Quoted from the book (Man after Death) By Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-HilliWe have said – in the preceding pages – that the soul forms inside the material body, and grows as long as the body grows; it gets bigger gradually until it becomes a hearing, seeing, 'conscious and thinking' soul that cannot be affected by any defect or disturbance; because the body consists of a viable growing matter and a viable liquid.
[Constituents of the body]:
The viable (or living) matter is attractive to the ether as long as it is growing; but if it stops growing, it will then be unable to attract the ether to it, and that is at the end of the youth of man [i.e. when he attains his adulthood], when the soul reaches its limit and will not grow afterwards; for that reason, the souls of old men and old women will be young and will not become old. Therefore, there isn't – among souls – any old man or old woman.
While as regard: the viable liquid, it is a communicating medium between the ether and the body; i.e. it is a communicating medium between souls and bodies; so that when the body is depleted of the viable liquid, or the viable liquid is oxidized, then the soul will separate from the body, and will not have any contact with it, and death will take place.
Therefore, the material – from which bodies are composed – consists of two things: a viable matter and a viable liquid.
The viable matter is that of which the body of the fetus is formed in his mother's womb; for it is a collection of minute cells.
While the viable liquid: it is the factor of contact between the soul and the body. If the semen was not alive and viable matter, then it would not grow and increase. One of the Arab poets said:
"Reserve your semen as much as you can;for it is the liquid of life, poured in the womb."
[The Example of the car battery]:
E.g. the battery of the car consists of three things:
First – a black box made of plastic, and has [several] boards of lead.
Second – sulfuric acid diluted with water.
Third – an electric current.
So let us consider the human body as the box, the viable liquid to resemble the sulfuric acid, and the soul to resemble the electric current.
Here, the sulfuric acid is the factor of the communication between the electric current and the battery; so without the acid, the current will not communicate with the battery.
Suppose that we evacuate the battery of the acid, then it will not accept the current; because the acid is the communicating medium between the current and the battery. And as such will the rule be about the viable liquid between the soul and the body; so that the soul will communicate with the body, as long as the viable liquid is present in it; and if the viable liquid is oxidized then the soul will separate from the body and there will be no communication between the soul and the body, and that is the death. Therefore, the death is nothing more than a separation of the soul from the body, due to oxidation of the viable fluid inside the body, or due to any other catastrophe like murder, burn, drowning or what is like that.
When the body of the fetus is formed inside his mother's womb, it will start to draw to it the ether particles and construct inside it[s body] an ethereal structure, that will be a true copy of it, and will go on attracting the ether to it from the time of its birth until the end of his youth, when it will not be able anymore to attract the ether to it, and the soul reaches its limits and will not become bigger afterwards.
While as regards the viable fluid inside the body; its capabilities do not regress at the end of the youth, but it goes on communicating between the soul and the body till death. Hence, formation of the soul inside the body is because the body attracts the ether particles; and as such any viable material is attractive to the ether, and it builds – inside it – an ethereal model which exactly simulates the material model or identical with it, whether it be an animal, a human or a plant.
God - be exalted - said in the Quran 23: 12-14
The explanation:ولَقَدْ خَلَقْنا الإنْسانَ مِنْ سُلالَةٍ مِنْ طِينٍ . ثُمَّ جَعَلْناهُ نُطْفَةً في قَرارٍ مَكِينٍ . ثُمَّ خَلَقْنا النُّطْفَةَ عَلَقَةً فَخَلَقْنا العَلَقَةَ مُضْغَةً فَخَلَقْنا المُضْغَةً عِظاماً فَكَسَوْنا العِظامَ لَحْماً ثُمَّ أنْشَأْناهُ خَلْقاً آخَرَ ، فَتَبارَكَ اللهُ رَبُّ العالَمِينَ
(We created man, from [his] ancestors, from clay.
Then We made his [offspring from] a scanty liquid [: the semen, to settle] in a sure [or safe] lodging.
Then We made the scanty liquid [: the semen]: a worm[-like structure], and made the worm[-like structure]: a morsel[-like lump], then made the morsel[-like lump]: bones, and clothed the bones with flesh; then We formed it another creation, so blessed be God: the Best to create.)
So His saying – be exalted – ثُمَّ أنْشَأْناهُ خَلْقاً آخَرَ i.e. (then We formed it another creation) means other than what He has created initially: that He created it of mud then of semen …etc.
Hence, the first creation is material, and the 'other creation' is ethereal; He means by that the soul. The indication of that, is His saying – be exalted – ثُمَّ أنْشَأْناهُ i.e. (then We formed it), but He did not say: then We created it; because the 'creation' is for material things, and the 'formation' is for the ethereal, i.e. souls. Therefore, the word 'formation' [and its synonym in Arabic: إنْشاء ] means the collection, gathering and attraction.