A Thousand Years, Less Fifty: Toward a Quranic View of Extreme Longevity

Abstract

What are the implications of radical life extension (RLE) for Islamic concepts of life and death, of the here and the hereafter? For Muslims, the Qur’an contains the direct and literal words of God, transmitted in Arabic to the Prophet Muhammad, by the angel Gabriel in the seventh century of the Common Era. For Muslims, it the most authoritative source of knowledge about divine commands relating to life, death, the here, and the hereafter; as such, as Muslims seek understanding about these questions in the midst of ongoing biomedical advances, they turn to the Qur’an for guidance. Not only does the Qur’an shape Muslim worldviews, it also informs Muslims about the history of earlier communities and individuals, and Muslims generally accept the claims contained in these stories as true and accurate.