![Ibn arabi judgement day](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Ibn_arabi_judgement_day.svg)
In
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, al-A'raf ( ar, الأعراف) is a separator realm or borderland between
Jannah
In Islam, Jannah ( ar, جَنّة, janna, pl. ''jannāt'',lit. "paradise, garden", is the final abode of the righteous. According to one count, the word appears 147 times in the Quran. Belief in the afterlife is one of the six articles of f ...
(heaven) and
Jahannam
In Islam, the place of punishment for unbelievers and other sin in Islam, evildoers in the afterlife, or hell, is an "integral part of Islamic theology",#ETISN2009, Thomassen, "Islamic Hell", Numen, 56, 2009: p.401 and has "occupied an important p ...
(hell), inhabited by those who are evenly balanced in their sins and virtues, they are not entirely evil nor are they entirely good. This place may be described as a kind of benevolent
purgatory
Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...
with privation but without suffering.
The word is literally translated as "the heights" in English. The realm is described as a high curtain between
hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
and
paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...
.
Ibn Kathir
Abū al-Fiḍā’ ‘Imād ad-Dīn Ismā‘īl ibn ‘Umar ibn Kathīr al-Qurashī al-Damishqī (Arabic: إسماعيل بن عمر بن كثير القرشي الدمشقي أبو الفداء عماد; – 1373), known as Ibn Kathīr (, was ...
described A'raf as a wall that contains a gate.
In this high wall lived people who witness the terror of hell and the beauty of paradise. They yearn to enter paradise, but their sins and virtues are evenly balanced. Yet with the mercy of God, they will be among the last people to enter the paradise.
[The People of Al-A'raf](_blank)
/ref> The Catholic scholar of Islam Louis Massignon
Louis Massignon (25 July 1883 – 31 October 1962) was a Catholic scholar of Islam and a pioneer of Catholic-Muslim mutual understanding. He was an influential figure in the twentieth century with regard to the Catholic church's relationship w ...
believed the Christian concept of limbo
In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin '' limbus'', edge or boundary, referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of Western Euro ...
was inspired by the Muslim interpretation of A'raf.[Cyril Glassé, Huston Smith ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'' Rowman Altamira 2003 page 60]
''A'raf'' is described in the Quran in sura ''Al-A'raf'', 46–47.
See also
*Purgatory
Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...
*Gehenna
The Valley of Hinnom ( he, , lit=Valley of the son of Hinnom, translit=Gēʾ ḇen-Hīnnōm) is a historic valley surrounding Ancient Jerusalem, Ancient Jerusalem from the west and southwest. The valley is also known by the name Gehinnom ( ...
*Barzakh
Barzakh (Arabic: برزخ, from Persian ''Barzakh'', "limbo, barrier, partition") is an Arabic word meaning "obstacle", "hindrance", "separation", or "barrier". In Islam, it denotes a place separating the living from the hereafter or a phase/"st ...
*Matarta
In Mandaean cosmology, a maṭarta ( myz, ࡌࡀࡈࡀࡓࡕࡀ; plural form: ''maṭarata'') is a "station" or "toll house" that is located between the World of Light (''alma ḏ-nhūra'') from Tibil (Earth). It has variously been translated as " ...
in Mandaeism
References
Islamic eschatology
Islamic cosmology
Islamic terminology
Limbo
Afterlife places
{{cosmology-stub