The Solar System Reimagined: Heaven and Hell in the Afterlife Through a Muslim Lens

Preface
This vision begins with a question deeply rooted in both theological imagination and Qur’anic contemplation: What if the Solar System, once the silent stage of human life and struggle, becomes the very architecture of the afterlife? From a Muslim perspective, we imagine—through the lens of divine power and Qur’anic symbolism—a Solar System reborn. After the total collapse of Earthly existence and the blowing of the Horn by Israfil, God Almighty brings every soul back. Not back to Earth as it was, but perhaps into a Solar System remade: transformed into an arena where judgment is manifest and divine justice reigns across cosmic spheres.
This exploration is not literal tafsir but a sacred fiction—a symbolic, metaphysical model inspired by the Qur’an, Hadith, and the traditional Islamic vision of cosmic justice and reward.

1. The Cosmic Event of Resurrection
Islam teaches that once the entire creation dies, Allah will resurrect all souls. The blowing of the Horn by Israfil signifies the end of all things and the beginning of eternal truth. From this point forward, time becomes Divine—”A day with your Lord is like a thousand years of what you count” (Qur’an 22:47).
In this new time-space, the Solar System is not just an astronomical arrangement; it is a canvas of divine manifestation. The stars have collapsed, the galaxies dimmed, and what remains is a purified form of our system: the Sun, renewed and terrifying; the planets, reordered and elevated.

2. The Sun Reborn as Jahannam
The Qur’an describes Hell as “a blazing fire,” “a scorching wind and scalding water,” and a place where souls are burned again and again without dying. Hadith narrates that on the Day of Judgment, the Sun will come so near that people will sweat in proportion to their deeds (Muslim 2864).
In this reimagining, the Sun has reverted to a more youthful state—a radiant white-hot sphere, more luminous and violent than anything our eyes have known. But instead of giving life, it becomes a center of torment. It burns not hydrogen but the very essence of those who denied truth, oppressed others, rejected mercy. The damned are pulled into its gravity, not physically but spiritually, drawn by the weight of their sins.
It is not that the Sun is Hell, but that it houses a form of it—an eternal cosmic furnace whose reality is more terrifying than flame: it is light that blinds, heat that consumes without end, and energy that disintegrates identity without release. As the Qur’an says, “They will not die therein, nor will they live.” (87:13).

3. The Eight Planets as Gates of Jannah
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that Paradise has eight gates, each reserved for different types of people: those who fast, those who pray, those who give charity, the martyrs, the righteous, and so on (Bukhari and Muslim). In our symbolic system, each planet becomes a door to one of these realms, and through it, a unique experience of eternal joy.

Mercury: Jannah al-Ma’wa (The Shelter)
Closest to the solar blaze but protected by Divine will, Mercury is a polished, silver realm of serenity. It is for those who repented sincerely and sought shelter in God’s mercy.

Venus: Jannah al-Na‘īm (The Garden of Bliss)
A luminous world, no longer a sulfuric wasteland, but a realm of fragrant winds and flowing gardens. For those whose hearts were soft and devoted in praise.

Earth: Dar al-Salam (The Abode of Peace)
The Earth returns purified. No longer plagued by war or death, it now becomes the paradise of those who led lives of balance, service, and inner harmony.

Mars: Jannah al-Firdaws (The Lofty Garden)
Now a crimson-jade garden of elevated terrain and water that sings, Mars is the reward of the Prophets, scholars, and those who loved God above all else.

Jupiter: Jannat al-‘Adn (The Eternal Abode)
Expansive, regal, ringed with light, Jupiter is home to those of noble character and unwavering justice.

Saturn: Jannat al-Muqām (The Station of Permanence)
A realm of reflection and rest, where the pious dwell in radiant homes adorned with verses of the Qur’an.

Uranus: Jannat al-Khuld (The Immortal Garden)
Icy in its past, now glowing with the color of hidden wisdom. Here reside the ascetics, those who sought no praise but God’s.

Neptune: Jannat al-‘Illiyyīn (The Highest Heights)
The furthest and most ethereal. It is where the martyrs, the Prophets, and the most purified souls are honored with glimpses of the Throne, veiled in splendor.

4. Divine Time: The Terraforming of the Afterlife
Just as three days of God’s time equal millennia in human reckoning, the transformation of the Solar System does not happen instantly. It is as if, after judgment, each planet undergoes Divine Terraforming—from lifeless rock to realms of lush paradise. The process may take “three days” of Divine time—symbolizing not passage but preparation, not waiting but purification.
These new heavens are not physical only, but multidimensional, shaped by the soul’s resonance. Each person arrives at their paradise according to their deeds, their heart, and their proximity to divine light.

5. The Orbit of Morality: Gravity of Deeds
Each soul is drawn toward the Sun or a planet by the gravity of its moral mass. Those heavy with cruelty, arrogance, and denial fall inward, toward the consuming fire. Those lightened by charity, prayer, humility, and love ascend outward, caught in the orbit of grace.
This moral gravity organizes the cosmos. No angel is needed to push or pull; it is truth itself that guides the soul to its place.

6. The Cosmic Library of Deeds
Beyond the Solar System, stars are no longer random. Each one is a record, each cluster a chapter of destiny. The Milky Way glows like a river of script—a divine archive known as ‘Illiyyīn and Sijjīn.
Angels traverse this vault like comets, delivering scrolls, enacting decrees, speaking names.

Conclusion
This symbolic vision offers a possibility that is not contradiction but contemplation—a way of seeing our known universe as a reflection of the unseen. In this afterlife Solar System, we find Hell as the central blaze, the Sun itself renewed in judgment; and around it, not dead rocks, but sanctified worlds—eight gates of paradise, orbiting like the righteous around the remembrance of God.
Such a system is not science fiction—it is sacred imagination, a tool to stir reflection, awe, and fear of the Day when “the Earth will be replaced by another Earth, and the heavens as well” (Qur’an 14:48).
And God knows best.