Praise is due to God; Glory be to God; Best names are of God; The kingdom, ownership and possession belong to God. The absolute knowledge, power, wisdom are exclusively His own. To Him belong the present World and the world of the Next Life. The genie-kind and man-kind are His servants.

I hope for His mercy and forgiveness; He is my Master and Guide.

Certainly the Quran, the last heavenly scripture, was revealed in Arabic; it is the authentic word of God, which cannot be imitated. It is a concise book, of which are derived different knowledge disciplines. It includes the law, the admonition, the description of the Next Life, Paradise, Hell and the afterlife in the world of souls, the telling about the fore-future and the telling about the past nations.

Its phrases and words are in Arabic; the Quran cannot be translated; because it is the word of God; any translator will translate according to his own understanding and desire; the translation is not the Quran; the Quranic revelations are in Arabic only. Only the explanation and meaning may be translated, which in fact is not the Quran.

Therefore, I preserved the Quranic revelations as they are in Arabic, and explained them in English; and that is according to the instruction of the late Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly, the interpreter of the Quran and the Bible.

So the Quran is in Arabic and the explanation is in English.

The English words are not at all the Quran, but only the meaning and the explanation of the Quran.

The Quran is the Arabic word of God, while the explanation is the words of the translator, according to the interpretation of the Late Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly, the interpreter of the Quran and the Bible, and according to the understanding and the linguistic capability of the translator.

The Arabic Quran is a miracle including marvelous jewels that cannot at all be translated; because the believer may have, from listening to the Quran and from reading it:

a psychological cure,

a protection from the devil and evil creatures,

and a wide range of knowledge and wisdom.

By the way, many 'foreign non-Arab people' know the Quran by heart without even knowing its meaning.

The Quran [in comparison to the Bible] is a concise book, which thousands of people know by heart; yet the knowledge and details – that stem, branch and rebranch from it – are tremendous.

I have used the Rectangular brackets [] for words essential for explaining the meaning but are not found in the original text.

I may answer any question about the subject and the book, in case I know the answer; but certainly God is the All-Knowing, and the Guide to the standard way of monotheism and the exclusive devotion to Him alone without associate, equal or son.

The translator

eanassir@gmail.com

Forward

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرحْمانِ الرحيم

بَلْ كَذّبُوا بِما لَمْ يُحيطُوا بِعِلْمِهِ ولَمّا يَأْتِهِمْ تَأْوِيلُهُ ، كَذلِكَ كَذّبَ الّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ

I.e. (In the name of God, Most Gracious^{^[1]}, Most Merciful^{^[2]}

Nay, but they charge with falsehood that^{^[3]} whose knowledge they cannot compass, and even when the elucidation thereof reaches them^{^[4]} [, also they will charge with falsehood.] So did those before them charge with falsehood.)

Quran 10: 40

The interpretation:

The people of Prophet Mohammed denied [and cried lies] the words of the Quran – and in particular the mysterious Quranic revelations – the exact meaning of which they did not understand; because it was beyond the knowledge of their time.

In the same way, those coming after them in the future will deny [and cry lies] the interpretation of the mysterious Quranic revelations explained to them by the Mahdi (or the Paraclete).

As such had the past nations before them denied [and cried lies to] their apostles.

Introduction

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرحْمانِ الرحيم

I.e. (In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful)

Praise be to God, Who created man, and taught him the speech [: the expression and intelligence], and prepared for him the plant, subjected the animal to him, and made his life lasting all the time and ages; and salam to the master of the Arab: Mohammed, to whom the Quran was revealed [i.e. sent down from heaven with the angel Gabriel], so that it came to be the best guide and the best explanation.

However, I asked God’s surplus and mercy; so He offered to me knowledge and wisdom. Therefore, praise is due to Him; for that He has honored me, and thanks to Him for His surplus.

Mohammed-Ali Hassan

(died in 1991)

What Is Man?

Dear reader, know that man in fact is the ethereal soul, i.e. the spiritual spirit; and man is not the material body which will disintegrate after death and become soil.

Really, the material body is not more than a mold in which the soul is formed, so that when its formation is completed and it comes of age [or attains the adulthood], then no need for the body after the separation of the soul from it. While as regards the body: it is not more than flesh and bones; so the body, from which the soul has separated, will be like a laid board: does not think, does not understand and does not feel the pleasure and pain.

Therefore, the true man is the soul.

[This also is the meaning of the word نفس , i.e. soul, in the Arab poetry, some of which is mentioned by Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly, the interpreter of the Quran and the Bible, in his Arabic book.]

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 35: 22

وما يَسْتَوي الأحياءُ ولا الأمواتُ ، إنّ اللهَ يُسْمِعُ مَنْ يَشاءُ ، وما أنتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَنْ في القُبُورِ

I.e. (Nor are the living equal nor are the dead.

God makes to hear whomsoever He will, but you cannot make those in the graves to hear.)

Here, God – celebrated be His praise – says to His prophet Mohammed – salam to him: These disbelievers do not hear what you say; because of their extreme stubbornness, just as that dead [bodies buried] in graves: do not hear anyone that talks with them. Hence, this Quranic revelation confirms that the dead [body], from which the soul is separated, does not hear anyone that talks with it; because no life in it.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 27: 80

إنَّكَ لا تُسْمِعُ الْمَوتى ولا تُسْمِعُ الصُّمَّ الدُّعاءَ إذا وَلَّوا مُدْبِرِين

I.e. (Truly, you [Mohammed] cannot cause the dead to hear, nor can you cause the deaf to hear the call [especially] when they turn back [away from you.])

Therefore, these Quranic revelations declare that dead bodies neither hear nor understand; because they are dead bodies having not any life, and will vanish after some years and become soil. Therefore, one who claims that the soul will return to the body in the grave and the dead will become alive and will be judged, I say to him: These are not more than imaginary untrue words, having no reality.

However, the Judgment, Reward and Punishment in the “Barzakh” world [i.e. the afterlife]; it is special for the soul only, not for the body; because the body does not perceive anything of that; while the soul survives and does not disintegrate.

God – be glorified- said in the Quran 2: 154

وَلا تَقولوا لِمَن يُقْتَلُ في سبيلِ اللهِ أمْواتٌ ، بَلْ أحياءٌ ولكن لا تَشْعُرُون

I.e. (And say not of those who are slain in God’s way: ‘They are dead.’ No, they are alive [by their souls], though you perceive [them] not.)

The interpretation:

Do not think about those killed in the way of God [i.e. while struggling and fighting for the sake of God], that their life has ended; because you see their bodies cast on the ground, and their blood coming out; in fact they are alive, but you cannot perceive them; because you see the bodies and do not see the souls; and in fact the true man is the soul, not the body.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 3: 169

وَلا تَحْسَبَنَّ الّذينَ قُتِلُوا في سَبيلِ اللهِ أمْواتاً ، بَلْ أحْياءٌ عِندَ ربِّهِم يُرْزَقُون

I.e. (Think not of those who are slain in the way of God as dead. Not so, but they are living, in the neighborhood of their Lord [in the ethereal paradises], having their provision [of the fruit of these paradises, and drinking from their rivers.])

Therefore, (in the neighborhood of their Lord) means: in the ethereal layers, i.e. in the paradises, provided of its fruits and drinking of its rivers.

If God – be glorified – meant by that their bodies, then He would say: They are living in the graves, finding their provision.

Also, God – be glorified – said in the Quran 36: 26-27

قِيلَ ادْخُل الجَنّةَ قالَ يا لَيْتَ قَوْمي يَعْلَمُون . بِما غَفَرَ لِي رَبِّي وجَعَلَنِي مِنَ الْمُكْرَمِينَ

I.e. ([And when Gamaliel died] it was said [to him by the angels]: "Enter Paradise"; [and when he entered it] he said: "Would that my people knew, that my Lord has forgiven me and made me one of the honored.")

Then, while this man was killed; how could it be said to him: “Enter Paradise”? But the addressing was to his soul, not to his body; because the soul survives and does not disintegrate; therefore, when his ethereal soul entered into Paradise, at that time his soul said: (“Would that my people knew.”)

God – be glorified – said, talking about the people of Noah, in the Quran 71: 25

مِمّا خَطِيئاتِهِمْ أغْرِقُوا فَأُدْخِلُوا ناراً

I.e. (Because of their sins, they were drowned, and they were made to enter into a fire.)

So, in case their bodies were drowned, then how were they admitted into the Fire? In fact, the meaning is: Their bodies were drowned in the water, and their souls were admitted into the Fire.

Moreover, you should know that the admission into Paradise in the “Barzakh [or the afterlife] world” is special for some souls, and the same is true about the admission into Fire.

The Glorious Lord said in the Quran 22: 58

وَالّذِينَ هاجَرُوا في سَبيلِ اللهِ ثُمَّ قُتِلُوا أوْ ماتُوا لَيَرْزُقَنَّهُمُ اللهُ رِزْقاً حَسَناً ، وإنَّ اللهَ لَهُوَ خَيْرُ الرّازِقِين

I.e. (And those who emigrated [from Mecca to Medina, and joined Prophet Mohammed] for the sake of God [and His good pleasure] and then were slain, or they died, God will provide for them a good provision [with the fruit of Paradise]; for, surely, God is the Best of providers.)

Therefore, (God will provide for them a good provision [with the fruit of Paradise]) means: He will provide their souls; because the soul survives and does not disintegrate [or die.]

The Soul

The ‘soul’ [or the ‘ghost’] is that which we call the ‘spirit’, but this is wrong; because the Spirit is Gabriel, the Honest and Trustworthy. And every word روح i.e. ‘spirit’, mentioned in the Quran, means Gabriel, like His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 17: 85

وَيَسْألُونَكَ عَن الرُّوحِ ، قُل الرُّوحُ مِنْ أمْرِ رَبِّي وما أُوتِيتُم مِنَ العِلْمِ إلاّ قَلِيلاً

I.e. (They ask you [Mohammed] about [Gabriel:] the Spirit [of revelation]; say: “[Gabriel] the Spirit [of revelation] is [one] of my Lord’s Am`r [: or ethereal creatures.] And, of the knowledge, you [people] have only been given so little.”)

That was because the idolaters, among the Meccan, asked Prophet Mohammed: “Who brings the revelation to you?”

The prophet answered: “Gabriel brings it to me.”

They said: “Who is Gabriel, and why don’t we see him; can you describe him [to us]?”

So, this aya was revealed, the meaning of which is: They ask you about Gabriel; say to them: Gabriel is one of my Lord’s ethereal creatures whom you don’t see, at present, because you are in a material world, but when you will go to the ethereal world after your death; at that time you will see them; because you will be ethereal beings like them. Therefore, God said after that:

وما أُوتِيتُم مِنَ العِلْمِ إلاّ قَلِيلاً

I.e. (And, of the knowledge, you [people] have only been given so little.”)

However, people call it ‘spirit’, but God calls it ‘soul’; like His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 3: 30

يَوْمَ تَجِدُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ما عَمِلَتْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مُحْضَراً ، وَما عَمِلَتْ مِنْ سُوءٍ

I.e. (On the day [of death] when every soul will find itself confronted [in the afterlife] with all the [good] it has done, and all the [evil] it has done.)

The soul has a constitution like the body constitution; for it is a true copy of the body; because it forms inside the body, and takes its shape; so that if the body is long, then the soul will also be long; and if the body is short, the soul will also be short; and as such its organs and special senses [organs] will be like the special senses [organs] of the body. Hence, if the mouth of the body is large, then the ‘spiritual mouth’ of the soul will also be large; and if the eye of the body is small, the eye of the soul will be small, too.

Afterwards, if the soul separates from the body, by death, it will remain as it is, according to its shape and size: neither will it become bigger nor smaller; so that the child remains as a child forever, and will never get older; and a young man will remain a young one, and will never become older.

The spirit: it can be called a ‘spirit’ before it enters the body; because it is an amount of ethereal particles, but after it goes inside the body, those ethereal particles arrange inside the body forming an ethereal structure that hears, sees, speaks and thinks; then it cannot be called ‘spirit’; but it should be called ‘soul’.

Therefore, we use the word ‘spirit’ for the ethereal particles at their entrance into the body of the embryo or the fetus, and also while the fetus is inside his mother’s womb.

[The synonymous Arabic word روح ‘ruoh’ is used, in this way, in the Arab poetry. The interpreter Mohammed-Ali Hassan mentioned, in his Arabic book, some Arabic poetry to confirm his interpretation of this word.]

[Man has a free will to choose his way]

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 91: 7-10

وَنَفْسِ وَما سَوّاها . فَأَلْهَمَها فُجُورَها وَتَقْواها . قَدْ أفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكّاها وَقَدْ خابَ مَنْ دَسّاها

I.e. (And [I swear by] the soul and [the body] that shaped it!

And [the body] inspired into the [soul, by means of accompanying and friendship] its lewdness and its God-fearing.

He will be successful, who purifies it.

And he will be disappointed [about the Next Life], who corrupts it.)

The meaning: And [I swear] by the body which formed and fashioned the soul!

Which is an oath of threatening for the future; it indicates that: it is the soul that will be taken to account, according to his work and will be punished according to his deeds. While the body – which formed it – will die, disintegrate after death, and become soil.

Whereas that – which inspired into it its lewdness and its God-fearing – it is the friend whom he accompanied in the life of the World; so that if the friend is God-fearing, he will teach him the God-fearing; but if the friend is evil, he will teach him the wickedness and the infidelity that he acquires.

Therefore, the human body confers to the soul the behavior and conduct; so that if a child accompanies some bad persons, he will become bad like them; and if he accompanies the righteous, he will become like them; and it is not God that imposes on them to be evil or good, but He lets them choose which of that they like.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 76: 3

إنّا هَدَيْناهُ السّبيلَ إمّا شاكِراً وَإمّا كَفُوراً

I.e. (We have shown to him the [correct] way; [and have given to him the free choice] whether to be grateful^{^[5]} or ungrateful.)

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 39: 42

اللهُ يَتَوَفّى الأنْفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِها وَالّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ في مَنامِها

I.e. (It is God That receives [in His capture] the souls [of men] at the time of their death, and those [souls] that separate not [from their bodies] during their sleep …etc.)

Therefore, He – be glorified – called it a ‘soul’; that is at its departure from the body; He also called it a ‘soul’ while it is inside the body; that is His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 12: 53

وَما أُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِي ، إنَّ النّفْسَ لأمّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ إلاّ ما رَحِمَ رَبِّي ، إنَّ رَبِّي غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

I.e. (Yet I do not clear myself [of the sexual desire]; for the [human] soul incites to evil, except that whereon my Lord had shown mercy; for surely my Lord is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful [to those who repent.])

Moreover, God – be glorified – said in the Quran 10: 54

وَلَوْ أنَّ لِكُلِّ نَفْسٍ ظَلَمَتْ ما في الأرْضِ لافْتَدَتْ بِهِ

I.e. (Every soul that has oppressed [in the life of the World]; if it possessed all that is in the earth, it would [seek to] ransom itself therewith [from the chastisement, but such ransom will not be accepted].)

