being over now, as it becomes a strained relationship that has stains of hurt and betrayal. It is no longer a happy and clean relationship now. All this happens on the physical plane on Earth.

What happens later on the spiritual plane or Alam-e-Barzakh or the afterlife as a result of this backbiting on my part?

When I land as a soul in Barzakh, after my time on Earth is over, then I am shown a book of my ‘aamaal’ by higher beings. This is a book that has documented in detail all my deeds, actions and thoughts that I had when I existed in human form on Earth.

There I am shown pages and pages of each day of my life, containing details of my deeds and actions. I am then shown a page of a day when I was backbiting about the same person X. I am surprised by this, but now I am also shocked by something else that I see happening on the page. I see that any good deed that I did on that day, or some other day’s good deed of mine, is getting deleted from my ‘aamaal diary’ and getting transferred to the ‘aamaal diary’ of person X.

Yes, this is what I will actually see. My ‘gheebat’ of person X will ultimately be beneficial to that person X in Alam-e-Barzakh. In return, I will lose my good deeds and the level of my bank of savings of good deeds and ‘aamaal’ will get depleted. I can do nothing and feel so much regret that I did ‘gheebat’ and backbiting at all on Earth, in the physical plane.

So, this was all about backbiting of a person who knows us and we know that person. We could not keep quiet, when we had nothing good to say about that person X and we lost so much in the afterlife or the next world, as a result.

But there is also such a thing called ‘jaayaz gheebat’ or permissible backbiting.

In this, I criticise or say things about ‘Taasubi’ people who harbour preconceived opinions and have racial/religious/social prejudice. If I talk behind the back of such a person or people and call them out for their known negative attitude, then this is ‘jaayaz gheebat’.

Also, if I talk behind the back of a person who is ‘Naasebi’ or harbours known hatred or enmity towards the family or followers of Prophet Mohammad, then this too will come under the category of ‘jaayaz gheebat’.

Now, any ‘najaayaz gheebat’ that is not permissible in Islam, will result in me suffering blasts of hot, fiery air in Alam-e-Barzakh that can burn my skin there. Though I won’t have any physical body there as a soul, but the sensation will be the same, as if I had skin on my body.

Second thing —> A positive ‘small thing’

Now what is something positive that you and I can do which may be considered small on Earth, but mean something big in Barzakh?

You can pray for good health, peace and prosperity in the life of 1–2 people daily. Who will be those 1–2 people you can pray for?

— Some relative (rishtedaar) of yours who you know is facing some trouble or challenge in life

— Someone in your friend circle

— Someone you are acquainted with

If you can pray for their health and prosperity and if ilaahi maslahat (God’s will) is there that their personal trouble or challenge gets solved, then this act of yours is happily noted in your ‘aamaal diary’. This ‘aamaal diary’ in Barzakh will note this act of yours as a good deed or ‘achcha aamaal’ on the day.

There is no limitation of religion or caste, or even if the person you want to help is a non-believer or atheist. You can pray for any person who you know needs help.

After all, Allah is rehman and raheem (merciful and compassionate) for all aalameen (all His creations), not just for muslimeen (all Muslims).

I hope you have now got an idea that as you build your life here daily, at the same time, your daily thoughts and actions are building the life you will experience in Alam-e-Barzakh one day.

Hope you get to see lots of good ‘aamaal’ in your Barzakh diary that day.

Ameen.