Afterlife and how to get there?

format_quote Originally Posted by Twotribes

As a christian I believe in order to reach Heaven one must be saved through the Son of God and repent and accept God.

My question is how does the Muslim faith believe one gets to heaven?

The reason I ask maybe a misunderstanding on my part. As I understand it, Muslim religion believes in the old ( or parts of) Testament and believes that what we refer to as the Son of God was a prophet of God.

Chrisitians believe the teachings of Jesus and he explains howto be forgiven and saved. I dont understand exactly what the Muslim faith believes in this regard. I am curious.

Hi Twotribes,
Thank you for asking and showing interest about Islam, I hope you'll be patient enough to read my post. Insha'Allah (God Willing)

I would just first like to clear up the misunderstanding with regards to what Muslims believe of the previous Prophets and Messenger, peace be upon them.

In surah 2 verse 285, the translation of the meaning:

The messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers; they all believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers; We make no difference between any of His messengers; and they say: We hear and obey, our Lord! Thy forgiveness (do we crave), and to Thee is the eventual course.

So we as Muslims, must believe in at least those things, which do include previous books and messengers. The books named to us in the Qu'ran are 3, Tawrat, Zaboor and Injeel (also our Qu'ran on top which is ours). The previous books were sent to, Moses, David and Jesus, peace be upon them, respectivly, they were a guidance for their people and their time period but nor for us now, since a new messenger has come and we are to follow his laws and command given the him by Almighty God.

The remaining question is, how does the Muslim faith believe one gets to heaven?

In the Qu'ran we are told:

By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),
Verily Man is in loss
Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.[Al-Asr]

A scholar of old commented that this chapter would alone be sufficient as guidance for us. Mankind is at loss, except, those who have Faith, do good deeds, enjoin each other in truth and patience. That is the basics of it.

“But those who believe and do deeds of righteousness, We shall admit them to the Gardens under which rivers flow (i.e., in Paradise), to dwell therein forever. Allaah’s promise is the truth, and whose words can be truer than those of Allaah? (Of course, none).” [al-Nisa’ 4:122]

“Allaah has promised those who believe and do deeds of righteousness, that for them there is forgiveness and a great reward (i.e., Paradise).” [al-Maa’idah 5:9]

So we see that paradise is promised to every Muslim who sincerly obeys God and stays in a state of devotion till the end. Having said all this, Muslims should also know that they will not enter Paradise because of their deeds, i.e. they cannot bargain their way to paradise or purchase their place with deeds alone!

Volume 8, Book 76, Number 474:

Narrated 'Aisha:

The Prophet said, "Do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately, and receive good news because one's good deeds will not make him enter Paradise." They asked, "Even you, O Allah's Apostle?" He said, "Even I, unless and until Allah bestows His pardon and Mercy on me."

Rather, as we see, that it is only through the Mercy and Pardon of Almighty God that we can get to paradise. Also we as Muslims do not hold the concept that anyone bears the sins of anyone

“And no bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden…” [Faatir 35:18].

Rather we should keep fear and hope. Fear as to not take things complacent and just expect to go paradise. Hope of Allah's Mercy and never despair of it.

This was a very very rough insight into the teachings of Islam.

For more information on Islaam, you can ask in the "Discover Islam" Section.

Eesa.

format_quote Originally Posted by Twotribes

Chrisitians believe the teachings of Jesus and he explains howto be forgiven and saved.

Sorry forgive me, I forgot to add this part.

Muslims also believe in the teachings of Jesus, peace be upon him, The Messiah, Son of Mary, whom had no father and was born out of a miracle, who was raised by God to himself and shall be sent again as a sign for all man of the end time, shall live, marry then die.

We believe in his teaching of the Oness of God, and Submission to God and attaining of Forgiveness and Mercy.

And We did not send before you any messenger but We revealed to him that there is no god but Me, therefore serve Me.[Al-Anbiya 25]

So we believe that this was the broad message of Jesus, peace be upon him.

Rather, we just hold that the message of Jesus has not been preserved in its entirety.

Eesa

A common misconception is that Muslims are closer to Judaism than to Christianity. However we have more in common with Christians. Some of the similarities are we believe in the Virgin birth of Isa(as) (Jesus in English). We believe tha Isa revealed the true Injeel (New Testament) to us.

Where we differ is we believe the words of Isa(as) have been lost and what remains is mistranslations and corrupted text. Containg some truths but also containing many misconceptions. We believe that the Qur'an was the final restoration of Allah's(swt) words for mankind.

5:82. Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, "We are Christians": because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant. S P C

5:83. And when they listen to the revelation received by the Messenger, thou wilt see their eyes overflowing with tears, for they recognise the truth: they pray: "Our Lord! we believe; write us down among the witnesses. S P

5:84. "What cause can we have not to believe in Allah and the truth which has come to us, seeing that we long for our Lord to admit us to the company of the righteous?" S P


Yusuf Ali's Quran Translation