6. J (cont.)

It spreads through them like the water spreads through a watering place, or the olive oil spreads through an olive tree or like a fire in a coal. As long as the limbs are healthy to accept the effects of that light body (the soul), the soul remains in that body and drives that physical body's feelings, movements and volition. But if it becomes bad, the mixture of the compounds becomes bad, and it no longer accepts that effect, the spirit leaves the body and goes to the world of the spirits. The evidence for that is Allah's statement, "Allah receives (humans') soul at the time of their death" (al-Zumar 42). This states that the souls are given death, kept and sent. Allah also says, "If you could see, when the wrongdoers reach the pangs of death and the angels stretch out their hands, saying: Deliver up your souls" (al-Anaam 93). This states that the angels stretch out their hands to grab the souls. It describes the soul as coming out. It also shows that the soul is punished on that day and it goes to its Lord. Furthermore, Allah says, "He it is Who gathers your soul at night and knows that which you commit by day. Then He raises you again to life therein" (al-Anaam 60). This states that the souls are taken by night and then returned to their bodies during the day. And the angels take them at death. Allah also says, "But ah! Thou soul at peace! Return unto your Lord, content in His good pleasure. Enter among My bondmen. Enter My garden" (al-Fajr 27-30). Here the soul is described as returning, entering and being pleased. The Prophet (peace be on him) said, "When the soul is seized, the eyes watch it."1 This describes the soul as being seized and the eyesight seeing it. In the hadith of Bilaal, it states, "The souls are seized whenever He wishes and returned to you whenever He wishes."2 • • • This is what the Pious Forefathers have agreed upon and is also what rational thought leads one to. Those who have differing opinions only follow false suppositions and invalid misconceptions that cannot, in any way, be taken in opposition to what is stated in the texts of revelation and sound reasoning. 1 Recorded by Muslim. 2Recorded by al-Bukhari. Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi As for the question whether soul (nafs) and spirit (rooh) are two different things or the same thing, the right view is that the words mean different things, some of which are same and some that differ ... As to the question whether the spirit (al-rooh) is mortal or not, people have different views. Some say that it is mortal, for it is a soul (nafs) and every soul is to die. Allah has said, "All that is on earth will perish, but the Face of your Lord will abide (forever), Full of Majesty, Bounty and Honor" (al-Rahman 2627), and "Everything (that exists) will perish except His own Face" (al-Qasas 88). These people say that when even angels will perish, the souls of men will certainly also perish. Others say that the spirits do not perish, because they have been created to abide forever; only the bodies perish. In support, they cite those hadith which talk of the pleasure and pain which spirits will suffer after they leave their bodies till Allah gives them new bodies. The correct view on the issue may be stated like this: One may understand the death of the soul to mean its departure from the body, not its destruction. In this sense, the soul is mortal. But if one means that it perishes and disappears completely, then it is not mortal in that sense. It continues to live after death, and has pleasure or pain ... Allah states about the inhabitants of Paradise, "They taste not death therein, save the first death" (al-Dukhaan 56). That death is in reference to the spirit leaving the body. As for the inhabitants of Hell, Allah says, "They say: Our Lord, twice have you made us die and twice have you made us live" (Ghaafir 1 1), and Allah also says, "How do you disbelieve in Allah when you were dead and He gave life to you! Then He will give you death, then life again" (al-Baqara 28). These verses are referring to the first death, when the humans were a sperm in the loins of their fathers and in the wombs of their mothers. Allah then gave them life after that and then caused them to die. He then will give them life again on the Day of Resurrection. That it is not in reference to death of their spirits before the Day of Resurrection, as in that case there would be three deaths.1 When is the spirit (rooh) breathed into the embryo? Concerning the other stages of embryonic development discussed above, it is possible with 1 Ibn Abu al-Izz, vol. 2, pp. 562-571 .