Barzakh (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: برزخ) is an Arabic word meaning "obstacle", "hindrance", "separation", or "barrier". In

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, it denotes a place separating the living from the

hereafter The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's stream of consciousness or identity continues to exist after the death of their physical body. The surviving essential aspect varies bet ...

or a phase/"stage" between an individual's death and their resurrection in "the Hereafter". It is also considered as a place where souls rest until the day of judgement. It bears resemblance to the

intermediate state Intermediate state may refer to: Science * an intermediate chemical state * Virtual state, a very short-lived, unobservable quantum state * Meissner effect, the expulsion of a magnetic field from a superconductor during its transition to the supe ...

in Christianity. Some scholars believe that good Muslims will have a heavenly experience during this time, and sinners will experience suffering; while some

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

scholars believe the experience will not be like the physical pain or pleasure of the temporal world. Scholars have different definitions of ''Barzakh''. According to Ghazali, Barzakh may be the place for those who go neither to hell nor to heaven. According to

Ibn Hazm Ibn Hazm (; November 994 – 15 August 1064) was an Andalusian Muslim polymath, historian, traditionist, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in the Córdoban Caliphate, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpre ...

, Barzakh is also the place for unborn souls, which are elsewhere described as residing in the lowest of the

seven heavens In ancient Near Eastern cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven firmaments or physical layers located above the open sky. The concept can be found in ancient Mesopotamian religion, Judaism, and Islam. Some traditions complement the seven ...

, where an angel blows them into the wombs of women.

Etymology

The word comes from the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

b-r-z "a thing jutted out, a protruding object, a barrier." Some argued that the word is borrowed from an

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

language, either

Parthian Parthian may refer to: Historical * Parthian people * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery sk ...

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

Quran and hadith

Mentioned only three times in the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, and just once specifically as the barrier between the corporeal and ethereal, Barzakh is portrayed as a place in which, after death, the spirit is separated from the body – freed to contemplate the wrongdoing of its former life. Despite the gain of recognizance, it cannot utilize action. The other two occurrences refer to Barzakh as an impenetrable barrier between fresh and salt water. While fresh and salt water may intermingle, an ocean remains distinct from a river. In the

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

tradition,

Ibn al-Qayyim Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb az-Zurʿī d-Dimashqī l-Ḥanbalī (29 January 1292–15 September 1350 CE / 691 AH–751 AH), commonly known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ("The son of the principal of he scho ...

writes that souls in al-Barzakh are grouped with others matching in purity or impurity.

Separation of body and soul

, the soul and the body are independent of each other. This is significant in Barzakh, because only a person's soul goes to Barzakh and not their physical body. See ''

The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam ''The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam'' is an essay on Ahmadiyya Islam by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya religious movement. The original was written in Urdu with the title ''Islami Usool ki Philosophy'', in order to be read at ...

''. Since one's soul is divorced from their body in Barzakh, the belief is that no progress or improvements to one's past life can be made. If a person experienced a life of sin and worldly pleasures, one cannot try to perform good deeds in order to reach ''

Jannah In Islam, Jannah (, ''jannāt'', ) is the final and permanent abode of the righteous. According to one count, the word appears 147 times in the Qur'an. Belief in the afterlife is one of the Iman (Islam)#The Six Articles of Faith, six article ...

''. Whatever one does in his or her lifetime is final and cannot be changed or altered in Barzakh. However, there is belief that the fire which represents the own bad deeds can already be seen in Barzakh, and that the spiritual pain caused by this can lead to purification of the soul.

Interpretations

In mainstream Sunni and Shia Islam, Barzakh has been defined as "an intermediary stage between this life and another life in the Hereafter"; "an interval or a break between individual death and resurrection"; "The Stage Between this World and the Hereafter"; the period between a person's death and his resurrection on the Day of Resurrection. Based in least in part on the verse "Before them is a Partition till the Day they are raised up." (Q.23:100) Some scholars believe that good Muslims will have a heavenly experience during this time, and sinners will experience suffering; while some

scholars believe there is no experience of physical pain or pleasure in Barzakh.

Mainstream scholarly discourse

Some

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

scholars stress the importance of Barzakh, while others simply ignore it. * Modern Muslim thinkers de-emphasize Barzakh, and focus instead on a person's individual life and the

Day of Judgment The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the '' Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, res ...

. In this view, the state of Barzakh is simply looked past and skipped once a person dies. * Muslim scholars who do believe in Barzakh still have varying interpretations of this intermediate state based on different traditions. Some traditions suggest that a person's deeds in their life will affect their experience in Barzakh. In these traditions, the state known as "Azaabul-Qabr," will be one where a person is punished for his or her deeds in their past life. While those in a second state known as "Tan'eemu Ahlit-Taa'ah Fil Qabr," will receive the blessings and bounties of Allah because of his or her faith and good deeds. * Al-Ghazālī states, "After the First Blast, all created beings shall abide for forty (it is unknown if it is a year or month or etc.) in the Intermediate Realm barzakh. Then shall God quicken Seraphiel, and command him to deliver the Second Blast, as He has said (Exalted is He!): ''Then shall it be blown again, and lo! they stand, beholding'' : they shall be on their feet, watching the Resurrection." *

Al-Zamakhshari Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari (; 1074 –1143) was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian descent. He travelled to Mecca and settled there for five years and has been known since then as 'Jar Allah' (God's Neighbor). He was a Mu'tazi ...

explains Barzakh to mean hā'il, "an obstacle." His adaptation of the meaning of the word coincides with mentions of Barzakh in Quran 25:53. *

Abdullah Yusuf Ali Abdullah Yusuf Ali (; 14 April 1872 – 10 December 1953) was an Indian-British barrister who wrote a number of books about Islam, including an exegesis of the Qur'an. A supporter of the British war effort during World War I, Ali received the C ...

referred to a Barzakh state as a "quiescent state." The soul lies in a resting state until

Yawm al-Qiyāmah In Islam, "the promise and threat" () of Judgement Day ( or ), is when "all bodies will be resurrected" from the dead, and "all people" are "called to account" for their deeds and their faith during their life on Earth. It has been called "the do ...

