Dear Beyond Tradition,
As-salamu alaykum
The Quran appears to suggest that there are
two broad parts to the dying process:
1. The experience of death itself which is described as
'ghamrah' [6:93] (
an agony, anguish, grief, a perplexity) [50:19] and
'sakrah' (
dazzlement and an agony of death).
2. Some degree of awareness during the death-stroke of:
(a) That this life was indeed only a trial for the next. This has been cited through the examples of wrong-doers in particular (4:18; 4:97; 23:99-100).
(b) The dying soul will have
some awareness of those charged to extract the soul from their body (4:97; 6:93) [the angel(s) of death].
Now just because there is
1. An experience of death and
2.
An awareness of purpose at the death stroke, this does not mean that a soul cannot be put to rest and awoken at the Day of Judgement and
yet still feel that only a moment has lapsed.
These are not mutually exclusive concepts. The
'momentary time lapse' indicated by the Quran merely signifies that after the soul is put to death, the concept of time is totally lost in the state of Barzakh (23:100). This is depicted in numerous verses such as 17:52, 30:55-56, 10:45, 56:35, 79:46
Of course,
the full extent of the truth and
one's accountability will only be manifested on the Day of Judgement. In that regards, your insinuation is absolutely correct. As you may already know, I do not subscribe to the concept that there is any punishment during one’s presence in the grave
[1] and thus, from the moment of death and one's arrival on the Day of Judgement, it will only feel like a
'blinking / twinkling of an eye' (16:77).
I hope this helps, God willing
Regards,
Joseph
REFERENCE[1] PUNISHMENT OF THE GRAVE (AZAB-E-QABR)http://quransmessage.com/articles/grave%20punishment%20FM3.htm