Islam is a religion of tawhid (oneness); this we know. What we often forget or fail to grasp, however, is how tawhid constructs life based on the principle of unity. Muslims who accept tawhid rarely succeed in deriving a comprehensive worldview from it. As a result, tawhid often remains merely a theological concept concerning the oneness of God. Yet, tawhid should serve as a foundational principle that transforms every aspect of our lives.
For example, tawhid does not allow for a conjunction like “and” to introduce something else of equal weight in a sentence about God. Junayd al-Baghdadi, a prominent ninth-century Sufi, explains this by saying, “Whatever draws near to God vanishes.”
Tawhid does not permit a division between this world and the afterlife; it integrates life into a whole. It does not allow for a distinction between the sacred and the profane, uniting places and times under the principle of equal proximity to the “truth.” In this sense, tawhid is an act of “unification” that manifests in every aspect of life. Ultimately, it gathers the scattered thoughts of a person and makes them “one.” After all, how can someone who is not whole within themselves truly affirm the oneness of God?
What will we encounter in the hereafter? A study in the United States found that most people believe they will be reunited with their loved ones after death. This is where a crucial divergence arises between the afterlife as described by religion and the afterlife as people hope for it: Is it about reuniting with loved ones or about meeting God?
For some, the afterlife is a place where they will reunite with their loved ones and settle scores with those they dislike. The phrase “meeting on Judgment Day” often carries the tone of a threat spoken by adversaries. Viewing the afterlife as a courtroom for reckoning with enemies may stem from a superficial reading of religious texts.
For Muslims, the afterlife is not primarily about settling accounts with others or reuniting with loved ones; it is about meeting the true owner of all existence. From this perspective, some Muslims have approached the relationship between this world and the next differently, merging the two worlds. In other words, by bringing the afterlife into this world – or carrying this world into the afterlife – they have unlocked the secret of “dying while living.”
One day, the Persian Sufi Bayazid Bastami overheard a reciter reading the verse: “Indeed, we belong to Allah, and to Him we shall return.” This verse is often recalled to express the patience and trust Muslims exhibit in the face of death. Its first part declares that our very existence originates from God; everyone has come from God, and our reason for being lies in Him. Therefore, everyone will return to where they came from.
Many Quranic verses echo this sentiment: “Everything returns to Him.” Most Muslims understand this as a simple statement of origin and destiny: we come from God, and we will return to Him. However, Bastami deepens this understanding by posing a critical question, “We came from God, and we are returning to Him, but where are we now?”
By asking this question, Sufi metaphysicians have profoundly disrupted conventional Muslim understandings of the afterlife and the present world. Without confronting this question, Muslims cannot fully comprehend the concept of the afterlife. Otherwise, one must assume that God is more present in the afterlife than in this world – a notion that contradicts the Islamic belief that God is ever-present, equally near in all places and at all times.
For believers, God’s presence is constant: We were deeply connected to Him when we came into existence, we remain just as connected at this moment, and we will be no less connected on the Day of Resurrection. The God whom we expect to encounter in the afterlife is the very same God in whose presence we exist now. The afterlife, then, is a continuation of our earthly existence: we are already living in the Day of Judgment, and our reckoning – our rewards and punishments – has already begun.
The Turkish poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy captures this idea in his verse, “Let not your vision be postponed to the morrow.” This expresses the ultimate aspiration – to behold God – not as a distant promise but as an immediate experience.
Thus, by bringing the afterlife into this world, Sufi metaphysicians have erased the boundaries of space and time between the two realms (tayy al-makan, tayy al-zaman), attaining the secret of “dying before death.” This is why they do not fear death: They have already died – because they have already lived.