In addition, God – be glorified – said in the Quran 16: 111

يَوْمَ تَأْتِي كُلُّ نَفْسٍ تُجادِلُ عَنْ نَفْسِها ، وَتُوَفَّى كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ما عَمِلَتْ وَهُمْ لا يُظْلَمُون

I.e. (On the day [of man’s death] when every soul will come [to the world of souls] disputing in its own behalf, and every soul will be [fully] recompensed for all [the righteous or evil work] that it did, and they will not be wronged [by any increase or decrease of the requital or reward.])

In summary, I say: the soul is the true man, while the body is not more than a mold in which the soul is formed, and there will be no need for the mold [: the body] after the soul gets out of it.

A picture of the chicken and the egg

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The soul of man gets out of the body [by death], as does the chicken get out of the egg;

the soul will remain alive in the world of souls: eating, drinking, seeing, hearing, perceiving and feeling the pleasure and pain.

There will be no return of the soul to the body [after its departure from the body by death]; because the purpose from creating the egg is to form the chicken; and it is not logical that the chicken will return again to its egg, after it has been fully created and has cracked the egg shell.

The Spirit

Every word روح i.e. ‘spirit’, mentioned in the Quran, means Gabriel, like His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 19: 17

فَأرْسَلْنا إلَيْها رُوحَنا فَتَمَثَّلَ لَها بَشَراً سَوِيّاً

I.e. (And We sent to her^{^[6]} [Gabriel] Our 'spirit', who assumed before her the likeness of a well-made man.)

The interpretation: We sent Gabriel, to her; and he appeared before her in the shape of a man.

Moreover, God – be glorified – said in the Quran 2: 87

وَآتَيْنا عِيسَى بْنَ مَرْيَمَ البَيِّناتِ وَأيّدْناهُ بِرُوحِ القُدُسِ

I.e. (And We gave to Jesus, the son of Mary, the evident miracles, and aided him with [Gabriel] the Holy Ghost [or Spirit.])

The ‘Holy Spirit’ or the ‘Holy Ghost’ means Gabriel.

And God – be glorified – said in the Quran 40: 15

يُلْقِي الرُّوحَ مِنْ أمْرِهِ عَلَى مَنْ يَشاءُ مِنْ عِبادِهِ لِيُنْذِرَ يَوْمَ التّلاقِ

I.e. (He casts [Gabriel:] the ‘Ghost’ [who is one] of His ‘am`r’ [: ‘spiritual creatures’] upon whom of His servants [God] likes [to be an apostle], that the [apostle] may warn [people] of the day of meeting [of the past and the later generations.])

In addition, God – be glorified – said in the Quran 16: 2

يُنَزِّلُ المَلائكَةَ بِالرُّوحِ مِنْ أمْرِهِ عَلَى مَنْ يَشاءُ مِنْ عِبادِهِ أنْ أنْذِرُوا أنّهُ لا إله إلاّ أنا فَاتّقُونِ

I.e. (He [: God] sends down the angels [under the leadership] of [Gabriel] the [Honest] Spirit: [who is one] of [God’s] Am'r to whomever of His servants He will, [saying]: “Warn [people] that there is no god but I, so ward off My [punishment.]”)

The interpretation: He makes the angels to come down [from heaven] by the leadership of Gabriel, upon the one whom He likes to be an apostle, in order to warn people to abandon the idolatry and the worship of idols.

The Quranic revelations are so many, but we have mentioned some of them as an indication that the word روح i.e. 'spirit' mentioned in the Quran means Gabriel exclusively.

Features of the Soul

You have to know that the soul is composed of ethereal particles that collect or gather to each other inside the body, and there will be an attraction between them, so that they build a structure like the body structure; so the material eye builds an ethereal eye inside it; the material ear builds inside it an ethereal ear; and the material hand builds inside it an ethereal hand; and as such each material organ builds inside it an ethereal organ; so that there will be an ethereal structure inside the material structure, i.e. inside the body, which will be a true copy of it; but only the first one is material, whereas the other one is ethereal.

Afterwards, the ethereal structure continues to grow as long as the body is growing and enlarging, until the growth of the body will stop; that is when he becomes an adult; or by his death before attaining his adulthood so that he dies as a child or lad and the soul will stop growing: because of its separation from the body so that it becomes of the same size as the body from which it has separated. Hence, if the body is a child, then it will be a child, too; and if it is a youth then the soul will be a youth, too; and if the body is thin, then the soul will also be thin; and if the body is fat, the soul will similarly be fat.

In summary, the soul is a true copy that is identical with the body in which it is formed.

It is narrated from some Imams [i.e. saints] that "the soul is an image similar to the body".

And in another narration that "when God takes the soul of a righteous man, after death, He makes his soul in a mold [or shape] like his mold [or shape] in this life of the World: so that they eat and drink, and if anyone comes to them, they recognize him by his image in the life of the World."

Another narration is that "the souls of the righteous in Paradise are identical with the shapes [and details] of their bodies; so that if you see anyone of them you recognize him."

Actually, the soul does not become old, does not regress or disintegrate, and no defect can afflict him [or her], and he lives for millions of years.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 44: 56; describing the people of Paradise:

لاَ يَذُوقُونَ فِيهَا الْمَوْتَ إِلاَّ الْمَوْتَةَ الأُولَى وَوَقَاهُمْ عَذَابَ الْجَحِيمِ

I.e. (They taste not [the pain of] death therein, save only the first death. And [their Lord will] save them from the doom of Hell [fire.])

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 35: 36, describing the people of Hell:

وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ لَهُمْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ لاَ يُقْضَى عَلَيْهِمْ فَيَمُوتُواْ وَلاَ يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمْ مِّنْ عَذَابِهَا كَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي كُلَّ كَفُورٍ

I.e. (But those who disbelieve, for them [in the Next Life] will be the fire of Hell; it shall not be decreed for them to die, nor shall its torment be lessened for them. Thus do We reward every disbeliever.)

The soul does not become emaciated, e.g. in case the body was fat during his youth, then became ill and lost weight and became emaciated and thin, then his soul will not become thin, but it will remain as it was in his youth. Similarly, if the body becomes old, at his elderly, then his soul will not become old but it will remain as it was during his youth. Likewise, if one of the body organs is lost, like one of his legs or one of his hands is cut off or amputated, then his soul will not lose any of its organs; because it is an ethereal structure, and the ether does not perish and no defect may afflict it ^{^[i]}.

E.g. if a man becomes blind when he is young or afterwards, then his soul will not become blind, but will remain seeing, so that if it separates from the body at the time of death, then it will be seeing; so that it will see the objects as it was seeing when it was inside the body during his youth; moreover, its sight will be sharper than when it was inside the body.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 22: 46

فَإِنَّهَا لاَ تَعْمَى الأَبْصَارُ وَلَـكِن تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي الصُّدُور

I.e. (For, indeed, it is not the ‘sights’ out of the [special senses] that become blind, but it is the hearts which are within the chests [of bodies] that become blind [by non-perception and non-discerning.])

Therefore, the soul's sight does not become blind, but will be sharper when it separates from the body.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 50: 22

لَقَدْ كُنْتَ في غَفْلَةٍ مِنْ هذا فَكَشَفْنا عَنْكَ غِطاءَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ اليَوْمَ حَدِيدٌ

I.e. ([It will be said:] "You used to be oblivious to this ; but We have now [by death] removed from you your cover^{^[ii]}, so today keen is your sight.")

It means: he will be sharp-sighted or keen-sighted, so that, in the life of the World, he could only see material things; while after his death, he will become able to see both material and ethereal objects: he will become able to see souls, genies, angels and other ethereal creatures; he will be able to hear them if they talk to him, and they hear him if he speaks to them.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 25: 22

يَوْمَ يَرَوْنَ المَلائكَةَ لا بُشْرى يَوْمَئذٍ لِلْمُجْرِمِينَ ويَقُولُونَ حِجْراً مَحْجُوراً

I.e. (On the day [of their death] when they will see the angels [of death seizing their souls] – no glad news on that day be for the guilty, and [the angels] shall say [to them]: "An arrest [and detainment for you by devils] enclosed [on you till Doomsday.]")

But if one is born, from his mother's womb, with congenital defect of some of his body organs, and he remains as such until he dies, then the soul will have the same defective organs like the body inside which it was formed.

Therefore, the body is not more than a mold for constructing and forming the soul.

The example of that is the cement-made things: like pillars, skeletons or flower vases and other things: if we intend to make a statue of cement or a flower vase or anything else, then – at first – we should make a mold of wood with the required design, then we bring the cement and mix it with [pebbles and] water, then we pour it inside the mold, which is made of wood, and we leave it at least for twelve hours in order that the cement particles will compact with the pebbles, so that it will become a hard construction that will not break up afterwards. Then we remove the mold from the cement-construction and throw it away, and we keep the cement-construction; for it is our aim.

Now, suppose we remove the mold from the construction before elapsing of the required period, then we shall find the cement particles not compacted, and the construction will be crumbled with the least force.

As such is the rule about the soul inside the body: Now let us consider the body as the mold which is made of wood, and the ethereal particles as the cement: So just as that the cement particles do not hold together unless after the required period, similarly the spirit particles do not hold together inside the body until forty days after the birth of the fetus, when those ethereal particles – after the fortieth day – become a hearing, seeing, conscious and immortal soul.

But if the fetus dies in his mother's womb, then those ethereal particles of the spirit will vanish and go the ways of winds [i.e. will scatter away]; because they have not held together completely during this short period, just as that the cement particles will not hold together if the required period does not elapse, while it is inside the wood mold. For this reason, we should not call the spirit of the fetus – in his mother's womb – a 'soul'; because it will vanish if the fetus dies; and because it does not hear, see or understand; while the soul is opposite of that.

Therefore, the aim from this material body is the soul; because it is the true man, just as that the aim from making the wood mold is the cement construction; so that when the ethereal construction is completed and formed, then no need to the body afterwards, but its fait will be the putrefaction after death.

Hussein – salam to him – said in this subject a poetry, that means:

"Bodies are created for death; therefore, it is better

for man to die by the sword in the way of God."

The indication of that the soul is the true man is His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 6: 104

قَد جاءَكم بصائرُ مِنْ ربِّكمْ فَمَنْ أبْصرَ فَلِنفسِهِ ومَنْ عَمِيَ فَعَلَيْها

I.e. (Now have [remarkable] insights come to you [people] from your Lord;

then whoso sees [therewith, the way of the truth, the advantage] will be for himself;

and whoso is blind [to the way of the truth, the punishment and evil consequences], will be against himself.)

Therefore, if the body was the true man, then He – be glorified – would say: 'But he who is blind, it is against his body.' But the case is not so; because the soul is the true man.

Special Senses of the Soul

We said that the soul has special senses and organs just like the body, but they are ethereal; moreover, I say that the special senses of the soul have special names other than the names of the body senses:

e.g. the mouth of the body is called 'mouth', but the mouth of the soul is calledفوه in Arabic, [Let us call it the 'spiritual mouth' in English];

and the eye of the body is called the 'eye', but the eye of the soul is called the 'sight';

and the ear of the body is called the 'ear', but the ear of the soul is called the 'hearing';

and the heart of the body is called the 'heart', but the heart of the soul is called فؤاد ; [Let us call it the 'spiritual-heart' in English.]

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 32: 9

ثُمَّ سوّاهُ ونَفَخَ فِيهِ مِنْ رُوحِهِ وجَعَلَ لَكمُ السّمْعَ والأبْصارَ والأفْئِدَةَ قَليلاً ما تَشْكُرُون

I.e. (Then He perfected [the creation of Adam from mud], and breathed into him from His ‘spirit’ [: Gabriel], and made for you[r souls] hearing, sight and '[spiritual] hearts'; yet a small number of you who thank God [for His bounties.])

The interpretation:

>> (Then He perfected [the creation of Adam from mud]) means: He fashioned his body, and completed its creation.

>> (and breathed into him from His ‘spirit’ [: Gabriel]) means: The blowing or breathing was from Gabriel; for he is the Honest Ghost or Spirit.

>> (and made for you[r souls] hearing, sight and '[spiritual] hearts'.)

Consider, therefore, how God – be celebrated His praise – did not say: 'And made for you ears, eyes and hearts'; because He created him with complete organs; as it is indicated from His saying [in the beginning of this aya:]

ثُمَّ سوّاهُ

I.e. (Then He perfected [the creation of Adam from mud])

The exact meaning is: He made for his soul ears, eyes and a heart; just as did He make for his body; similarly when He created your bodies and formed the souls inside them, He made for the [souls] ears, eyes and hearts just as did He make for the bodies.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 23: 78

وهُوَ الّذي أنشَأَ لَكُمُ السّمْعَ والأبْصارَ والأفْئدةَ ، قليلاً ما تَشْكُرُون

I.e. (And it is [God] Who has formed for you[r souls] the hearing, the sight and [spiritual] hearts: [but] small number of you who thank [God.])

Therefore, His saying – be glorified – أنشَأَ لَكُمُ i.e. (has formed for you) means: He has formed for your souls; because the second person is the soul; because it is the true man, while the 'hearing' is the ear of the soul, the 'sight' is the eye of the soul, and what we term as the '[spiritual] heart' is the heart of the soul.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 67: 23

قُلْ هُوَ الّذي أنْشَأَكُمْ وجَعَلَ لَكمُ السّمْعَ والأبْصارَ والأفْئِدَةَ قَليلاً ما تَشْكُرُون

I.e. (Say: "It is [God] Who has formed your [souls from the ether], and assigned for you hearing, sight and [spiritual] hearts; [but] only a small number of you show gratitude [to God.]")

His saying – be glorified – أنْشَأَكُمْ i.e. (has formed you) means: He has formed your souls and made for them hearing, sight and [spiritual] hearts. The indication of that is that He – be glorified – said أنْشَأَكُمْ i.e. (has formed you), but He did not say: has created you; because the creation means the creation of the bodies, whereas the formation means compiling the soul from ethereal particles.

The Glorious Lord said also in the Quran 16: 78

واللهُ أخْرجَكم مِنْ بُطونِ أُمّهاتِكم لا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئاً ، وجَعَلَ لَكمُ السّمْعَ والأبْصارَ والأفْئِدَةَ لَعَلّكم تَشْكُرُون

I.e. (And God has brought you, [people], out of the wombs of your mothers while you knew nothing; and He assigned to you the hearings and eye-sights and [spiritual] hearts: that you may be grateful [to God.])

The interpretation:

>> (And God has brought you, [people], out of the wombs of your mothers.) Their creation should have been perfect or complete: having eyes, ears and hearts; because the baby gets out of his mother's womb without any defect, then why does God – be glorified – say after his delivery:

و جَعَلَ لَكمُ السّمْعَ و الأبْصارَ و الأفْئِدَةَ

I.e. (and He assigned to you the hearings and eye-sights and [spiritual] hearts.) Therefore, He means by that the special senses of the soul.

The meaning will be like this:

After your getting out of the wombs of your mothers, He made for your souls: hearing, sight and [spiritual] hearts; that you may thank or show gratitude to your Lord.

