Title: Is the Reward & Punishment in the Hereafter Physical in Nature? Question: Is Paradise/Heaven physical? Is it Spiritual? Do we enter it as we are today in human form? Will we know one another as we do here on earth? In the Bible Jesus is questioned, by the Sadducees, about 7 brothers married to the same woman on earth(each died before she married the next). They ask Jesus: "Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her." Jesus answers: "Is it because you do not understand the scriptures or the power of God that you're reasoning is so faulty. The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those men and women who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage when they rise from the dead because they can no longer die. They are like the angels in heaven. Being children of the resurrection, they are sons of God." (Matthew 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38 KJV) This, I believe, implies that the experience of Heaven will not be like that of this world. How does this compare to the Islamic concept of Paradise? Or, is the verse I've quoted actually agree with the Qur'anic concept of being resurrected in our whole bodies but that the laws of (nature) this world would not apply? Ronnie Answer: Although most of those verses of the Qur'an as well as those narratives ascribed to the Prophet (pbuh), which deal with the reward and punishment during the life hereafter are allegorical in nature and the fine details of the life after resurrection cannot be known during this world, yet it seems quite apparent that the reward and punishment during the second life would be physical in nature. Furthermore, it would only be justice that if man is tested in a physical world, then his reward/punishment should also be of a physical nature. The nature of the life hereafter, besides being physical, would clearly be different in many respects. The mere fact that the life after death would be eternal makes it clearly distinct from the present life. Most of the other laws of nature would also not apply to the life after death. Jesus' (pbuh) response to the referred question has the same implication: In this world man's continued and peaceful social existence requires marriage and marital laws and respect for these laws. The most significant factors, which call for marriage and marital laws are infancy, ageing and death. For his continued survival on this earth, under the prevalent laws of nature, man needs a family - which, in turn, is based upon the bond of marriage. If, contrary to the existing laws, man were born at a mature age, rather than infancy, and were not subjected to the laws of ageing and of death, then there would have been no need for marriage or marital laws. I really do not see much of a difference in the concept of the life hereafter as given in the Qur'an and that given in the sayings ascribed to Jesus (pbuh). I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad April 7, 2002