Sufism

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

the Barzakh or ''Alam-e-Araf'' is not only where the soul resides after death, but also a place it can visit during sleep and meditation.

Ibn 'Arabi Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni scholar, Sufi mystic, poet, and philosopher who was extremely influential within Islamic thought. Out of the 850 works attributed to him, some 700 are authentic, while over 400 ar ...

defines Barzakh as the intermediate realm or "isthmus". It is between the World of Corporeal Bodies and the World of Spirits, and is a means of contact between the two worlds. Without it, there would be no contact between the two and both would cease to exist. It is described as simple and luminous, like the World of Spirits, but also able to take on many different forms just like the World of Corporeal Bodies can. In broader terms Barzakh, “is anything that separates two things”. It has been described as the dream world in which the dreamer is in both life and death. The word ''Barzakh'' can also refer to a person. Chronologically between

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

and

Mohammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Mose ...

is the contested Prophet

Khalid Khalid (variants include Khaled and Kalid; Arabic: خالد) is a popular Arabic male given name meaning "eternal, everlasting, immortal". It also appears as a surname.

Ibn Arabi Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest com ...

considers this man to be a ''Barzakh'', meaning a Perfect Human Being. Chittick explains that the Perfect Human acts as the ''Barzakh'' or "isthmus" between God and the world. According to Ibn Arabi, Khalid was a prophet whose message never emerged. Before he died, he told his sons to open his tomb forty days after his death to receive the message of Barzakh. The sons, however, feared that they would be looked down upon for opening their dead father's tomb; therefore they decided not to exhume their father. Thus, his message was never shared. An Ottoman scholar explained that for Khalid to give the knowledge of Barzakh he would have had to travel through the different worlds and then return; because he was not exhumed, his message was never heard. Ibn Arabi explains that because this mission ended in failure, it does not conflict with the Prophet

Mohammed Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, ...

’s statement: “I am nearest of men to Jesus son of

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

, for there is no prophet between him and me."

Shia

The idea of Barzakh has significance in Shia Islam, though different from its significance in Sufism. The Prophet and the Shia Imams, particularly the sixth Imam (

Jafar As-Sadiq Ja'far al-Sadiq (; –765) was a Muslim hadith transmitter and the last agreed-upon Shia Imam between the Twelvers and Isma'ilis. Known by the title al-Sadiq ("The Truthful"), Ja'far was the eponymous founder of the Ja'fari school of Islamic j ...

), have explained through various hadiths the treatment, condition, processes, and other intricate details regarding the passage of Barzakh. In Shia theology, there are seven checkpoints in Barzakh. The first is kindness/trust/

wilayah A wilayah ( or ''wilāya'', plural ; Urdu, Pashto and ; ) is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", " province" or occasionally as " governorate". The word comes from the Arabic root "''w-l-y''", "to govern": a '' wāli''� ...

. Second is salaat. Third is zakaat or

khums In Islam, khums ( ) is a tax on Muslims which obligates them to pay one-fifth (20%) of their acquired wealth from the spoils of war and, according to most Muslim jurists, other specified types of income, towards various designated beneficiarie ...

. Fourth is fasting. Fifth is

hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

. Sixth is cleanliness. Seventh is rights. It is believed that the terms and conditions to understand Barzakh are limited in scope and full comprehension because it is Shia's belief that it is incomprehensible, to a certain degree, until one actually reaches the realm beyond our physical world. A common analogy used is that of a baby in the womb. Just as the baby cannot possibly begin to understand the vast outside world until they experience it for themselves, we cannot hope to understand what Barzakh entails until we transition there ourselves. Though despite this obstacle, the Shia Imams, as cited through various sayings, have explained Barzakh to a significant degree as compared to other sects within Islam.

Contemporary interpretations and uses

The term has also found its way into more contemporary, non-religious sectors of life. At least three bands have adopted the name "Barzakh," including an Indonesian Jakarta black metal band, a Tunisian oriental metal band and Naqash Ali Shawkat band. ''Barzakh'' was used as the title of a 2011 documentary following citizens of a war-torn Chechen community searching for a lost friend who they believe may have transitioned from our physical world to the realm of Barzakh.

Similar concepts in Christianity

According to the belief of some

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, the "

" is a liminal state following the physical

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

of the body. This is a temporary place, similar to Barzakh.behind paywall Because they have this in common, some believe that they are the same idea or concept. In the intermediate state, people await their final judgment, much like some definitions of Barzakh in Islam. Some Christian denominations (notably

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

) include a notion of "

purgatory In Christianity, Purgatory (, borrowed into English language, English via Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman and Old French) is a passing Intermediate state (Christianity), intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul ...

": a place where souls, though ultimately destined for

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

, must pause and do penance for the sins they committed in life. The notion of a place of purgation is closer to the Quranic idea of Aʿrāf (“the heights”). Aʿrāf is also thought of as a place where souls go whose good and bad deeds are too evenly matched to go directly to Paradise or the Fire.