The Glorious Lord said also in the Quran 46: 26

ولَقدْ مَكَنَاهُمْ فِيما إنْ مَكَنَاكم فيهِ وجَعَلْنا لَهُمْ سَمْعاً و أبْصاراً وأفْئدَةً ، فَما أغْنَى عَنْهُمْ سَمْعُهُمْ ولا أبْصارُهُمْ ولا أفْئدَتُهُمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ

I.e. (And We had established them^{^[7]} [: the tribe of Aad: the people of Prophet Hood, in the earth] in that wherein We have not established you [: Meccans], and We appointed for them hearing, and sight, and [spiritual] hearts; yet their hearing, sight and [spiritual] hearts availed them nothing …)

Among the Quranic revelations, in which the body organs are mentioned:

1. His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 22: 46

أفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا في الأرضِ فَتَكونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ يَعْقِلُونَ بِها أو آذانٌ يَسْمَعُونَ بِها

I.e. (Have they not journeyed throughout the earth, so they might have hearts with which they understand [what befell the deniers], or ears with which they hear [the tales of the ancient?])

So notice that here God – be glorified – called them the hearts and the ears, whereas there He called them the hearings and the [spiritual] hearts; because there He meant the ethereal special senses of the soul, whereas here He meant the material special senses of the body, and the meaning is: They are like the dead: having hearts which do not understand, and having ears that do not hear.

2. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 7: 179

ولقد ذَرَأْنا لِجَهَنّمَ كثيراً مِنَ الجِنِّ والإنْسِ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لا يَفْقَهُونَ بِها ولَهُم أعيُنٌ لا يُبْصِرُونَ بِها ولَهم آذانٌ لا يَسْمَعُونَ بِها أولئكَ كالأنعامِ بَلْ هُمْ أضَلّ أولئك هُمُ الغافِلون

I.e. (We have spread out, for Hell, a large number of the genie-kind and of the mankind; they have hearts but understand not with them; they have eyes but see not with them; they have ears but hear not with them; they are like the cattle; indeed, they rather go more astray! Such are the heedless [of Our signs of revelation.])

3. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 71: 7, expressing Noah talking:

وإنّي كُلّما دَعَوْتُهُمْ لِتَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ جَعَلُوا أصابِعَهُمْ في آذانِهِمْ

I.e. (And whenever I called them [to believe], that You might forgive them [their sins], they thrust their fingers in their ears …etc.)

So He mentioned, here, the word آذان I.e. 'ears', and did not call them 'hearings' because He meant the material ears into which they thrust their fingers.

4. And He – be glorified – said in the Quran 5: 45

وكَتَبْنا عَلَيْهِمْ فيها أنّ النّفسَ بالنّفْسِ والعَيْنَ بِالعَيْنِ والأنْفَ بِالأنفِ والسِّنَّ بِالسِّنِّ والجُرُوحَ قِصاصٌ

I.e. (And We prescribed for the [Children of Israel] in the [Torah, Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 19, to require] 'life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, tooth for tooth, and the retaliation for wounds.' …)

Here, God – be glorified – called them: eyes and ears; and did not call them sight and hearing; because He meant the material organs of the body; because no defect may afflict the ethereal [organs and] special senses so that there would be any retaliation.

5. And God – be glorified – said in the Quran 33: 19

أشِحّةً علَيْكُمْ فَإذا جاءَ الخَوْفُ رَأَيْتَهُمْ يَنْظُرُونَ إلَيْكَ تَدُورُ أعْيُنُهُمْ كَالّذي يُغْشَى عَلَيْهِ مِنَ المَوْتِ

I.e. (Being niggardly towards you[r help.] When fear [of the war] comes, you [Mohammed] see them looking at you [with pleading looks], their eyes rolling [from side to side] like one who swoons of death …etc.)

Here, God – be glorified – said تَدُورُ أعْيُنُهُمْ I.e. (their eyes rolling [from side to side] ), and He did not say: Their sights rolling [from side to side] ; because He meant their material eyes of the bodies.

6. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 41: 5

وقالوا قُلُوبُنا في أكِنّةٍ مِمّا تَدْعُونا إلَيْهِ وفي آذانِنا وَقْرٌ ومِنْ بَيْنِنا وبَيْنِكَ حِجابٌ ...إلخ

I.e. (And they say [to Our messenger]: 'Our hearts are inside shells, [concealed] from such [monotheism] to which you invite us, and in our ears is deafness, and between us and you is a barrier …etc.)

7. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 2: 19

يَجْعَلُونَ أصابِعَهُمْ في آذانِهِم مِنَ الصّواعِقِ حَذَرّ المَوْتِ

I.e. (They thrust their fingers in their ears because of the [blast of the] thunder-claps, for the fearing of death.)

So, here too, God called them the ears and did not call them the hearings; for He meant, by that, the body organs.

Remark

A man named "Di'lib" asked Imam Ali – salam to him – "Have you ever seen your Lord?"

The Imam answered him: "The eye cannot see God, by the looking of the [eye-] sight …"

This indicates that the sight is different from the eye; for the eye cannot see unless by the looking of the sight: the looking is that of the sight and not of the eye.

Explanation

The names of (the soul special senses) and (the body special senses) are common for both [the body and the soul] – in the living man – so that you can say: "John looks by his eyes", as can you say: "John sees by his sight"; also you can say that "John hears by his ears", as can you say that "John hears by his hearing".

Similarly, you can say that John has a good heart, or you can say that John has a good ‘[spiritual] heart’ [فؤاد in Arabic.] That is because the living man has eyes and has sights; has ears and hearings; and has a heart and a ‘spiritual heart’ [i.e. ethereal heart.]

Therefore, these names are common in the living man, but are of one type in the souls; so that we cannot say that the soul looks by his eye, but we can say that the soul sees [by his sight]; and we cannot say that the soul hears by his ear, but we can say that the soul hears by his hearing.

[N.B. These names may be more distinct in Arabic – The translator.]

The Speaking and the Uttering

The ‘speaking’ is what man says, so that the second person will understand, whether it is with a loud or a low voice, or with mere signals; as one of the Arab poets said:

“Our eyebrows expressed our mutual feelings:

we were silent, but the love was speaking!"

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 36: 65

اليَوْمَ نَخْتِمُ على أفْواهِهِم وتُكَلِّمُنا أيْديهِمْ وتَشْهَدُ أرْجُلُهُمْ بِما كانُوا يَكْسِبُون

I.e. (Today, We set a seal on their mouths [lest they should give excuses]; and their hands speak to Us [about their acts], and their feet bear witness as to what [crimes] they were earning.)

The aim of the 'speech' is to let the second person understand what the speaker wants.

While the 'uttering' is the speaking with sound so that the second person will understand. And if it has no sound, then it is not called an utterance. However, we can say that the man speaks, as can we say that the man utters; but we cannot say the souls utter; because their speech hasn't any audible sound, but we can say that the soul speaks.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 53: 3-5

وما يَنْطِقُ عَن الْهَوى . إنْ هُوَ إلاّ وَحْيٌ يُوحَى . عَلّمَهُ شَدِيدُ القُوَى

I.e. (Nor does [Mohammed] speak^{^[iii]} out of [his own] desire.

It is only a revelation [from God], revealed [to him by means of Gabriel.]

[Mohammed] is taught by [Gabriel: an angel] mighty in power.)

The meaning:

>> (Nor does [Mohammed] speak out of [his own] desire) means:

Whatever Prophet Mohammed – salam to him – speaks with clear speech, and lets you hear eloquent utterance [and good style], then all that is not from his own, but is from God – be glorified – which He has sent to the Prophet with Gabriel who taught [Mohammed] the Quran; as it is evident from His saying – be glorified

إنْ هُوَ إلاّ وَحْيٌ يُوحَى . عَلّّمَهُ شَدِيدُ القُوَى

I.e. (It is only a revelation [from God], revealed [to him by means of Gabriel.]

[Mohammed] is taught by [Gabriel: an angel] mighty in power)

God – be glorified – said also in the Quran 77: 35-36

هذا يَوْمُ لا يَنْطِقُون . ولا يُؤْذَنُ لَهُمْ فَيَعْتَذِرُون

I.e. (This is the day when they cannot utter [any audible word,]

Nor are they permitted [to talk] so they may apologize.)

They haven't the ability of utterance and articulation because they are ethereal souls; moreover, they are not allowed to do so in order that they may then apologize.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 27: 85

ووَقَعَ القَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ بِما ظَلَمُوا فَهُمْ لا يَنْطِقُون

I.e. (And the word [of punishment] will be sentenced against them, because of their wrong-doing; and they will not utter [any audible word.])

Formation of the Soul inside the Body

We 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 cannot anymore attract the ether to it: 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 this reason, the souls of old men and old women will be young and will not become elderly. 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 reason for the contact between the soul and the body.

If the semen was not alive and was not a viable matter, then it would not grow and increase. One of the Arab poets said:

"Preserve 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 constituents:

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 reason for 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, death is nothing more than separation of the soul from the body:

· due to the 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 attract 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 till the end of its youth, when it will not be able anymore to attract the ether to it, and the soul reaches its limits and afterwards it will not become older anymore.

While as regards the viable fluid inside the body; its capabilities do not regress at the end of the youth, but it keeps up 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 is an animal, a human or a plant.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 23: 12-14

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

I.e. (We created man, from [his] ancestors, from clay.

Then We made his [seed] from a scanty liquid [: the semen, to settle] in a sure [or safe] lodging.

Then We made the scanty liquid [: the semen] a ‘structure shaped like the mosquito larva’,

and made ‘the larva[-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 glorified –

ثُمَّ أنْشَأْناهُ خَلْقاً آخَر

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 glorified – 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.

The Fetus neither Hears nor Sees

We have just said that the ‘soul’ has organs and special senses just like the body; therefore, in this respect, it differs from the ‘spirit’: for the spirit has neither special senses nor organs, but it is like the air.

I say that we see the things and recognize their colors by our sights not by our eyes, i.e. we see by the ethereal eye of the soul, not by the material eye of the body. The material eye is blind and does not see anything, and the seeing is only by the ethereal eye. The material eye, actually, is not more than a mold for the formation of the ethereal eye.

As such is the hearing; for we don't hear by our material ears, but the hearing is that of the ethereal ear.

The speaking, too, is originally from the mouth of the soul; so that if the soul's spiritual mouth moves with speech, it will move the body mouth with it so that the sound issues from it. Therefore, the material mouth is not more than a loud-speaker.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 20: 108

وخَشَعَتِ الأصْواتُ لِلرّحْمنِ فَلا تَسْمَعُ إلاّ هَمْساً

I.e. (And voices will be hushed before [God] Most Gracious, so that you will not hear anything more than whispering.)

It means that, in the afterlife, their speaking will be by whispering, i.e. with a low voice. That is because they are ethereal souls, having no material bodies so as to make the voice louder. This hushing of voices will be general for disbelievers and believers altogether.

As such is also the material heart; for it does not realize or understand, but in fact the 'understanding and realization' is that of the spiritual heart, i.e. the soul's heart.

In other words, I say: It is the soul that hears, sees, speaks, 'realizes and understands'; while as regard the body: it does not hear, does not see and does not understand; and the body in fact is not more than a mold in which the soul is formed.

[The example of the egg and the chicken]

An example of that is an egg in which a chicken has been formed; the body can be considered as the egg shell, and the soul can be considered like the chicken which has been completely created inside the shell then will get out of it.

[see A picture of the chicken and the egg ]

[Some observations proving the existence of the soul]

These are some experiments to let you know that this is true:

First – Approach to a sleeping man, and talk to him as you like; he is not going to hear anything of that, then open one of his eyes with your finger and say to him: 'Who am I?'; he will neither see nor answer you with any word, on condition that he will not awake from sleep, and if you take anything from him, he will not see you.

Second – If you ask a blind man: 'Do you see any dreams during your sleep?' He will answer you: 'I can see during sleep, but I am blind on awaking!' This is because the blind sees during his sleep just as can the seer see during awaking; so the blind sees, during sleep, the things and colors as they are. Such seeing is only with the eye of the soul; because his material eye is blind and cannot see anything.

In addition, if you ask a dumb man, then he will answer you: 'I can speak during sleep, but I am dumb while awaking.'

Third – Approach to an infant, and sit near to him, on condition that his age does not exceed ten days, then shout near his head, you will see that the baby does not move or cry; for he is deaf and cannot hear any bit of your voice. Then make another examination of this baby: that is to pass your hand in front of his eyes and you will see that he does not close his eyes and that his eyelids do not blink; that is because he is blind and cannot see anything. Then, carefully, watch his eyes and look at his pupils, you will see that his gaze does not direct to a certain object but he is like the blind. Then watch him when he sucks his mother's breast; he does not see the nipple in order to engulf it directly, but he will move his head left and right until it will come into his mouth, then he will engulf it.

As regards to his consciousness; the baby does not understand or realize till three months following his birth; that is because the baby, at his birth, has no hearing, sight or spiritual heart, but these will gradually form; that is after the compaction of the ethereal particles from which the soul has been constructed; so that, after a short period of time: when those ethereal particles will adhere to each other, you will see that he hears, sees and becomes conscious; because, during this period, the ethereal special senses have been formed for his soul.

Now do another test to confirm this: Approach the baby with whom you did the first experiment, and sit near him, on condition that he has exceeded forty days of age, then shout near him with a low shout; it is enough to sneeze near his head, then you will see him awake and cry because your voice has annoyed him; as if you have stricken him with a stick; for he has started to hear. Then pass your hand in front on his eyes, and you will see him close his eyes and blink his eyelids; for he has started to see. Then observe his pupils: you will see his gaze directing towards objects especially to the light. Then watch him when his mother suckles him, you will see him engulf the nipple of her breast directly and does not move his head as was he doing at the beginning.

From these observations, you will know that, during this short period of time, the hearing, sight and spiritual heart have been formed for the baby; after he was not hearing, not seeing, and after being unable to understand.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 16: 78

واللهُ أخْرَجَكُمْ مِنْ بُطُونِ أُمّهاتِكُمْ لا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئاً وجَعََلَ لَكُمُ السّمْعَ والأبْصارَ والأفْئِدَةَ لَعَلّكُمْ تَشْكُرُون

Therefore, (and He assigned to you the hearing and eye-sights and [spiritual] hearts) means: After you got out of your mothers' wombs, He made for your souls – the hearing, the sight and [spiritual] hearts; that you may thank your Lord, and show gratitude to Him.

So, the 'hearing' is the ear of the soul; the 'sight' is the eye of the soul; and the 'spiritual heart' is the heart of the soul.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 23: 78

وهُوَ الّذي أنشَأَ لَكُمُ السّمْعَ والأبْصارَ والأفْئدةَ ، قليلاً ما تَشْكُرُون

I.e. (And it is [God] Who has formed for you[r souls] the hearing, the sight and [spiritual] hearts: [but] small number of you who thank [God.])

The Glorious Lord said in the Quran 32: 9

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 67: 23

قُلْ هُوَ الّذي أنْشَأَكُمْ وجَعَلَ لَكمُ السّمْعَ والأبْصارَ والأفْئِدَةَ قَليلاً ما تَشْكُرُون

I.e. (Say: "It is [God] Who has formed you [from the ether], and assigned for you hearing, sight and [spiritual] hearts; [but] only a small number of you show gratitude [to God.]")

