ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Journey of the Unseen World Chapter 1a - the Station of the Grave and the Beginning of Barzakh Westward Travel In the name of Allah, the Benevolent and Ever Merciful All Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the Universe. The Master of this world and of the Day of Judgement.

Peace and blessings be on the Prophet of Islam and on his Progeny who warned us that Love of this world is a dangerous affliction and that it is the root cause of all diseases afflicting the human race. All other diseases are really branches stemming from this main root. And the cure of this affliction is to keep reminding oneself constantly of Death.

I begin now, by saying that in 1307 H I had written my memories about my schooling and had called it Travel Eastwards and now in 1312 when am writing about the Barzakh, I intend to call ii Westward travel and I hope that it will serve as a souvenir from me and will prove a source of guidance and advice for the general public. The fact is that our present material and elemental body by virtue of its very nature, is in a dark and impenetrable veil, not allowing man to see into any other world.

Death, in fact, is the name of emerging from this curtain and once this curtain is removed, man is able to see that which was hidden to his eyes before, and he becomes aware of facts which he was unaware of, until then. 'Certainly, you were heedless of this (day), now we have removed your veil from you, so now your sight is sharp'. (Soora Qaf Verse 22) That is to say, in this world you were ignorant of facts.

Now after death we have removed from your eyes the material curtain so that you may clearly see the Hereafter. Hence, I died. Then I saw myself standing, relieved of my illness, feeling fit and healthy, but around my corpse my relatives were busy mourning. I was saddened by their crying and told them that I was cured and not dead but nobody heard me. It was as if they neither saw nor heard me.

I realised that these people had now become distant from me and so I turned my complete attention towards my corpse. I became especially attentive towards the face and the side which was uncovered. Afterwards, my body was bathed and shrouded. Then, when the people had taken care of their other pending work, they took my body towards the graveyard. I was also present in the funeral procession.