The Hereafter is the last of the human being’s stations, for the son of Adam passes through four abodes that all conclude with the Hereafter.
- The first abode is in his mother’s womb.
- The second is when he emerges from the womb into the abode of this world.
- The third is the barzakh (the intermediate realm) that spans the period between his death and the establishment of the Hour.
- The fourth is the Abode of the Hereafter. It is the end-point, the place of final settlement.
About this abode Allah, exalted is He, says: “We shall assign it to those who seek neither exaltation on earth nor corruption” (28:83). Such people do not aspire to rise above the truth nor to dominate the creation; rather, they are humble. When Allah negates from them even the wish for loftiness or corruption, then, a fortiori, no actual loftiness or corruption will issue from them. They neither exalt themselves on earth nor spread corruption, and they do not even wish to do so. People, therefore, fall into three categories:
- A group that both seeks and commits loftiness and corruption; in their case intent and action are combined.
- A group that neither intends loftiness nor corruption; both matters are absent from them.
- A group that does intend loftiness and corruption but lacks the power to carry them out. This group stands between the first and the second, yet it still bears sin because it willed evil.
Hence the Abode of the Hereafter is “for those who do not desire exaltation on earth”—that is, to rise above the truth or above the creation—“nor corruption; and the good end belongs to the God-fearing.”
Someone may ask, “What is corruption on earth?” The answer is that corruption on earth is not the demolition of houses or the burning of crops; rather, corruption on earth consists of sins. As the scholars—may Allah have mercy on them—have said concerning the Almighty’s words, “Do not cause corruption on earth after it has been set aright” (7:56), that is, do not disobey Allah, for sins