Therefore; (It is [God] Who has formed you) means: has formed your souls; because He – be glorified – said أنْشَأَكُمْ i.e. (has formed you) and did not say: has created you.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 18: 5

كَبُرَتْ كَلِمَةً تَخْرُجُ مِنْ أفْواهِهِمْ ، إنْ يَقُولُونَ إلاّ كَذِباً

I.e. (A grievous word^{^[iv]} it is [to God] that issues from their [spiritual] mouths; they only say a lie.)

So, He explained – be glorified – that the origination of the speech is from the spiritual mouth [i.e. the mouth of the soul], but not from the mouth. Therefore, the '[spiritual] mouth' is the soul's organ, and the 'mouth' is the body organ.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 3: 167

يَقُولُونَ بِأَفْواهِهِمْ ما لَيْسَ في قُلُوبِهِمْ واللهُ أعْلَمُ بِما يَكْتُمُون

I.e. (They^{^[v]} said with their mouths^{^[vi]} [words of apology] different from that [hypocrisy] in their hearts, but God knows best what they hid [in their hearts; for nothing might be hidden from Him.])

The Matter and the Ether

The 'matter' is anything we see with our eyes or touch with our hands, like: inanimate things, the plant, the animal, man and other things that the eye can see or the hand can touch; so the soil is matter, and the air is matter. The soil can both be seen by our eyes and touched by our hands, while we don't see the air by our eyes, but we may feel it when it passes by us, and we may differentiate between the hot, cold, dry and wet air.

The matter will not remain as it is, but it is going to destruction and vanishing.

1. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 55: 26-27

كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْها فانٍ . ويَبْقَى وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الجَلالِ والإكْرام

I.e. (Whosoever upon the [earth] shall perish.

But the 'aspect' of your Lord, endowed with majesty and honor, shall endure.)

Therefore, (Whosoever upon the [earth] shall perish) means: Every living being upon the earth will disappear and will depart from it, and every living body will tear up and vanish by death.

Without the material creatures it is impossible for the ethereal creatures to be formed, because the materials are the molds for formation of the ethereals, i.e. for the formation of souls.

2. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 52: 35

أَمْ خُلِقُوا مِنْ غَيْرِ شَيءٍ ، أَمْ هُمُ الخالِقُون ؟

I.e. (Or were they created without there being anything? Or were they themselves the creators?)

So, the word 'thing' indicates the matter.

3. This is similar to His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 28: 88

كُلُّ شَيءٍ هالِكٌ إلاّ وَجْهَهُ

I.e. (every [material] thing will perish saving only His aspect [or neighborhood.])

It means: Every material object will break up and vanish.

4. And He – be glorified – said in the Quran 16: 96

ما عِنْدَكُمْ يَنْفَدُ وما عِنْدَ اللهِ باقٍ

I.e. (What [wealth and property] is with you must vanish: What [wealth and property] is with God [in the ethereal heavens] will endure.)

The interpretation:

>> (What is with you must vanish) means: What wealth, furniture and fruit you have, will not endure [for ever], but will vanish because it is material.

>> (What) wealth, furniture and fruit (is with God will endure) and will not be depleted or corrupted because it is ethereal.

5. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 51: 49

ومِنْ كُلِّ شَيءٍ خَلَقْنا زَوْجَينِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُون

I.e. (And of everything have We created two spouses; that you may reflect.)

It means: Of every kind of the material creatures, We have created two spouses: male and female.

>> Therefore, His saying – be glorified –

أَمْ خُلِقُوا مِنْ غَيْرِ شَيءٍ

I.e. (Or were they created without there being anything?) means: Were the souls of these atheists and infidels, formed without material bodies; so that they say the ether is present in the space since eternity, and that our souls were formed from the ether without any former or creator. Yes, they were formed from the ether; but who created the bodies in which their souls were formed? Wasn't God Who created the bodies and formed their souls inside them?

>> (Or were they themselves the creators) of those bodies? Not so, but it is God Who created them and created the heavens and the earth and all those who are therein.

The ether is similar to the air, but it is other than the air; for the air is material, while the ether is another kind. The ether particles are smaller than the air particles; e.g. the sand can permeate in-between the pebbles; for it is much smaller than them; and water can permeate the sand; because water particles are smaller than sand particles. Likewise, the ether permeates the air; because its particles are smaller than the air particles.

The ether fills the space, and when the ether particles enter in a material thing and stay in it forty days, then they will be compacted and will never crumble afterwards. The ethereals do not vanish, neither break up, nor disintegrate, nor will be damaged by any catastrophe.

Therefore, even though we are living in an evanescent material world, we shall certainly go, after a short time, to an immortal ethereal world that will not vanish; that is when we shall die, i.e. when our souls separate from our bodies, and just as that, in this World, we have material furniture and other material things; similarly, in the ether world, we shall have ethereal furniture and other ethereal articles, but the difference between the two is that our houses will break up; because they are material, while those in the ether world: they will remain forever and will never break up; because they are ethereal.

And just as that, in the life of this World, we have material plants and trees; similarly, in the Next Life, we shall have ethereal plants, trees and fruits.

In summary: Every material thing will break up and perish; but every ethereal is enduring and will not perish or disappear.

1. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 16: 96

ما عِنْدَكُمْ يَنْفَدُ وما عِنْدَ اللهِ باقٍ

I.e. (What [wealth and property] is with you must vanish: What [wealth and property] is with God [in the ethereal heavens] will endure.)

2. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 87: 16-17

بَلْ تُؤثِرُونَ الحياةَ الدُّنْيا والآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ وأبْقَى

I.e. (But you [people] prefer the life of this World [to the Next.]; while the Next Life is better and more enduring [than this life of the World.])

3. God – be glorified – said in the Quran 42: 36

فَما أوتِيتُمْ مِنْ شَيءٍ فَمَتاعُ الحَياةِ الدُّنْيا ، وما عِنْدَ اللهِ خَيْرٌ وأبْقَى لِلّذِينَ آمَنُوا وعلى ربِّهِمْ يَتَوَكّلُون

I.e. (Whatever [material] thing you [people] have been given, is only a [transient] comfort for the life of the World, but [the ethereal] that God has [in the ethereal heavens], is better and more lasting [than the matter is] for those who believe and put their trust in their Lord [to propagate and preach the Islam religion.])

The Power and Influence

The matter has a power and influence on the soul, while souls haven't any power over the matter; to the extent that souls cannot carry even a bird's feather from one place to another; e.g. if a bird flies while a soul is in its way, the bird – with its strike – will cut the soul, that stands in its way, into two halves; but the soul will not die from the strike of the bird; it will suffer much, then it will return intact as it was.

Similarly, insects like mosquitoes and flies go through the soul; so that they enter from its belly and get out from its back or vice versa. Moreover, when the rain falls on a soul, the rain drops will fall on its head and get out from its anus. And when a man throws a stone, while a soul is standing, then the stone will hit it and afflict it with much pain.

And so on; the matter influences the soul, and the soul suffers much from the stone which hits it, the bird which strikes it, or the rain which falls down on its head.

Similarly, the wind has influence on souls, so that if the wind blows and there is a soul in its way, then it will carry that soul away from its place to another distant place.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 22: 31

ومَنْ يُشْرِكْ بِاللهِ فَكَأنَّما خَرَّ مِنَ السّماءِ فَتَخْطَفُهُ الطَّيْرُ أوْ تَهْوِي بِهِ الرِّيحُ في مَكانٍ سَحِيق

I.e. (Anyone associates [anything] with God: it is as if he had fallen from the sky, and the birds had pierced him or the wind had blown him down into a far distant place.)

For this reason, most of souls don't go out from their places by day-time, but they go out by night to avoid any bird which may strike them or any stone which may hit them or any other material thing which may hurt and afflict them with much pain.

Functions of the Body and the Soul

The functions which the body performs are different from the functions which the soul carries out, but the body is not capable to do the functions of the soul.

[A. Functions of the body]

The functions that the human body carries out are the following:

First: Growth while he is young; because the body goes on growing and increasing till the end of its youth, when it will stop growing; that is because the body consists of living cells.

Second: The Blood Circulation; for the blood is in continuous circulation in the veins and arteries till the hour of death.

Third: The Respiratory System; for the lung goes on taking up the oxygen and excreting carbon dioxide till the hour of death.

Fourth: The Alimentary System; for the stomach continuously digests the food till the hour of death.

Fifth: The Sleep; for the sleep is one of the functions of the body, and the soul has no part in it because the soul does not sleep.

So these are the functions specifically carried out by the body, whereas the soul does not participate in them; so that when the soul gets out of the body during sleep, the body will go on performing its functions, just mentioned, needless of the soul.

[B. Functions of the soul]

While as regard the soul, some of its functions are: the hearing, the sight, the speaking, the 'thinking and feeling or perception of pains and pleasures' …etc.

These functions divide into two groups:

1. Some of them are common for both the soul and the body; because the body organs are the communicating utensils for the soul organs and special senses.

The speaking, for example; its origin is from the soul, but it has no hearable or audible sound unless it comes out of the body mouth; because the body mouth is a loud-speaker, but the origin of the sound is from the soul. The indication of that is in the case of a sleeping person who speaks in his dream and cries out, but he has no sound; so that anyone, even though sitting beside him, does not hear his voice.

Similarly, carrying loads; for the soul is the one that carries; but without the body organs, it is impossible for the soul to carry anything of the materials, even though it be a bird's feather.

2. While the second group is specific for the soul, and that is what has been mentioned in the preceding lines; like the hearing, sight, intelligence and feeling of the pain and pleasure, and other functions; because the body of a sleeping person does not hear or see; but it is the soul that hears and sees. For this reason, the blind sees – during his sleep – what the seer can see during his waking; for the sight and hearing are specific for the soul.

Therefore, the role of the soul with the body is like the driver with the car. Now, let us consider the body to resemble the car, and the soul to resemble the driver; so just as it is possible for the driver to leave the car stopping, while [its engine] is working, then to return to it after a while, so that the car is not in need to the driver during this period of time; because it is stopping in its place, but only that its engine is working.

Similarly, it is possible for the soul to leave the body sleeping, carrying on its functions, then it will return to the body after an hour. Therefore, the body does not need the soul during this hour. And just as that it is the driver that drives the car, and directs it wherever he wishes; likewise, it is the soul that drives the body and directs it wherever the soul wants.

Hence, the soul is a commander, and the body is a commanded object which obeys the soul orders. The body, therefore, is not more than a utensil or tool which the soul uses in whatever he wants and directs it however he wishes.

The Sleep

We said, in the preceding lines, that souls do not sleep; but the sleep is only for material bodies when they are tired, so that if they sleep they will have rest.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 78: 9

وجَعَلْنا نَوْمَكُمْ سُباتاً

I.e. (And We made your sleep [for] rest.)

The reason for the sleep is related to the spinal cord and the cerebellum.

The sleep is of two kinds: Conjunctional and Separative.

1. The 'Conjunctional Sleep' is when the soul is still in contact with the body at the time of sleep, and is not getting out of it completely. Its sign is that the sleeping person moves his hands or legs during sleep, every now and then, and if you call him, he will immediately awake from sleep. Such persons have much of the viable fluid in their bodies.

2. The 'Separative Sleep' is when the soul separates completely from the body on sleeping, and the body is without soul, so that the soul goes for tourism wherever he likes, and he leaves the body sleeping; he goes to faraway distances, and sees in his way what he may see, hears what he may hear, eats, drinks and speaks with any soul he may meet if he likes, then he will return to the body, and the man will wake up from his sleep. Such persons usually have small amounts of the viable fluid in their bodies; because the viable fluid is the reason for the conjunction between the soul and the body.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 39: 42

اللهُ يَتَوَفّى الأنْفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِها وَالّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ في مَنامِها فَيُمْسِكُ الّتِي قَضَى عَلَيْها المَوْتَ ويُرْسِلُ الأُخْرَى إلَى أجَلٍ مُسَمّىً ، إنَّ في ذلِكَ لآياتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُون

I.e. (It is God That receives [in His capture] the souls [of men] at the time of their death, and those [souls] that separate not [from their bodies] during their sleep: Those [souls] for which He ordains death, He withholds [from returning to their bodies], while the rest He sends [back to their bodies, to live in the life of the World] for an appointed term. Surely, in this are signs for men who reflect.)

The interpretation:

The word موت i.e. 'death', in Arabic language, means the separation, [as the author proved it with the Arab poetry.]

>> (It is God That receives [in His capture] the souls [of men] at the time of their death, and those [souls] that separate not [from their bodies] during their sleep) means: He takes the souls that have not died during their sleep; i.e. He takes the souls that have not separated from their bodies during sleep.

The meaning: All souls will be under His control whether they are dead, or sleeping with a separative sleep, or sleeping with a conjunctional sleep.

>> (Those [souls] for which He ordains death, He withholds [from returning to their bodies]) means: He keeps back with Him, i.e. in the ethereal world, those whom He decides that they should die.

>> (while the rest He sends [back to their bodies]): in order that they will live in the life of the World till an appointed date [of their death.]

The 'rest' means: those to whom He has not decided death yet, i.e. whose appointed term has not come yet.

>> (for an appointed term) means: till the day decided to be the termination of their life.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 6: 60

وهُوَ الّذي يَتَوَفّاكُمْ بِاللّيْلِ ويَعْلَمُ ما جَرَحْتمْ بِالنّهارِ ثُمَّ يَبْعَثُكُمْ فِيهِ لِيُقْضَى أجَلٌ مُسَمّىً ثُمَّ إلَيْهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِما كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُون

I.e. (It is He Who takes back you[r souls out of your bodies] by night^{^[vii]}, and knows all that [evil^{^[viii]}] you [people] have already committed by day, then He sends you back again [to your bodies by day] that a term appointed [for you] be accomplished. And afterwards, to Him will your return be [after death]; then He will acquaint you with the [bad deeds and evil conduct] that you did.)

The interpretation:

>> (takes back you[r souls out of your bodies] by night) means: He takes your souls from your bodies by night, i.e. at the time of sleep.

The meaning: Your souls are by His hand [and under His control] during sleep; for they separate from the bodies at the time of sleep.

The reason for the separation of the soul from the body at the time of sleep is because of two factors:

1. Because the sleeping person will have his organs relaxed, so at that time the soul will be released from the body.

2. The soul takes the opportunity of the body being at rest from movements, so that the body is not bothering and loading him; at such instance he wishes to make tourism in the ether world; so that when he [: the soul] gets away, he will start touring, and if he sees something that terrifies him, or he hears a distressing sound, he will quickly return back to the body; because the body protects him from external factors; and because the soul is more sensitive than when he was inside the body; for a weak sound is loud to him, while a loud sound will annoy him.

Here, I mention this event to confirm my words:

One day, I was sleeping at noon-time, and I had a child playing in the house; he came to the door of the room where I was sleeping, and started to knock the door with several successive feeble knocks; but I saw in a dream that as if there was a wedding, and that there were servants knocking on drums and blowing in trumpets, so I awoke from sleep because of that noise, but I didn't find anything other than that child, who was knocking the door with knocks that were so feeble to the extent that anyone in the next room couldn't hear them.

Many of us may have encountered some of such incidents that reflect the high sensitivity of the soul's special senses.

