Women who die in childbirth...

Women who die in childbirth, and those who die in the holy land on a pilgrimage, are also martyrs who obtain the entry into paradise directly after death. This hope has motivated many Muslims to embrace death for Islamic causes, with the modern suicide bombers of Hamas providing a notable recent example.

A more benign effect has been to encourage elderly Muslims to put off making their pilgrimage until they are quite feeble in the hope of dying in the holy land, where many who have the means remain illegally after the pilgrimage is over. B. The Final Judgement The earliest revelations in the Quran emphasize the unity and majesty of God, and the certainty of God's judgement on those who have not acknowledged God as their creator and submitted to God's will.

Muhammed's earliest preaching focused on the day of judgement which would mark the end of the world, and salvation from hell was a dominant theme. Belief in a day of reckoning ( qiyamah ) and a resurrection of the dead to judgement ( hashr ) is found in earliest Islamic creeds, and is universally regarded as an essential doctrine. The earliest revelations to Muhammed stress the certainty of God's judgement and of punishment in hell-fire for wrong-doers and paradise for the righteous.

(88, 99, 101, and many others) Later revelations and traditions greatly expanded the Islamic picture of the last judgement.

The most basic elements are: the last day when the present creation will be annihilated, the resurrection of the dead, their presentation before God and the reading out of the complete record of all their good and evil deeds, the rewarding and punishing of each person strictly according to the balance off their good and evil deeds, the intercession of Muhammed on behalf of the faithful. the sending of the successful to Paradise, and the losers to the fire and torment of Hell.

Muslims learn of these through accounts of the final judgement which are portrayed with vivid imagery. Most accept these accounts as literal portrayals of what they will personally face. Avoiding the terrors of hell, and indeed the uncertainty of the judgement day, both motivates Muslims to obedience in God's law, and to seeking to mitigate the effects of their sins. C. Salvation Within the Islamic tradition the specific Arabic word for salvation, hajat, is not often used.

Instead humans at the final judgement are characterized as "winners" and "losers", as those who have succeeded and those who have failed.