Meta Existence: A Divine Gift, not by Vote or Merit

Mujeeb Jaihoon explores the five metaphysical stages of existence, revealing our being as an absolute, unearned gift from the Creator.

Have you ever paused to think about the cosmos before you were here? Try to imagine it: a universe existing, vibrating, entirely without you. This is the starting point of a deeply humbling realization: the greatest thing that ever happened to us—our existence—wasn’t something we asked for.

We didn’t vote to be born. It was an absolute choice, a pure gift from the Creator, the Absolute Being. We are here not because we earned it, nor by a roll of the dice called “chance,” but solely through a divine, generous will.

Five Stages: A Continuous Flow

The journey of our existence, as outlined in Islamic tradition, isn’t just this life; it’s a sequence of five distinct but connected stages. Understanding this helps us see our current life as a chapter, not the whole book.

1. Alamul Arwah (World of Souls): This is the stage before our physical birth. It’s famous for the Grand Covenant, where souls affirmed the Lordship of God and the prophethood of His final Messenger.
2. The Womb-life: A period of formation and protection, preparing us for the physical world.
3. The Earthly Life: The stage we are in now, the world of action, testing, and conscious choice.
4. The Barzakh (Grave Life): The interim state after death, a waiting period before the final judgment.
5. The Resurrection: The ultimate stage where all beings are brought back to life for accountability.

From Sleep to Awakening: Life’s Transitions

What’s fascinating is how smooth these transitions are, likened to the simple act of sleeping and waking up.
Consider the moment the Resurrection begins. The Quran captures the shock of those rising from the grave: “Woe to us! Who has raised us from our sleeping place?…” (Sura Yaseen, 36:52). They perceive the long duration in the grave as a kind of slumber.

This analogy is mirrored in the prayer a believer recites every single morning: “All praise is for Allah who gave us life after He caused us to die, and unto Him is the resurrection.” Every day, our night’s sleep is a small death, and our waking is a miniature resurrection, reminding us of the grand transition that awaits.

The Mystery of Forgetfulness

Curiously, as we move from one stage to the next, we generally lose the memory of the previous state. Do you recall your life in the World of Souls or your time in the womb? No.
This suggests a pattern: the vast, eternal reality of the next stage often overshadows the previous one, rendering its details insignificant or simply inaccessible to our current awareness. We are given the necessary consciousness for this stage.

Our existence, therefore, is a series of awakenings, each one bringing a new reality and often erasing the details of the one before. The only certainty is that our being is a bestowed privilege, a journey through stages orchestrated by the Absolute Being, moving us toward the final, ultimate awakening.