Do Muslims have Near Death Experiences ?

I apologize for the late response to all of you, RL gets in the way sometimes. I will address some of your responses.

So, there was this study conducted . The Search for Muslim Near Death Experiences.

ABSTRACT: Given the dearth of Muslim near-death experiences (NDEs) in the literature, I decided to take advantage of my contacts in the Muslim community to find more of this material. After advertising unsuccessfully in both traditional media and Internet groups, I recruited a student resident of Pakistan who had considerable contacts and help there to visit the area of a major earthquake in the Kashmir area in the hope that this would be a fertile terrain to find additional NDE accounts. Once again the results were disappointing. I conclude that NDEs are specifically designed for people who need them, and the need in certain communities may not be as great because of the persistence of traditional faith in an afterlife and a Creator.

digital.library.unt.edu...:/67531/metadc461694/m2/1/high_res_d/28-2%206%20Art%2008%20Kreps.pdf


My search stemmed from a video I believe someone did post on here......




Now, I don't doubt that all people of any faith or not, might have a near death experience, I was asking about why the accounts of those of Muslim faith numbers are lower than any other category.

The link to the PDF is worth a read.

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
a reply to: Groot

I've had quite a few "otherwordly" experiences, including one when I was drowning. But I certainly didn't see any of the stereotypical depictions of any of the prophets. I think it's safe to say that any person from any background can have a near death experience. How they interpret what they saw is another story.

Though this is probably the wrong place to ask about Muslims specifically, seeing as 1) there aren't a lot of us Muslims here, and 2) most of the answers you get will be from people who are just guessing. So it would probably be better to just google "Muslim near death experiences" or to ask this on one of the many Muslim forums out there. Then you can see a wide variety of different answers from actual Muslims.

Read this study, it's what prompted my thread....

ABSTRACT: Given the dearth of Muslim near-death experiences (NDEs) in the literature, I decided to take advantage of my contacts in the Muslim community to find more of this material. After advertising unsuccessfully in both traditional media and Internet groups, I recruited a student resident of Pakistan who had considerable contacts and help there to visit the area of a major earthquake in the Kashmir area in the hope that this would be a fertile terrain to find additional NDE accounts. Once again the results were disappointing. I conclude that NDEs are specifically designed for people who need them, and the need in certain communities may not be as great because of the persistence of traditional faith in an afterlife and a Creator. KEY WORDS: near-death experience; Islam. More than 20 years ago, when I was just barely aware of the work of Raymond Moody (1975) delineating the characteristics of near-death experiences (NDEs), I was on a journey to Cairo, when I was invited to an Iftar dinner, the meal that breaks the fast during the holy month of Ramadan, at a Sufi friend’s house. A middle-aged lady who was present began recounting a terrible traffic accident she had experienced in Kuwait 10 years earlier. As I was listening to her exposition, I remember thinking, ‘‘This is an almost classical NDE.’’

digital.library.unt.edu...:/67531/metadc461694/m2/1/high_res_d/28-2%206%20Art%2008%20Kreps.pdf

a reply to: Groot

I think that a lot of it comes down to terminologyand cultural interpretations. For example, a lot of Muslims believe that ghosts, spirits, youkai, hallucinations, mysterious voices, and supernatural "sightings" are all just jinn trying to trick us. So a lot of Muslims may not even feel comfortable talking about this stuff. There are even several Surahs in the Qur'an which we're recommended to recite when we're in these types of situations, specifically because it drives the anomoly away.

On the other hand, I know for a fact that myself, my mom, my younger brother, and my sister have all had numerous supernatural-esque experiences throughout our lives. To my knowledge, nearly all of ours have occurred during normal day to day activities. This leads me to a separate conclusion: perhaps we don't need the "supernatural interventions" at near death as much as others do?

As Muslims, we strive to keep God involved in even the most boring details of our lives. For example, I have a special prayer I say virtually every time I step in grass (it's a prayer that I don't hurt or kill any of His creations). And I have a different prayer I say every time I get in a car (my Mom & sister do, as well). We pray multiple times a day, and I spent most of my early years asking God directly for advice, answers, etc. So it wouldn't really be a life changing event for me to "get in touch" with something supernatural during a near death experience. Because I already feel "in touch" with them during normal activities, if that makes any sense.

