Proof Of The Valleys Of Hereafter

These valleys were mentioned in various Ahadith of the Prophet and Imams. Amir Al-Mu’minin (‘a) said, “Prepare yourself for the journey. May God have mercy on you? The call for the departure has been made. There are very difficult and horrific valleys and the destination is ahead of you, where you have to reach and wait.”

To explain the horror and awfulness of these valleys, Shaykh Abbas Al-Qummi had prepared a research document called Manazil al-Aakhirat, and another document of the same stature in Arabic has been published recently from Najaf. It was related in Usul al-Kafi that Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq (‘a) had said, “Examine your acts personally, before you are checked by God, because in the plains of hereafter there are checkpoints, where you might have to stay for equivalent to one thousand earthly years. Imam then recited the Qur’anic Verse:

تَعْرُجُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ خَمْسِينَ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ

“To Him ascend the angels and the Spirit in a day the measure of which is fifty thousand years” (70:4).

The Nature Of These Valleys

It should be mentioned here that the literal meanings of the word Aqba was an intricate pass between two mountains. Therefore, this suggested that those passages might be some physical structures as concluded by many scholars.

However, Shaykh Al-Mufid believed that these were the obligations and prohibitions, as the performance of obligations and avoidance of prohibitions was a very difficult task to achieve. So, their accountability would be very harsh, similar to the climbing of difficult and slippery heights. That is why these tasks had been allegorically named as Aqbat i.e. a complicated pathway. Apparently, this elaboration of Shaykh Al-Mufid was logical, but Allama Al-Majlisi had said, “Merely on account of logical conclusions the redefining of obvious reports is further from equitable course. God has all the rights to punish His sinful subjects the way He wants. Therefore, these symbols must be considered in their apparent sense.”