A Story of Fainting

This is another story which I mention, as it was told by Sheikh Tantawi Jawhari in his [Arabic] book "Spirits", page 16; he said:

"Dr. Gibe, mentioned in his book "The Investigation of Affairs", the following:

A young man, 30 years old, who was a skillful painter, said to me: 'Few days ago, I entered into my house, about ten o'clock p.m., and I felt a strange kind of exhaustion, so I lit the lamp^{^[8]} and put it on a table beside my bed. I lit a cigarette and sat on my sofa for rest, but as soon as I laid my head on the chair back, I felt the surroundings started to rotate by themselves, and I felt an extreme vertigo, after which I was, suddenly and unconsciously, transmitted to the middle of the room; so I was astonished from this strange transmission.

You can imagine my astonishment when I looked about and saw my body lying flaccid on the seat, while my left hand was lifted to my head with the cigarette in between its fingers. At first, I thought that I was sleeping, and that what I was seeing was merely a dream; but after a while when I realized that I had never seen such a clear dream before; at that time I thought myself dead, then it came to my mind what I had heard about the existence of spirits, and I said to myself that I had become a spirit, and I remembered all that had been told to me about this subject. Also, I became bitterly sorry for the ending of my life before I could accomplish some of my affairs.

Then I approached to my body, which I thought to be a corpse, but I saw its respiratory movement which made the truth clear to my mind; I looked to its chest and saw the heart inside it beating regularly with feeble beats, so I became sure that what happened to me was some sort of strange fainting, and I said to myself that those affected by fainting wouldn't remember what might face them during the time of fainting, and I was afraid lest I should lose memory of what I was seeing, that is after I should awake from fainting.

But after excluding the problem of death, I shifted my attention to the surroundings, and forgot about my body which was lying on the seat; I looked at the lamp, and seeing it flaming near my bed, I was afraid that the curtains might burn because of the heat; so I tried to put out the lamp; I caught the knob of the wick, and tried, but uselessly, to roll it in spite of that I was very well feeling the knob fine features between my fingers, but I was completely unable to move it.

Then I looked at myself and saw that as if I was wearing a white garment, and that my hand goes easily through my body. I stood in front of the mirror, but instead of seeing my picture in it, as it should be, I felt that my sight went behind it, so that I saw the wall and the backs of the pictures and the furniture in my neighbor's room in spite of that there was no light in it, but I was getting the light from a light-ray emerging from my chest and lightening what things I was looking at.

It came to my mind to enter into my neighbor's room, which I had never seen before, that neighbor who was in Paris and was, at that time, absent from the house. As soon as I had that desire, I saw myself inside the room; I think I crossed through the wall, just as how had my sight crossed through it. Then I started to walk in the rooms of my neighbor for the first time and to keep in my mind what I was seeing therein; I entered his library and read the titles of some of the books present on the shelves; and wherever I intended to go from one place to another, soon I went wherever I desired and as soon as I intended so.

Since then my thoughts became confused and I don't remember anything else; only I know that I went to extremely remote places, even to Italy as I think, but I don't know what I saw and what I did there; for I lost control on my thoughts which carried me to wherever they went before I direct them. So that the 'fool of the house' was driving the house with her, until I awoke at five o'clock a.m., to find myself lying on the seat. I got a distressing shivering and rigor, after which I slept for few hours to awake the next mid-day.

I, then, designed a trick to enter, together with the house-keeper, into my neighbor's house, and I looked about the pictures, the furniture and the book titles, to find all that exactly as I saw during the fainting time, but I didn't tell anyone with this story lest they should ascribe, to me, madness or delusion!"

Was It Death or Fainting?

[: An Hour among Spirits]

This story reminds me of an event which happened to me in my childhood, and which I mention to confirm that:

My father sojourned in Karbala, and our house was near Al- Abbas market, where now it is on the street of Ali-Akbar. We had a [Turkish public] bath in front of our house.

In our house there was a basement, in which there was a high bench about one meter higher than the ground of the basement. Below this bench, there was a ladder joining with the fire-place of the bath.

At that time, I was seven years old; and I wished to sleep on that bench, but my mother forbade me from doing that and said: 'If you sleep on this bench, you will fall on the ladder of the fire-place and you will die.' But I did not abstain from my desire, so I went up, while my mother was unaware, and slept on that bench. It was summer time, and about one hour later I fell on my head from that bench, over the ladder below, and fainted out and lost consciousness; I felt that I got out of my body, and went up to the basement leaving my body cast down on the ladder.

Then I looked at myself, to find that I was naked, so I became ashamed of that, and looked this side and that side, searching about a dress to wear and cover my shame with it; I saw one of my dresses cast on the ground near the wall, so I outstretched my hand to it in order to pick it up and wear, but I could not lift it.

Then I saw a girl, sitting at my right side, who was one of the spirits, and was carrying with her some dresses^{^[9]}; she turned to me and said: 'It seems that you want a dress to wear!'

I said: 'Yes, but I cannot lift it up in order to wear it.'

She said: 'Today you cannot wear such dresses, so take a dress from me and wear it.'

And she gave me a white dress, a snow-white one that I thought to be like a shroud, which I disgusted; so I returned it back to her, saying: 'I don't want this dress; because it looks like a shroud in its whiteness!'

So she gave me another dress striped and colored, which I accepted from her, and I put it on.

Then she said: 'Do you want water to drink?'

I said: 'No!'

She said: 'Aren't you thirsty?'

I said: 'No!'

But she brought a cup or a glass, a crystal-like one containing water, and said: 'Look at this water! It has a delicious taste like the fruit juice; if you drink of it you will never be thirsty afterwards!'

And she went on encouraging me to drink it until I took the glass from her and drank the water; when I perceived its coldness and its taste, I did not leave behind anything of it in the glass and returned the glass empty to her.

Then she said: 'I am your sister, and this is your uncle Ali, so come to greet him!'

I looked at him to see a young man, whom I had not known before, standing at the side of the basement corner.

He smiled to me, and called me to come near him, but I did not go to him and did not wish to speak to him; because I did not recognize him, and because I did not know that I had an uncle named Ali who had died before my birth. Moreover, I did not recognize the girl and I had seen her neither before nor after that day.

Then my mother came hurrying when she heard the sound of my fall. She lifted my body from the ladder up to the basement. She sat down on the ground, embraced my body and started to kiss it and clean the face from blood, while she was crying and calling it with my name. My aunt came and sat near her. Then my older cousin came, and took a piece of wool, burnt it then when half of it burnt, she put it out, and laid it over the bleeding wound^{^[ix]}, then she wrapped it with a head-band, and sat down near [that body] calling and addressing it. Then my aunt brought water and started to spray it on the body face, but my body was dead-like; showing not any movement.

All this took place while I was standing, looking at them. So I surprised from that and said to myself: 'My mother must have lost her mind, and her thinking has become confused, so that she calls this dead body with my name, and she kisses it and cries at him, so doesn't she see me standing in front of her? And is this dead her son or am I her son?

Therefore, I approached her and started speaking to her. I said to her: 'I am your son, I am Mohammed-Ali; don't you see me standing in front of you!? I am safe; I haven't any pain in my head or in any of my organs!'

When I saw my mother paying no attention to me, and hearing not my speaking, I became sad because of her condition, and I was about to cry!

Then that girl said: 'Why are you sad?'

I said: 'Don't you see my mother crying and mourning!?'

She said: 'Leave her, and go to play and enjoy yourself; for she will give up crying after a while.'

When I intended to get out of the basement, I noticed that my legs did not assist me in walking, as if they were fastened with fetters or tied with ropes^{^[x]}; so I said to that girl: 'I cannot walk and get out of the basement, and I don't know what happened to my legs, so that as if they are tied to each other!'

She said: 'Leave walking on feet, [and go gliding and shuffling], and go forwards like birds!'

But I didn't understand her words, and I said: 'Does man walk save on his feet? And how can I go forwards while my legs have been paralyzed and prevented from movement?'

She said: 'See how I go forwards and do just like me!'

So I learnt that from her, and went forwards, and left my mother crying. I went out of the basement aiming at the street to enjoy myself with playing in order to forget about my mother's condition and the corpse she was embracing.

But when I reached to the house door, I lifted my left hand and put my four fingers, except the thumb, in the ring of the door and pulled it as I was used to open it every time, but this time the door did not open, and once again I pulled it with my utmost power, and the door did not open, but only that my four fingers were cut by the ring of the door, and my hand became without fingers saving the thumb; so I was astonished of that event, and my astonishment increased furthermore when I saw my fingers floating in the air, not falling on the ground, and no blood came out of them but they were, in elasticity and softness, like the wax in Summer time. Therefore, I became perplexed, asking myself how I could open the door when my fingers were cut down! And why I could not open it, whereas I had opened it many times before, and how my fingers were easily cut down, whereas they had been strong before, and why the blood did not come out of them, whereas it had been coming out of them for any mild scratch of any mild injury!

Then I stood near the door thinking about my condition, and the girl came toward me and said: 'Why are you perplexed?'

I said: 'My fingers have been cut down, and I couldn't open the door!'

She said: 'As regards to your fingers, put them in their places on the palm, and they will return as they were! While as regards the door, you cannot open it, so if you like to go out of the house then get out through the fissures of the door!'

I said to her: 'Do you mock me?'

She said: 'I am not mocking, but I say the truth.'

I said with surprise: 'Is that possible? And can I do it?'

She said: 'Yes.'

So, using my right hand, I took my cut-down fingers from the air and put them in their places on the palm of my hand, and they stuck to it immediately and my hand returned intact again as it was before, and I was delighted with the safety of my hand.

Then I put my head in one of the fissures of the door, to find that I had become like water when you pour it through a funnel from one bottle to another, or like the air. The particles of my ethereal body were attracted to each other, and all of them were following my head, like the iron filings attracted to a magnet, so that I was outside the house in less than half a minute.

I looked right and left, and saw people (spirits) walking naked; some of them wore short clothes, so that their legs were uncovered and when they walked in the sun they disappeared from my sight.

Moreover, I saw men, walking in that street, having hoofs like the hoofs of horses; and when they were under the sun-rays they disappeared from my sight, but when they were in the shade they reappeared to the sight; and when halves of their bodies were in the shade while the other halves were under the direct sun-rays; at such instance I only saw the half that walked in the shade and I did not see his upper part, i.e. I saw two legs walking without the trunk and head until he would come to the shade region when a complete person would appear with his body and head, so I was astonished of that scene; I asked about them, and they said: These are the genies who have hoofs, but have no feet.

Then I lifted my head to the sky, and saw it cracked and fissured [like the fissuring and cracking of the mud when it becomes dry], in a different way from that which I was used to see it before, and I surprised from that.

Now, while I was standing surprising from what I was seeing, a faint wind passed by me; it lifted me up from my place and threw me on the ground, and went on pushing me violently until I was stricken with the chairs of the café nearby to our house so I suffered much pain from that, and stayed in my place for few minutes sitting under the chair, and my left leg was outstretched, which I had separated from the right one with difficulty; then a man (one of the alive, not of the dead,) came to sit on the chair under which I was sitting, and he trod on my leg with his foot, so that he increased my suffering and pain, and I pulled my leg and shouted at him: 'Are you blind? You have crushed my foot with your leg! Haven't you seen me sitting here?' But he did not answer me with any word, then I repeated the words, but he did not hear me and did not even look at me. I said to myself: What's the matter with people today that they neither hear nor see me!?

However, I stayed in my place until the pain disappeared and the wind became calm, then I left my place. In that state, I was like a piece of paper which the wind carries from one place and throws in another place, or you can say like a bird's feather which the wind threw between the ruins, so I astonished of that.

My surprise increased furthermore when I felt myself light like the air, and I could fly without any wing; therefore, I raised myself up and became about two or three meters high, and entered the 'Al-Abbas market' delightful for my ability to fly. Then I said to myself: 'Can I get higher than this?' And, raising myself up, I got still higher, and I came to fly up to four or five meters high^{^[xi]}.

Then I noticed several pigeons, standing on the sticks of the market roof, and I desired to catch one of them, so I approached them while they were unaware of me, and I caught one of these birds; I was feeling the bird under my hand and in my fist; but, in spite of that, I wasn't able to control the bird and prevent it from movement; and, instead, my fingers were cut down into many pieces with its force and movement, and the bird escaped my clasp, and started walking on the sticks, shouting and showing love to its female, while my finger parts remained floating in the air and did not fall on the ground, so I was surprised from this experience and I was perplexed.

Then I remembered what had happened to me when I intended to open the door [of our house] and the cutting down of my fingers; therefore, I outstretched my right hand and took the finger parts from the air one by one and returned them to their sites on my hand, and they immediately stuck to it, and my hand returned to be intact as it was before.

At that time, one of those birds, near to me, flew, and I raised my hand to catch it, and my left hand fell upon my right upper arm, and it went through it, but it went through the flesh only without the bone, and when I lifted my hand from it, it fused and returned as it was, so I astonished from that, then I hit my upper arm once again to make sure, and again my hand went through it, and a third time with the same result; so that my ethereal body was like the butter in summer when the knife easily goes through it, and it fuses when the knife is lifted from it.

Then, while I was thinking, and by chance, a bird flew towards me, and pierced my belly coming out from my back, and its strike cut me into two halves so that it pushed the lower half about three meters away from me, and I fainted down because of the severity of pain. When I had regained my consciousness, I saw my ethereal body without lower back and legs; so looking right and left, I saw my both legs behind me floating in the air about three meters away, and the air was moving them with faint movement, and my ethereal body was translucent like the egg white, so that I saw the leg bones appearing from inside it, and I astonished from what I was seeing and from my condition. I stayed perplexing how to bring my legs back to my body, and that would my body return intact as it was, after becoming two halves?

Meanwhile, I saw a man coming up to me, flying in the air; he was completely naked; so I was disgusted from him; even I was afraid of him at the beginning, but when he started to talk to me about my problem; he even guided and advised me, I was not afraid of him anymore. He said: 'What have you done to yourself?'

I said: 'It is the bird that has done that to me, as you see.'

He said: 'Leave the birds; because you are a spirit and you cannot catch them!'

I said: 'What is the meaning of 'spirit'?

He said: 'You are dead!'

But I didn't understand what he was talking about; I thought he meant to say: The bird has killed you by its strike. So I said: 'I didn't die from the bird's strike, but it cut me, as you see, into two halves; then can you bring me back my two legs?'

He said: 'They will not come back to you; but you, yourself, can go to them!'

Then he took me by hand, and together we went to where my both legs were, and he put me upon them and leveled them with my ethereal body, so that they stuck to it immediately and they were like [a piece of] wax when you stick it to another piece, and I returned back to be intact again, so I was surprised from that, and said to him: 'Have you any piece of cloth to dress me with, or any medicine which you may spray on my wound; in order that my lower part will not separate from my body afterwards!?'

He said: 'No need for that!'

Then I asked him about his condition, and said to him: 'Why are you naked? Haven't you any dress to wear, or pants to cover your shame with?'

He said: 'They do not give me!'

I said: 'Then go and buy from the market.'

He said: 'Here, there is no buying and selling.'