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
a reply to: Groot

I think that a lot of it comes down to terminologyand cultural interpretations. For example, a lot of Muslims believe that ghosts, spirits, youkai, hallucinations, mysterious voices, and supernatural "sightings" are all just jinn trying to trick us. So a lot of Muslims may not even feel comfortable talking about this stuff. There are even several Surahs in the Qur'an which we're recommended to recite when we're in these types of situations, specifically because it drives the anomoly away.

On the other hand, I know for a fact that myself, my mom, my younger brother, and my sister have all had numerous supernatural-esque experiences throughout our lives. To my knowledge, nearly all of ours have occurred during normal day to day activities. This leads me to a separate conclusion: perhaps we don't need the "supernatural interventions" at near death as much as others do?

As Muslims, we strive to keep God involved in even the most boring details of our lives. For example, I have a special prayer I say virtually every time I step in grass (it's a prayer that I don't hurt or kill any of His creations). And I have a different prayer I say every time I get in a car (my Mom & sister do, as well). We pray multiple times a day, and I spent most of my early years asking God directly for advice, answers, etc. So it wouldn't really be a life changing event for me to "get in touch" with something supernatural during a near death experience. Because I already feel "in touch" with them during normal activities, if that makes any sense.

That does make sense.

I, myself , rejected all religions at an early age due to the hypocrisy I saw.

But, I also have prayed to some unknown entity that I know is there. I feel it, I have experienced it. I feel it when I am alone in nature and know it is real.

No ritual, no rules. I don't need a manmade religion to tell me what I should or should not do.

As a human being, I know what is right or wrong.

I am not afraid of death, I know that it will be just another passage into something different. Maybe good, I hope, but maybe bad.

a reply to: Groot

Before I accepted Islam, I'd already acknowledged that there was a negative presence that was trying to get me to do bad things. And after a lot of questions and demands from God, I became 100% convinced that He & His Angels were real, too. But I stayed defiant until He finally had enough of my contradictions; so He put me in check & chastised me until I finally submitted to Him.

I'm literally a Muslim in the original sense of the word ("one who submits to God/one who serves God/God's servant"). I've never considered myself a Sunni, Shiite, or any other man-made denomination or designation because I serve God & God alone. To be blunt, I think too many people focus on the man-made divisions and interpretations while ignoring the basic points, which are to treat His other Creations well, to do good things, to avoid doing bad things, to love while rejecting hate, to be a good mother/father/sibling/spouse, to keep Him in our thoughts, etc.

The point is, living a life like that seems to diminish the need for divine "wake up calls" during emergencies. then again, I could be speaking solely for myself on that.

define near death experience?

I fell off a ladder and could have died. I was just missed by inches by a speeding car on the highway I was so frightened by what happened that my heart stopped for a second. These are types of near death experiences.

Then there are some who literally die and then mysteriously come back to life and that is considered and near life experience.

It seems like you are talking about the latter. So in that case it is not really near death but real death, and for some unknown reason (God only knows) they came back to life before their bodies could be cut up by an autopsy or embalmed. Moslem's do not believe in embalming so that is why they bury their dead quickly as possible.

All peoples of the world have individuals who have had these experiences. No matter their culture or backgrounds, rich or poor these experiences happen. So yes Moslem's do have them too.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

Here are some interesting ones and some of a different ilk.
www.oddee.com...

In the old day's they would keep a body for a week of more at home with the lid off unless it had started to decay, often only burying the deceased when there face had turned black and this was probably one reason for it, during the Victorian period there were rich people whom had burials' with ventilation and a contraption that allowed them to ring a bell on the surface if they woke up in the coffin and many coffin's have been found were the inside of the lid showed frantic scratch mark's as the suffocating person tried to get out in desperation.

When is death really death especially if our soul is our true life form, can a soul get back into a dead body sometimes and kick start the normal electro-chemical reactions of life even if the body is thought to be dead?.

There is a reason tomb's not burials were popular.

"Near death?..."
No half measures.
Some of the crazies need to have the whole-hog crap killed out of them.
Welcome to oblivion.
Don't let the door hit you in the ass.

originally posted by: mekhanics
a reply to: Groot

Meh ...

Trusting a radical militant atheist's opinion on NDE's... SERIOUSLY?

a reply to: mekhanics

Black holes aren't made up. What are you, a flat earther? Go back to flatsberg!