Editing Islamic eschatology (section)

== The ''Dunyā/Ākhirah'' divide ==
[[File:Islamic-Eschatology.png|thumb|''Dunyā'' and ''Ākhirah'' as merismos. Rather than being temporally distinct, the Quran depicts the otherworldly realms as spatially divided. However, both worlds are contiguous with the earth to the extent that they influence each other. On Judgement Day, the Earth disappears and Paradise and Hell collapse into each other.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=43}}]]
[[File:Pomegranate flower and fruit.jpg|thumb|Pomegranate flower and fruit, considered a fruit from paradise in Muslim tradition. Therefore, it is used as an ingredient in a dessert ([[Ashure]]) used to commemorate prophetic events.]]
Islam, like [[Christianity]], conceptualizes the relationship between ''Dunyā'' (world) and ''Ākhirah'' (hereafter) in a diachronic timeline.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=8}} Humanity's history in the world begins with the Fall of [[Adam in Islam|Adam]] and ends with God's Judgement.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=8}} In contrast to Christianity, however, Adam's fall does not result in an utter separation from the transcendent world.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=8}} The two otherworldly abodes (paradise and hell) exist in proximity, both in a spatial as well as in a temporal sense, to the ''Dunyā''.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=11}} 

Since in Islamic beliefs, God does not reside in paradise, Islamic tradition was able to bridge the world and the hereafter without violating God's transcendence.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=11}} Islamic literature is filled with interactions between the world and the hereafter and the world is closely intertwined with both paradise and hell.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=9}} [[Muhammad in Islam|Muhammad]] visited during his ''[[Isra and Mi'raj|Miʿrāj]]'' (Night Journey) both paradise and hell.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=6}} The same is said about the Islamic prophet [[Idris (prophet)|ʾIdrīs]].<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=6}} The palm-tree as well as the pomegranate are supposed to originate from paradise.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=8}} A ''[[Walī]]'' (saint) grabs a pomegranate out of a vision from paradise.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=233}} Muhammad reportedly states that river flows from hell.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=10}} The infernal tree [[Zaqqum]] manifests in this world.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=9}} Some animals, scorpions and snakes in particular, are said to travel between the world and hell.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=9}} People may interact with the souls of the deceased, receive blessings, or ease the dead's abode in the otherworld.<ref>Kinberg, L. (1986). Interaction between this world and the afterworld in early Islamic tradition. Oriens, 29, 307-308.</ref> [[Maturidi|Māturīdi scholar]] [[Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi]] (944–983) explains that the otherworldly abodes coexist in order to inspire hope and cause fear.<ref name="Lange-2016">{{cite book |last= Lange|first= Christian|author-link= |date= 2016|title= Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions|url= |location= Cambridge United Kingdom|publisher= Cambridge University Press|page= |isbn=978-0-521-50637-3}}</ref>{{rp|p=168}}

The overlap of the earthly and otherworldly domain is anchored in the [[Quran]] itself.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=41}} Challenging the pre-Islamic Arabian conception of time (''dahr'') as a linear and irreversible process, time has become subject to God.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=40}} In general, the Quran "is lacking a notion of time as divided into past, present and future."<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=40}} Therefore, Quranic eschatology cannot be understood through a linear conceptualization of time.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=41}} The difference between the earth and the otherworld is not that of time but rather that of space.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=41}} Paradise and hell are spatially connected to earth. At Judgement Day, paradise and hell do not perish, nor are they created anew, rather paradise and hell are "brought near" (26:90-91) Before that event, paradise is suggested to be somewhere in the high regions of the world and hell located in the depths.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=42}}

The coexistence of the ''dunyā'' with the otherworld was contested by the [[Mu'tazila]].<ref name=JISYYHIU1981:92>[[#JISYYHIU1981|Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'',  1981]]: p.92</ref> They argued that since before the Day of Resurrection all except God will be destroyed by the [[Israfil|trumpet]], paradise and hell have no function until after the annihilation of the world. However, God creates only with a purpose. By denying the stay of souls in either abode, paradise and hell have no function before the Day of Judgement and thus, must be created afterwards.<ref name=JISYYHIU1981:92/><ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=167-168}} Māturīdism objects by asserting that paradise and hell do fulfill the before mentioned functions. [[Ash'ariya]] argued that although the trumpet's sounding will precede all being destroyed, creation was a "constant process".<ref name=JISYYHIU1981:92/><ref name=":12">{{Cite book|title=The Islamic understanding of death and resurrection|last=Smith, Jane I.|date=1981|publisher=State University of New York Press|others=Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, 1935–|isbn=0873955064|location=Albany|pages=92|oclc=6666779}}</ref> 

[[Kalam|Muslim theologians]] (''mutakallimun'') referred to multiple verses of the Quran for evidence that paradise and hell coexist with the current world. It is implied someone has gone to the Garden or the hell (3:169, 36:13-26, 66:10, 3:10-11, 6:93).<ref name=CLPaHiIT2016:40/> In the [[Adam and Eve|Story of Adam and Eve]], they once resided in Garden of Eden, which is often considered to be Jannah. This identification, however, is not universal. [[Mundhir ibn Sa'īd al-Ballūṭī|Al-Balluti]] (887 – 966) reasoned that the Garden of Eden lacked the perfection and eternal character of a final paradise:<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=167}} Adam and Eve lost the primordial paradise, while the paradisiacal afterlife lasts forever; if Adam and Eve were in the otherworldly paradise, the [[Shaitan|devil]] (''Shaiṭān'') could not have entered and deceived them, since there is no evil or idle talk in paradise; Adam slept in his garden, but there is no sleep in paradise.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=167}}

The discussion may have been incited by [[Jahm bin Safwan|Jahm bin Ṣafwān]] who claimed that paradise and hell will end, but coexist with the world. Insisting on the impermanence of everything but God, he asserts that "eternity" is used [[Hyperbole|hyperbolically]] and means that people abide in paradise and hell only as long as both worlds last.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=169}} Most Sunnis, however, hold the opinion that paradise and hell are eternal.<ref name="Lange-2016"/>{{rp|p=169}}