But I didn't understand the meaning of his words. Then he said: 'If I had given a dress to a poor man in the life of the World, for the sake of God, then the angels would have given it to me to wear and cover my shame with. But I hadn't offered any dress to any poor man in my Worldly life, so I remained naked in the afterlife.'

Then he left me and went away, after advising me to leave the birds and to go to my family, while I looked at his back and his naked body which was brightening like the crystal or like a metal painted with phosphorus so that it was emitting a light.

Therefore, I surprised from his condition and thought with myself: 'Is this man poor and doesn't he own any dress? No; because the poor usually cover their shame even though with a ragged piece of cloth.' Also I thought he might be mad, but a mad man does not guide and advise people, but he hurts them; while this man guided and advised me, and he even dressed my wound, and I didn't find any harm from him.

Then I noticed my eyes: finding them do not blink as were they previously, and I could not make them roll to the left or right side, but instead they were looking forward^{^[xii]}, and my eyelids were not blinking, as I was used to before, but I was able to close my eyes if I wished to do that.

I suffered much from the strike of that bird, and it bothered me a lot. Moreover, the smoke rising up from the restaurants annoyed me also; so I descended down and came to fly at a height of two meters until I entered the Abbas shrine and circled around it half a circle, i.e. I flew in the shade side, while I could not go to the other side on which the sun shone. So I went flying at a height of about three meters, while people were below me: walking and sitting, bowing down and kneeling in prayer, but none of them saw me. I was avoiding any bird flying towards me by going away from it in order that it wouldn't cut my body once again by its striking.

I would be at comfort when my way was in a dark place or in the shade; I was able to see from a far distance and my vision was keen, while if my way is in the sun, there I will be like the blind and cannot see anything other than a white membrane over my sight. And when I would come to a place with much light, there I could not see anything but only the thing nearby to me. The sun annoyed me a lot. And because the courtyard of Al-Abbas shrine was without roof or ceiling and the sun shone on it, then its rays hurt me and its heat annoyed me.

Therefore, I returned rapidly to the house, where I saw my mother sitting in her place, while my material body was in her lap, and she was crying and saying 'My son has died!', while my aunt was speaking to her and saying: 'Don't cry; he has only fainted, and is not actually dead! Touch his body to see that it is hot; if he had died, then his body would have become cold!'

But my mother replied: ' One hour of time has passed since he fainted, and he has not yet regained consciousness, in spite of that we sprayed water on his face but he did not awake, and we put the hot bandage on his head, but he perceived not; so if he had been alive, he would have got up.'

When I heard the words of my mother and her crying, I was afraid of that scene, and I said to that girl: 'What's the matter with my mother that she cries and weeps and says: Mohammed-Ali has died! My son has died!?'

The girl said: 'Aren't you dead?'

I answered her nervously: 'No, I am alive, I have not died, and I won't accept dying!'

She said: 'Therefore, you will return back to your body!'

I said: 'But where is my body?'

She said: ' Don't you see it in your mother's lap, and she weeps over it?'

At that time, I realized that that was my body, and that I was a spirit, as did that naked man say: the man who treated and dressed me. Therefore, I became afraid of dying and of the end of my life by the hour of appointment, and I said to myself: I shall return to my body and see: will it sit up or will it stay as it is; so that if it sits up, then my aunt's claim is the right one, but if it stays as it is then it is dead and my mother's claim is the right one.

I asked the girl how I might return to my body, and from where I could enter.

She said: 'Enter from the nostril!'

I said: 'How can I do this while it is a small opening.'

She said: 'That is just as how you passed through the door fissure.'

Then she said: 'If you have determined to do this, then take off the dress and give it to me.'

I said: 'Why?'

She said: 'because you have determined to return back to your body!'

I said: 'The dress covers my shame, then how do I take it off and stay naked?'

She said: 'Your body will cover you when you will return back to it!'

I did not agree about the taking off of my dress, but she insisted on that, and persisted in her demand it till I took it off and gave it to her, then I entered into my body from the nostril of the nose; and that occurred as soon as I willed to do so.

So I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, to find my head in my mother's lap, and they had bandaged it with a black head-band. At that time, I felt pain in my head, and I told my mother about my story, and what I had seen in my short tour, but she was pessimist of that, and said: 'Be silent and don't speak to me with such words, and never do that again!'

I said: 'But, my mother, why? It was a nice tour!'

She said: 'If you repeat such a tour, you will die!'

But when I told her about my uncle Ali who was standing in our basement, she astonished and said: 'You saw your uncle Ali!?'

Then she allowed me to tell her my story; and when my father returned back from the market, she told him about the incident; so my father came and asked me about my uncle Ali, and where I had seen him, and asked me to describe him, so I told him all that I had seen.

Following that incident, I was sick for few days, then I restored my health; so I thank God Who cured me, showed me and made clear to me some of His signs.

Some people may not believe this incident, and may not believe in what I saw; but everyone will believe if he, himself, sees what I saw; this will happen when he will die and go to the world of souls.

This incident confirms the saying of God – be glorified – in the Quran 39: 42

اللهُ يَتَوَفّى الأنْفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِها وَالّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ في مَنامِها فَيُمْسِكُ الّتِي قَضَى عَلَيْها المَوْتَ ويُرْسِلُ الأُخْرَى إلَى أجَلٍ مُسَمّىً إنَّ في ذلِكَ لآياتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُون

Question 1 How won't man die, when the soul gets out of his body [during sleep or fainting]?

Answer: We said that there is in the body a viable or vital material that preserves his life, and keeps up the continuous activities inside the body, like the functions of the respiratory system, the blood circulation, the alimentary system and other functions specific for the body. So that man doesn't die by the departure of the soul from the body; but man dies by the oxidation of the viable fluid initially, then by the soul departure.

Fainting

Fainting is similar to the separative sleep, and no difference between them; because the soul separates also from the body at fainting.

The reason for the fainting is that the person is hit with a violent hit or falls down from a high place or affected by severe heat or other things with which the soul is very much hurt, that causes him to leave the body, and go to where he likes to go. Then, when the fear has gone away, and the soul has calmed down, he returns to the body, and the man regains consciousness.

A Fainting in Hospital

Abdul Majied Rashied, the imam and orator of the mosque of Othman Effendi which is near to Sarai market-place [in Baghdad], once told me:

"One day, I visited one of my friends, who was admitted to the Republic Hospital at Baghdad, because he had head injury caused by car accident; so he stayed in bed for more than a month without good progress. His doctor was certain about his death and that there was no hope about his cure."

The [imam] added: "When I came to him in the hospital, he had lost consciousness, and by chance I found his father, too, in the hospital; he also came to visit him; and we sat down near the patient until he regained consciousness and opened his eyes, and we greeted him and asked him about his condition. He thanked God for staying alive, and that he did not die under the wheels of the car.

After a while, a seller of magazines and newspapers came, and his father said to him: 'I shall buy for you some of these magazines in order that you read and enjoy yourself with them, and forget about your illness suffering.'

The patient said: 'I have read all these magazines carried by the seller' – in spite of that they were recent editions.

His father said: 'When have you read them the while they are recently issued!?'

He said: 'I and that person and that person, and he mentioned some of his dead relatives; we go, every day, to the bookshops and read these magazines in the bookstores and in the markets, and if you don't believe, I shall tell you what news and events are in these magazines: They mentioned in that magazine, on page 3 a news about a car-accident, and on page 5 a news about the war, and on page 8 a news about a robbery.' And so on, he went on explaining what news and incidents were in the magazines.

His father thought that he was delirious because of his illness; but, after buying one of those magazines, to check whether the words of his son were correct or wrong, and after seeing its pages, he realized that what his son said was correct, and that he did not make any mistake as regards to its news and what he told him about its contents, and he was astonished of that. Then the patient died few days later."

I say: No doubt that the soul of that patient was separating from his body, at the time of fainting, and his soul went, with his dead relatives whom he knew, to the bookshops and markets, to read what news and incidents were in the magazines and newspapers. Then his soul would return to his body, so that he would regain consciousness.

The Dream

The dream which man sees in his sleep is of two types:

The First – is the dream due to thoughts, i.e. the confused dreams. They are the result of thoughts, wishes, fear …etc; so that anything which man sees during awaking, and goes on thinking about, he may see it in his dream.

Whereas the Second is called the Spiritual Dream; it results from spiritual creatures; because the spirituals [like the souls of human beings, genies and angels] come to man while he is sleeping, and show him what they want; because the easiest way of communication between spiritual creatures and man is the dream; because when man sleeps, and if his sleep is conjunctional, he will be near to the spirituals; but if his sleep is separative, he will be a spiritual being like them, so that he can see the spiritual creatures, talk with them and hear their answers.

Spiritual creatures can control and direct souls through the dream, so that they show them things that the souls cannot do during wakefulness, and habits that they are not familiar with during consciousness. E.g. a man who is coward during wakefulness may see in a dream that he has a sword by his hand, and he fights the enemy, and does not fear anyone; or, during wakefulness, he is brave, but he may see in dream that he is coward, and that he is taken captive, and cannot get rid of his enemies; or one may see in dream that he has become poor, and he begs people, but none gives him anything, while actually he is lofty-minded during wakefulness, to the extent that he does not accept the present from anyone; or he may see in dream that he drinks wine, commits adultery and steals, but – during wakefulness – he is a good man who never inclines to sin. All these dreams, which are contrary to what man is familiar with, during wakefulness, are from the spirituals and their influence on the man soul by means of the dream.

The spiritual dream divides into two types:

1. The False Dream, which is from evil souls, genies and devils.

2. The True Dream: it is from righteous souls and angels.

A man may see (as it happens to a large number of people) one of his dead relatives, who may tell him things that he does not know, then it will be fulfilled and will be like what [his dead relative] told him.

To confirm that, I tell you this nice tale, quoted from the book "Spirits" by Sheikh Tantawi; he said:

• "Dr. de Cermin said, as is it mentioned in one of science magazines, that he saw, one night in a dream, that his son, whom he loved very much, fell in a flaming fire and was burnt. The vision or dream was very clear to the extent that the doctor was terrified, and woke up from sleep with horror, and went to where his son was peacefully sleeping. Next day, the impression of the dream was still in his mind, so that he started to watch his son, as if to avoid him the evil, then he started to examine his body thoroughly to find him healthy and without any disease. But the child was afflicted, next day, by acute pneumonia to die few days later.

• Similarly, an old woman from Philadelphia in USA, seven years ago [this is according to the book written in Arabic in the early years of the twentieth century], saw [in a dream] that her son fell under the wheels of the tram and died, so that the woman got up from sleep in panic; when she realized that it was only a dream and was not real, she slept again, but she saw once again that the tram killed her son, and the dream was very clear. At morning, she took the train and went to New York where her son was dwelling. But as soon as she left the New York station, and crossed one of the streets, she saw a crowd of people gathering around a dead man who was struck by the train. That man was her son, Mr. William Cooper, who was one of the famous American rich men. Many men testified that what his mother had told was correct; because she had told many persons about her dream before had she traveled from Philadelphia to New York. One of such witnesses was the scientist Camille Flammarion.

• Moreover, the well-known naturalist Edwin Red, saw one night in a dream, that he was walking in one of the streets when he saw one of the crosses, which Christians put on their graves and write the date of their death on them; he saw on that cross his name written like this:

' Edwin Red – died on 7/ Nov./ 1910 '

This scientist, was joking, when he told his dream to a group of his friends; but on 7 Nov. 1910 he died.

• Similarly, an American officer called Captain McJohn decided one day to go, together with his two sons to the Brooklyn Theatre at New York; so he asked the theatre directorate to reserve three seats for him; but the night preceding his going to the theatre, he saw in a dream that a great fire broke out and consumed the theatre so that three-hundred persons died. The dream was very clear that the man got up from sleep with panic. Next morning, he informed the theatre directorate that he had changed his mind and that he would not go, neither he nor his two sons. At that same night, a great fire broke out to consume the theatre as a whole, including about three-hundred persons: men and women.

This is what was mentioned in the magazine."

About what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears is that:

1. A woman at Karbala in Iraq, had an infant, one year old; she saw [in a dream] that her baby fell down from the top of the house and died, so she got up terrified. At morning and as time passed, she forgot about her night dream, so she took her son with her to the roof of the house to warm herself with the sun heat; for it was winter time. There was no fence for the roof, and that baby started to play and crawl until he became on the edge of the roof, and when his mother turned round to him, she found him in a dangerous place; therefore, she said to herself: If I run after him, he will run away from me and fall down to the ground; so she started to call him to come to her, but the baby did not pay attention to her call, and went on playing, laughing and crawling forwards until he fell down to the ground to die immediately.

2. The other event was in the year 1939, when a bridge was under construction at Hilla in Iraq; one of the workers who worked in building that bridge was named Jawad Al-Hamad. One morning, he was annoyed, and did not go to work with his comrades; so they asked him about the reason for his delay from work, and he answered: 'I saw a dream yesterday night which annoyed me, and I am afraid of working today.'

They said to him: 'What did you see?'

He said: 'I saw that a dog caught my right hand in his mouth, and whatever I tried to free my hand from its mouth, I could not until the dog cut it of; so that I got up terrified, and I am afraid of this dream.'

They said to him: 'These are [merely] confused dreams, so don't bother yourself with that, and come to work with us!'

They went on insisting in their demand until he went to work with them. There was an electrical hammer that strikes the pillars to dip them in the ground; and while the hammer was high, Jawad Al-Hamad put his hand, unconsciously, on the pillar under the hammer; so the hammer came down upon his hand and smashed its bones, and he dropped down unconscious. They carried him to the hospital, and the doctor ordered to amputate his hand, so they amputated it.

Frequently, we see and hear such stories, but there is no need to mention more than these already mentioned stories.

What Is Death?

Death is not the disappearance of man from existence, as do most people think, but death is the separation of the soul from the body; I.e. separation of the ethereal skeleton from the material skeleton.

In other words, I say: Death is a second birth; i.e. it is the birth of the soul out of the body; so that the soul is the born, and the body is the one giving birth; so when the soul is born out of the body, then the body will disintegrate afterwards and become soil, while the soul is everlasting, does not disintegrate or disappear and it is the true man, while the body is not more than a mold inside which the soul is formed, and there is no need to the body after the departure of the soul from it. It is narrated from Prophet Mohammed – salam to him – that he said: “There is no disappearance of man [by death], but it is [merely] a transporting and transmitting from one home to another."

Therefore, man doesn't die, but the death is only for material bodies.

[The word 'death' is also mentioned bearing the same meaning in the poetry of some Arab poets, written in the Arabic edition.]

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 2: 154

وَلا تَقولوا لِمَن يُقْتَلُ في سبيلِ اللهِ أمْواتٌ ، بَلْ أحياءٌ ولكن لا تَشْعُرُون

I.e. (And say not of those who are slain in God’s way: ‘They are dead.’ No, they are alive [by their souls], though you perceive [them] not.)

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 3: 169

وَلا تَحْسَبَنَّ الّذينَ قُتِلُوا في سَبيلِ اللهِ أمْواتاً ، بَلْ أحْياءٌ عِندَ ربِّهِم يُرْزَقُون

Therefore, man does not die, but the death is only for bodies.

