เคยนับถือพุทธศาสนาและนั่งสมาธิได้ แต่เปลี่ยนไปนับถือศาสนาอิสลามแล้วเสียชีวิต จะช่วยได้อย่างไร?Someone who could meditate as a Buddhist converted to Islam before dying — how can we help them?

Someone asked: if a person who used to practice Buddhism and could meditate later converted to Islam and passed away, how can we help them?

Belief and skill carry over after death

Phra Ajarn explained that devas who dwell close to the human realm — earth-bound devas, tree devas, sky devas — generally keep holding on to whatever religion they followed while they were alive. Someone who was Muslim before death, for instance, is usually still Muslim after being reborn as this kind of deva, and will even come back to guide people of the same faith — appearing in their dreams, for example — to stay firm in that religion.

It is the same for someone who was Christian and trusted in God before dying: after death they keep that same belief, and go on guiding their children and grandchildren to hold to goodness in the way their faith teaches.

What a person believes while alive matters a great deal. The same is true of meditation — if you train in it as a human being, you will still be able to sit in meditation after death. If you never trained, you simply won't know how; there's no understanding or skill to draw on.

If merit carries them to the Tavatimsa heaven

For someone who used to be Buddhist and could meditate, but later changed to another religion before dying, Phra Ajarn said it's generally hard to turn that back — because at the moment of death, whatever faith they held most recently is what stays with them.

But if the merit they built up earlier as a Buddhist is enough to take them to the Tavatimsa heaven, Sakka — the deva-king who presides there — will praise the virtues of the Triple Gem to them, and that may be enough to bring them back to the Buddhist faith, right there in that heavenly realm. Devas in the higher heavens follow much the same pattern.