Ex-President Mubarak is 84. He currently stands accused by opponents of ordering soldiers to fire on peacefully demonstrating protestors, 800 of whom died during the uprising earlier this year which ousted him from a leadership of almost 30 years.
If he is found guilty, he will face the death penalty. There is no question that Mubarak is experiencing ill health and that, one way or another, his end is near. As a Muslim, he will expect judgment to follow death and he will hope that, at that judgment, the good in his life will outweigh the bad.
After death
The ancient Egyptian pharaohs spent their entire reigns thinking about their deaths. Nothing was more important than eternal life. They spent their lives in palaces made of mud bricks, of which nothing remains today, yet they prepared splendid tombs of solid rock for their bodies to rest in. They, too, expected a judgment by the gods, who would weigh the heart against the feather of truth and justice to see if their good deeds outweighed the bad. Their confidence was lifted by trust in the scarab god Kephri, who represented new life and resurrection.