In addition, it is mentioned in the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 10: 28, the Christ said to his disciples:

"And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul"

Question 2

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 67: 2

الّذي خَلَقَ المَوْتَ والحَياةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أحْسَنُ عَمَلاً

I.e. ( God Who has created the dead [matter], and [then He created] the living [beings out of the dead matter] to try you, which of you is best in deeds^{^[xiii]}.)

Then what is the meaning of (has created the dead [matter])? Is 'death' then something material, so that God – be glorified – created it, or is it an event?

Answer:

The Arabic word المَوْتَ here means the non-living [or the dead or the inanimate]; like His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 36: 33

وآيَةٌ لَهُمُ الأرْضُ المَيْتَةُ أحْيَيْناها وأخْرَجْنا مِنْها حَبّاً فَمِنْهُ يأْكُلُون

I.e. (And [indicative] sign for them is the dead [: desolate] land: We have quickened it [by the rain] and produced therefrom grain of which they eat [bread.])

Therefore, (Who has created the dead [matter] and [then He created] the living [beings out of the dead matter]) means: He created the inanimate things and the life; for this reason, He mentioned the word المَوْتَ i.e. the 'death' before the 'life'; because He – be glorified – had created inanimate things before did He create the life. While as regards the creation of life: it is understood; because the origin of life is from the living and growing cells, and it is God – be glorified – Who created these cells and created everything [: the dead (or inanimate) and the alive.]

What Is the Cause of Death?

The cause of man's death divides into two categories:

The First: natural accidents, like drowning, burn, murder, falling of a wall on a man, etc.; so that man dies at such instances, at his appointment of death, i.e. his soul separates from the body; because the body becomes unable to keep the soul; due to a major defect that has afflicted it.

In such instances, the angel of death does not come to take the soul; but it is God – be glorified – Who takes them back; that is His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 39: 42

اللهُ يَتَوَفّى الأنْفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِها

I.e. (It is God That receives [in His capture] the souls [of men] at the time of their death.)

The Second about those who become ill then die, or die without disease; and to these, the angel of death comes and takes their souls out of their bodies.

The angel of death is like the midwife who gets the baby out of his mother's womb. Similarly, the angel of death gets the soul out of the body; so when the angel of death comes to a dying person, he starts to oxidize the viable fluid which is in the human body, so that the soul separates then from the body, and no communication will remain with it; because the viable fluid is the reason for the conjunction of the soul with the body.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 6: 93

ولَوْ تَرَى إذِ الظّالِمُونَ في غَمَراتِ المَوْتِ والمَلائكَةُ باسِطُو أيْدِيهِمْ ، أخْرِجُوا أنْفُسَكُمْ ، أليَوْمَ تُجْزَوْنَ عَذابَ الْهُونِ بِما كُنْتُمْ تَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللهِ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ ، وَكُنْتُمْ عَنْ آياتِهِ تَسْتَكْبِرُون

I.e. (If you [Mohammed] could only see when the wrong-doers suffered the agonies of death and the angels [of death] stretch forth their hands [to those of them who were about to die on their death bed, saying to them]:

"Get your souls out [of your bodies]; today you shall be recompensed with the chastisement of humiliation; for that you said [lies] against God [and words] other than the truth, and that you were arrogantly proud over [believing in] His signs [of revelation.])

The interpretation:

>> (If you [Mohammed] could only see) means: But if you [Mohammed] could only see the condition of wrongdoers, when death comes to them; there, the angels are stretching their hands, to the dying person, oxidizing their viable fluid that is in their bodies, saying to them: Get your souls out of your bodies

>> (today you shall be recompensed with the chastisement of humiliation.)

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 32: 11

قُلْ يَتَوَفّاكُم مَلَكُ الْمَوتِ الّذِي وُكِّلَ بِكُمْ ، ثُمَّ إلَى رَبِّكُمْ تُرْجَعُون

I.e. (Say [O Mohammed, in reply to their question]: 'The angel of death, put in charge of you, will take you[r souls; when] then you will be returned to your Lord.')

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 6: 61

حَتَّى إذا جاءَ أحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ تَوَفَّتْهُ رُسُلُنا وَهُمْ لا يُفَرِّطُون

I.e. (Until when [the means of] death come to anyone of you, Our messengers^{^[xiv]} [: the recorders] take him through death, and they neglect not to deal accordingly [with anyone.])

It means: They do not mismanage him; if he is good, they will treat him well; but if he is bad, they will treat him with neglect and leave him be. Then when they will leave him; devils, genies and evil souls will come to hurt, imprison and mock him; and whatever he tries to get rid of them, he cannot.

Therefore, (and they neglect not to deal accordingly [with anyone]) means: They do not mismanage him or decrease him of his rights. This is like His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 12: 80

وَمِنْ قَبْلُ ما فَرَّطْتُمْ في يُوسُف

I.e. (And how, aforetime, you neglected in [your duty towards] Joseph … etc.) means: how you decreased Joseph of his rights.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 56: 83-87

فَلَوْلا إذا بَلَغَتِ الحُلْقُوم . وأنْتُمْ حِينَئذٍ تَنْظُرُون . ونَحْنُ أقْرَبُ إلَيْهِ مِنْكُمْ ولكِن لا تُبْصِرُون . فَلَوْلا إن كُنتُمْ غَيْرَ مَدِينِين . تَرْجِعُونَها إنْ كُنْتُمْ صادِقِين

I.e. (When the [soul or ghost of anyone of you] comes up to the larynx; [why should those present near him not repent?]

And you [: the family of the dying man] the while [sit] looking [at him in the pangs of death.]

And We [: Our angels] are nearer to him than you are, but you see [the angels] not [because they are ethereal and you are material.]

But, if you are not indebted [to Us, because of your sins],

why cannot you restore [his soul to his body, by supplicating Us, just like how the prophets Jesus and Elia (or Elijah) did before]; if you are truthful [that you are not sinners?])

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 75: 26-28

كلاّ إذا بَلَغَتِ التّراقِيَ . وقِيلَ مَنْ راقٍ . وظَنّ أنّهُ الفِراقُ

I.e. (No, [they will not get rid of the chastisement, nor will the intercession of any intercessor avail them.]

[Then God – be glorified – started to explain about the condition of the dying one on his deathbed, and He said:]

But when the [soul of a dying man on his death-bed, on its way out of the body;] reaches to [the level of] the collar bones.

And it is said [by his family]: “Who is an enchanter [that may heal him? Or a doctor that may cure him?]”)

The Angel of Death

The angels of death are two for every man when death comes on him. It is these two that write his good deeds and record against him his sins.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 6: 61

وهُوَ القاهِرُ فَوْقَ عِبادِهِ ، ويُرْسِلُ ُعَلَيْكُمْ حَفَظَةً ، حَتَّى إذا جاءَ أحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ تَوَفَّتْهُ رُسُلُنا وَهُمْ لا يُفَرِّطُون

I.e. (He is the Omnipotent, Superior to His servants' [oppression]; He sends over you [angels as] recorders [of your acts and words], until when [the means of] death come to anyone of you, Our messengers^{^[xv]} [: the recorders] take him through death, and they neglect not to deal accordingly [with anyone.])

The interpretation:

>> (Our messengers [: the recorders] take him through death) means: the recording angels will take him away [through death.] They are those whom He sent as indicated by the phrase: (He sends over you [angels as] recorders [of your acts and words])

>> (and they neglect not to deal accordingly [with anyone.]) means: They do not mismanage him: if he is righteous, they will treat him well, and if he is bad, they will treat him with neglect and leave him be.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 7: 37

حَتّى إذا جاءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُنا يَتَوَفَّوْنَهُمْ قالُوا أيْنَ ما كُنْتُمْ تَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللهِ قالُوا ضَلُّوا عَنّا ...الخ

I.e. (Until when Our messengers [: the angels of death] came, to them, to take their souls [out of their bodies]: "Where are [your associates] that you used to invoke besides God?" The [unbelievers] said: "They have deserted us and we have lost them” …etc.)

The interpretation:

>> (Our messengers [: the angels of death] came, to them) means: whom He sent to man recording against him his sins, and write for him his good deeds, and they are the 'observers', that are 'ready'.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 32: 11

قُلْ يَتَوَفّاكُم مَلَكُ الْمَوتِ الّذِي وُكِّلَ بِكُمْ ، ثُمَّ إلَى رَبِّكُمْ تُرْجَعُون

I.e. (Say [O Mohammed in reply to their question]: "The angel of death, put in charge of you, will take you[r souls]; [when] then you will be returned to your Lord.")

The interpretation:

>> (put in charge of you) means: he is assigned in charge of you: writes down your deeds and records against you your sins.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 21: 103

لا يَحْزُنُهُمُ الفَزَعُ الأكْبَرُ وتَتَلَقَّاهُمُ المَلائكَةُ هذا يَوْمُكُمُ الّذِي كُنْتُمْ تُوعَدُون

I.e. (The greatest terror ^{^[xvi]} shall not grieve them; and the angels shall welcome them [with the glad tidings, saying to them:] "This is your day with which you were promised.")

So, the angels who will welcome them on the Judgment Day will be the Recording Angels, who will be the [same] 'Ready Observers'.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 41: 30-31

إنّ الّذِينَ قالُوا ربُّنا اللهُ ثُمّ اسْتَقامُوا تَتَنَزّلُ عَلََيْهِمُ المَلائكَةُ ألاّ تَخافُوا ولا تَحْزَنُوا وأبْشِرُوا بِالجَنَّةِ الّتِي كُنْتُمْ تُوعَدُون

نَحْنُ أوْلِياؤكُمْ في الحَياةِ الدُّنْيا وفي الآخِرَةِ ولَكُمْ فِيها ما تَشْتَهِي أنْفُسُكُمْ ولَكُمْ فيها ما تَدّعُون

I.e. (Surely, those – who say, 'Our Lord is God', then they keep up straight and steadfast – the angels descend on them [when they die, giving them the glad news of Paradise and saying to them:] 'Fear not [of devils] and grieve not [for leaving the family and children], but hear the glad tidings of Paradise which you were promised [by the tongue of your prophets]; We were your guardian [angels] in the life of the World and [now] in the ‘Next Life’. Therein shall you have [all] that your souls desire; therein shall you have [all that] for which you pray.)

The interpretation:

>> (we were your guardian [angels] in the life of the World and [now] in the ‘Next Life’) means: The angels say to them: We were taking care of your affairs in the life of the World and watch you; and in the afterlife also we were with you – i.e. in the ethereal world – when we were taking care of your affairs and lead you to what is good for you and protect you from genies and devils; and today, i.e. which is the Judgment Day, we come to welcome you and give you the glad tidings of admission into Paradise, and take you to it.

Therefore, the angels that are 'Ready Observers' are with man in the Worldly life; writing his deeds; and it is they who take his soul off his body when he dies, and it is they who please him after death and take care of his affairs, if that person is good; and it is they who welcome him on the Day of Judgment and give him the glad tidings of the admission into the Garden, then they take him to it if he is good and righteous.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 50: 21

وجاءَتْ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَعَها سائقٌ وشَهِيدٌ

I.e. (And every soul [shall] come, with it a driver and a witness.)

The 'driver', here, is the angel who drives him either to Paradise or to the Fire [of Hell.]

The 'witness' is that who witnesses for him [in the Judgment] with what righteous deeds or sins he did in the life of the World.

Therefore, the 'driver' and the 'witness' are the 'Ready Observing' [angels.]

God – be glorified – said also in the Quran 50: 24

أَلْقِيا في جَهَنَّمَ كُلَّ كَفَّارٍ عَنِيدٍ

I.e. ([God will say to the two angels]: "Cast into Hell every stubborn disbeliever.")

The addressing in His saying – be glorified – أَلْقِيا i.e. (Cast) is related to the 'Ready Observing' angels.

The Hour of Death (or Death Appointment)

When he dies, and his ethereal When the time of dying or the appointment of death of a man approaches, his dead relatives come to him, i.e. their souls, and sit down near him, talking with him; he sees them, speaks to them and they speak to him.

soul separates from his body, they come to him escorting, until he is put down in his grave.

There, in the world of souls: the Barzakh world [or the Afterlife], they visit each other, talk [to each other], coming in and getting out, standing and sitting till the Day of Judgment.

To confirm this, I mention, here, this nice tale:

[A woman from Hilla in her death bed]

"A woman from Hilla in Iraq, once, became ill, and her illness increased in severity day by day, until her death hour approached.

Her mother in law was with her in the house, and she heard the dying woman speak as if she was greeting and respecting someone; so that her mother in law asked her: 'To whom are you speaking?'

The dying woman [: that was about to die] answered her: 'My father and mother have come to see me, and they are [now] sitting near to me, so cover yourself with your wrap^{^[xvii]}; so that my father won't see you!'

But her mother in law did not take her words seriously, and did not wear her wrap, but instead she said to herself that her father and mother were dead, then how would they come to her!?

The dying woman went on talking as if she spoke to her father and mother, then turned to her mother in law and said to her: 'Wear your wrap; for my father is sitting beside me!'

But her mother in law did not consider her words, then she said to her mother in law: 'Wear your wrap, and go to open the door; for my brother Hussein has arrived!'

But her mother in law did not pay attention to her words; in stead she said to herself: this patient is delirious due to the severity of her illness.

No more than one minute later, the door was knocked; her mother in law went to the door and called: 'Who is there behind the door? Is it you Hussein?'

He answered: 'Yes, it is me: Hussein!'

So she opened the door for him, and he went in. He asked her: 'Who told you that I am behind the door?'

She said: 'Your sister told me that!'

When his sister saw him, she welcomed him and said: 'My father and mother have just been here with me. They talked with me, then my father said to me: Your brother is coming and we shall go.'

She talked with him few other words, then she became silent. Her brother shook her, but she was dead."

We may hear many of those about to die, speak mentioning the names of their dead relatives and members of their families, as if they speak to them, and tell us about them, saying: This is John, and this is my father, and that is my brother, or that is my mother, …etc.

In addition, we may hear many, of those who are about to die, say inappropriate or unreasonable words, e.g. they may reply an answer without being asked by anyone of us or they mention the name of a dead person and speak to him as if he is present with them. So when we hear that from one of them, we say: he is delirious; but, in fact, he sees the souls of some of his dead relatives and they talk to each other, and because we do not hear the question of the souls, but only we hear, from the dying, the answer to the question; for this reason, we think he is delirious.

Question 3 How did the soul [of her father] know that his son Hussein came to visit his dying sister? Do souls know the fore-future?

Answer: We said that souls have sharp sight, and that their sight goes through the material bodies, and you have just read the details of the conversation. Therefore, this soul saw his son from behind the wall, and told his daughter, the dying woman, about that; because the wall does not impair the sight of the soul.

Question 4 You say that we do not see souls unless during our sleep, or unless we die and become souls like them, then how did this dying woman see her mother and father?

Answer: The dying person can see the souls and speak to them; because the viable liquid in his body is going on oxidation, and the soul, at that time, is about to get out [of the body.]

The Body after Death

We have mentioned, in the preceding lines, that death is the separation of the soul from the body. Here, we shall mention about the fate of each of them after death; at first we shall talk about bodies and their fate after death:

Following the separation of the soul from the body, and after the oxidation of the viable liquid, as has just been mentioned, the body will be some organic matter without life, and it will be exposed to degradation, disintegration and fermentation.

It will be without hearing, sight and spiritual heart; so that it will be like a laid down piece of wood: does not feel pain or pleasure, and does not understand or think. When it will be buried in the grave, it will start fermentation and degradation until it becomes soil after some period of time.

There will be no judgment for the body, neither recompense nor reward. But the judgment, punishment and reward are special for the soul; because the soul is the true man, whereas the body is merely a mold in which the soul is formed.

Those who claim that the soul returns again to the body in the grave, and that the dead person is judged, then the soul gets out again from it; however, these are merely claims which are not correct.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 37: 58-59 [expressing the talking of Paradise dwellers]:

أفَما نَحْنُ بِمَيِّتِين . إلاّ مَوْتَتَنا الأُولَى وما نَحْنُ بِمُعَذََّبِين

I.e. ("Is it [the case] that we shall not die [in Paradise]!?"

"Other than our first death [in the life of the World], and [that] we shall not be punished [because we shall never disobey God.]")

Therefore, God – be glorified – said that the death is only once, and is not two deaths.

Moreover, God – be glorified – said in the Quran 44: 56

لاَ يَذُوقُونَ فِيهَا الْمَوْتَ إِلاَّ الْمَوْتَةَ الأُولَى وَوَقَاهُمْ عَذَابَ الْجَحِيمِ

I.e. (They taste not death therein, save the first death. And [their Lord will] have saved them from the doom of Hell.)

Question 5 If your claim is right, then what is meant by His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 40: 11

قالُوا رَبَّنا أمَتَّنا اثْنَتَيْنِ وأحْيَيْتَنا اثْنَتَيْنِ فَاعْتَرَفْنا بِذُنُوبِنا ، فَهَلْ إلَى خُرُوجٍ مِنْ سَبِيل ؟

I.e. (The [associaters, following their death, will] say [while being in Hell]: "Our Lord, You made us die twice and live twice. Now we confess our sins. Is there, then, any way for getting out [of Hell]?")

Answer: Disbelievers will say such words while being in Hell; they will say: Our Lord, You made us die twice [: one is the sleep in the World, and the second is the true death], and live twice [: the life in the womb of his mother, and the second is the life in the World after his delivery from the womb of his mother.]'

Death is one, but He said اثْنَتَيْنِ because the first death is the sleeping in the life of the World, and the second is the true death; the indication of this is His saying – be glorified – in the Quran 6: 60

وهُوَ الّذي يَتَوَفّاكُمْ بِاللّيْلِ ويَعْلَمُ ما جَرَحْتمْ بِالنّهارِ ثُمَّ يَبْعَثُكُمْ فِيهِ

I.e. (It is He Who takes you[r souls out of your bodies] by night ^{^[xviii]}, and knows all that [evil ^{^[xix]}] you [people] have already committed by day, then He sends you back again [to your bodies by day.] )

It means: He sends you [to get up] from your sleep during day-time.

God – be glorified – said also in the Quran 39: 42

اللهُ يَتَوَفّى الأنْفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِها وَالّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ في مَنامِها فَيُمْسِكُ الّتِي قَضَى عَلَيْها المَوْتَ ويُرْسِلُ الأُخْرَى إلَى أجَلٍ مُسَمّىً

And God – be glorified – said in the Quran 26: 81 expressing the talking of Prophet Abraham

والّذي يُمِيتُني ثُمَّ يُحْيِينِ

I.e. (And Who causes me to die, then gives me life [again.])

It means: He causes me to die at night, which is the sleep, then He causes me to live by day-time, and that is the arousal from sleep.

On the other hand the life is two [lives]: one is the intrauterine life of the fetus in his mother's womb; because He has made him alive after being a little amount of semen. The second life is the life in the World, after the birth from the womb of his mother.

But there will be no life for bodies after their death. The indication of that is His saying – be glorified – اثْنَتَيْنِ i.e. the life in the womb of his mother, and the second is the life in the World after his birth from the womb of his mother.

[See also, in this book, the subject of: The Judgement will be for souls, not for bodies.]

The Soul after Death

We said that death is like labor, so just as that the fetus gets out of his mother's womb, and sees that he has taken off a body which had been enveloping him; similarly, the soul at death sees that he has taken off a body, which had been enveloping him, and got out of it. But the fetus gets out from below, whereas the soul gets out from above: from the mouth or from the nose.

And because the soul was familiar with this body, which was protecting the soul from external influences and was a shelter for the soul, he starts to follow the body, at the beginning, to where they have carried it; but during that time, the soul will be astonished and will contemplate; because he sees that he has become in another world; because:

>> After man had had a heavy material body, he has become a light ethereal being;

>> He had not been able to hear save the near sounds, he has now become able to hear the far and the near sounds;

>> He had been unable to see spiritual creatures, then he has become able to see [both] spiritual and material creatures;

>> He had been with a weak visual power, but he has now become sharp-sighted;

>> And he had been only able to walk on the ground, but he has now become able to fly in the space without wings;

>> His legs had been free in walking, and his legs, by now, have become bound so that he goes upstairs jumping like a sparrow;

>> And he had been talking with living people who hear him, while his words now cannot be heard except by souls, that are like him, and by angels and genies.)

If he discovers that regarding himself, he will be astonished, then his astonishment will furthermore increase when he will see his family and his relatives mourn on him and say: he has died; therefore, he will come and say to them: 'I haven't died; what's the matter with you that you cry and mourn on me and say that I have died!? Don't you see me standing in front of you!?'

But none of them will hear him and none will see him; for he has become an ethereal creature; because ethereal creatures cannot be seen by material creatures. He will go on repeating these words to them, until he will be certain that they can neither see nor hear him, so he will leave them for doing what they like and speaking what they want.

Then his dead relatives will come and take him to their places where they talk, visit each other, eat, drink and walk for enjoyment in the gardens; this is at night; but when morning comes on and the sun rises, they will return to their places and will not get out till the sun-set time. Some of them may go out during day-time and wander in some places, but they will not have comfort in their tour and will not enjoy, but the sun hurts them by its rays, birds pierce them by their wings, and people talking voices and the noise annoy them, and the wind carries them to a faraway places; so they return back to their places.

This is the condition of one whose punishment is fulfilled, and no punishment remained for him, if he is one of the faithful.

The reason for them to go out at night, and to return back at day-time is that the sun hurts them; because they cannot look at it or sit under its direct rays; and life does not suit them save only in the darkness; because their sight is sharp and keen; so that they satisfy with a mere little light like the light of a lamp or the light of the moon, or without any light. Therefore, from this aspect, they are like the bat which flies by night and disappears in day-time. For this reason, they inhabit the basements or the places uninhabited by people, to which the sun-rays do not reach, or in caves, ruins or the houses uninhabited by people.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 76: 13; describing the dwellers of Paradise:

مُتَّكِئينَ فِيها عَلَى الأرائكِ لا يَرَوْنَ فِيها شَمْساً ولا زَمْهَرِيراً

I.e. (Reclining in the [Garden] upon couches; they shall neither see therein sun [or heat] nor moon [or piercing coldness.])

So, God – be glorified – avoids them the sun; because it hurts them.

You have to know, dear reader, that when you die and separate from your body, you will see yourself naked, and you will become ashamed of your condition, so you will turn right and left seeking for a dress that you may wear and cover your shame with it, but you will not find anything save the material clothes which you wore in the life of the World; and when you come to take and wear them, you cannot carry them from their places; because you have become a spiritual ethereal creature, then you will leave them and search about other dresses until you will give up all hope and stay naked among souls.

But if you are one of the righteous, and of those who do not ascribe associates to God, then the 'Ready Observing' angels who were with you in the life of the World will bring you a new ethereal dress to wear and cover your shame with it.

God – be glorified – pointed out to this meaning in His glorious Book: the Quran 7: 26

يا بَنِي آدَمَ قَدْ أنْزَلْنا عَلَيْكُمْ لِباساً يُوارِي سَوْآتِكُمْ ورِيشاً ولِباسُ التّقْوَى ذلِكَ خَيْرٌ

I.e. (Children of Adam, We have sent down on you the garment to cover your shameful parts, and the 'furniture and plumage', and the garment of shielding [at fight] – that is better [than other garments and the plumage.])

Or you offered a dress to a poor man in your Worldly life, then the angels will bring it to you, which you will wear and cover your shame with [: you will wear its ethereal copy.]

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 3: 92

لَنْ تَنالُوا البِرَّ حَتَّى تُنْفِقُوا مِمّا تُحِبُّونَ ، وما تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَإنَّ اللهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ

I.e. (You [Muslims] will not attain [the reward of] piety [and become pious] until you spend [for the sake of God] of that [food and dress] which you love. And whatsoever you spend, God is All-Aware thereof [: whether you spend for His sake or for the sake of others.])

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 8: 60

وما تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ شَيْءٍ في سَبِيلِ اللهِ يُوَفَّ إلَيْكُمْ وأنْتُمْ لا تُظْلَمُون

I.e. (Whatever you expend in the cause of God, it will be repaid to you in full^{^[xx]}, and you will not be reduced ^{^[xxi]} [anything of it.])

In addition to that, following your death, you will feel thirsty, so you will go searching about water to drink and satisfy your thirst; but if you come to a water-container or a cup of water to lift it up and drink, you will find that you cannot carry it; because you have become an ethereal creature; so you will leave it and go looking about something else and you will come to a river and stretch forth your hands to the water to lift it up to drink from it; but you cannot, so you will leave it and go searching about something else; that you may find water to drink.

God – be glorified – pointed out to this in His Glorious Book 13: 14

كَباسِطِ كَفَّيْهِ إلَى الماءِ لِيَبْلُغَ فاهُ وما هُوَ بِبالِغِهِ

I.e. (As one [soul] who stretches out his hands to the water that it may reach his [spiritual] mouth, but it reaches it not.)

On the other hand, if you are one of the righteous; the angels will bring to you a cup of the Paradise ethereal water which you will drink and satisfy your thirst, and you will not, afterwards, feel thirsty forever. Therefore, by that you will appreciate yourself: are you one of the happy [so you will be admitted into Paradise], or the miserable people [so you will be admitted into Hell.]

In addition to that, you will feel hungry, so that you will search about food to eat, but you won't find and you will stay hungry; but in case you were [in the World] one of the righteous monotheists, then the angels will bring you some ethereal fruits that you will eat and satisfy. And if you offer, food, bread or fruit, to a poor person, for the sake of God, then the two angels will bring it to you and you will eat.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 2: 110

وما تُقَدِّمُوا لأنْفُسِكُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ تَجِدُوهُ عِنْدَ اللهِ

I.e. (And whatever charity you forward [to the Next Life] for your souls, you shall find it with God.)

It means: If you expend something material, in the cause of God, you will find its ethereal copy in the afterlife; because every material thing has an ethereal spirit, so that you will eat it and it will return to be a cluster [on its tree in Paradise], as it was.

You should know, also, that spirits are with us in our houses, basements, shops and mosques; they crowd in every place: seeing our deeds and hearing our words, but we neither see nor hear their words, nor even do we hear their footsteps on the ground.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 19: 98

وكَمْ أهْلَكْنا قَبْلَهُمْ مِنْ قَرْنٍ هَلْ تُحِسُّ مِنْهُمْ مِنْ أحَدٍ أو تَسْمَعُ لَهُمْ رِكْزاً ؟

I.e. (And how many a generation before [your people] We destroyed! Can you perceive [any movement of] any of them, or hear from them any foot-fall sound?)

It means: their footsteps when they walk on the ground.

Therefore, if you go out of your hiding place at night, and there is a violent wind or rain, then don't go anywhere, but wait in your shelter until the wind calms down and the rain stops; because the wind will lift you up and throws you to a far place so that you will suffer pain; while the rain will fall upon your head, pierce your ethereal body and descends down to the ground, and will influence you just as how do bullets and shells influence the living man.

But better than all that, is to escape from the earth, and ascend to heaven, to the Paradises, and get rid of the matter and be in the neighborhood of your Lord;

for God – be glorified – said in the Quran 51: 50

فَفِرُّوا إلَى اللهِ ، إنِّي لَكُمْ مِنْهُ نَذِيرٌ مُبِينٌ

I.e. (Therefore, flee to God; for surely I am a plain warner to you from Him.)

It means: Get rid of the matter; that is by your righteous deeds and piety; so that you will go to the ethereal paradises in the neighborhood of your Lord.

God – be glorified – said in the Quran 7: 176, telling about the story of Balaam, the son of Beor:

ولَوْ شِئْنا لَرَفَعْناهُ بِها ولكِنَّهُ أخْلَدَ إلَى الأرْضِ واتَّبَعَ هَواهُ

I.e. (Had We pleased, We would have raised him up [to Paradise] because of that [: his piety and worship]; but he inclined to [stay on] the earth, and followed his [own vain] desires.)

The interpretation: If Balaam had forsaken the matter and the covetousness, then We would have lifted him up to the ethereal Paradises, but he coveted the money and inclined to the earth. In other words: He liked to stay on earth rather than going up to heavens.

You should also know that man is weak and powerless; so that even a mosquito may annoy him, while chocking [with water] may kill him. Similarly, in his ethereal life: the sun annoys him, birds pierce him, the wind carries him away, insects annoy him and evil souls hurt him.

[How to attain success and prosperity in the Next Life]

Therefore, anyone seeks rest, happiness and forever life, should leave this World be, and work and strive for the Next Life, and be one of the pious, so that when he dies, the angels will take him to the Paradises, i.e. to the ethereal heavens; for there: the everlasting life is; and therein: there is an extended shade, freshly poured water, and a lot of fruits neither culled nor difficult to obtain, and beautiful women raised from earth to heavens: these women may be likened to butterflies in their beauty and charming. Therein, there is no sun which disturbs him, no wind that carries him away, no insects which annoy him and no material birds that pierce and cut him.

Nothing will let you obtain such prosperity other than:

1. [Believing that God is One, having no wife, no son, no daughter, no analogue and no equal],

2. And doing righteous deeds and charity [for the sake of God alone, and to make your work and servitude exclusive for God alone without associating, with God, others like Abraham, Jacob: Israel, Moses, Jesus Christ, Peter, Paul, Mohammed, Ali, angels, kings or anyone else] ,

3. And abandoning the covetousness, [misery and bad manner] ; for God likes [ and is pleased with] those who do charity to the poor and needy.

^{^[1]} I.e. Merciful to both the believer and the unbeliever, in this life of the World.

^{^[2]} I.e. Merciful only to the believer, in the Next Life.

^{^[4]} By the tongue of the Paraclete or the Awaited Mahdi.

^{^[5]} i.e. grateful to his Lord for His bounties.

^{^[7]} i.e. We established them in the land by giving them muscular power, long life span and prosperity.

^{^[8]} [The translator – It seems that this story is old one before the electricity was in common use.]

^{^[9]} One of the habits and doctrines of Muslims is that they offer the dresses of the dead to the needy and poor; and that is on behalf of the dead; so my mother had offered the dresses of her dead children. I think the dresses, which that girl was carrying, were some of the dresses of my dead brethren which my mother had offered to the poor, i.e. the clothes, which that girl gave to me, were the ethereals of them, and not the materials.