Hundred Questions - Return of Soul
Return of Soul
Q2 You said in the seminar that the soul comes to this world time and again, in the case of failure as well as in the case of success. In the case of success, the soul of a faithful servant comes to this world to renew its knowledge and action, for the chain of the bounties of knowledge comes to its end when the soul reaches the final stage of the eighth heaven. The question here is, how can it be possible for the eternal salvation and permanent peace of paradise, which has been granted to a mu'min by God, to come to an end after a certain time, and the soul of the mu'min returns again to this world in search of it?
A2 This is also, in fact, the same question that we have dealt with above. However, we will try to explain it further. When man reaches the final stage of ma`rifat (recognition), he is entirely convinced of the fact that his "I" is in two stages or levels. On the higher level it is in the form of Monoreality and in the lower level it is in the form of a human being. Thus, the human "I" [on the one hand] always remains in one position like the sun, and on the other hand comes and goes again and again, like the moon, waxing and waning. For this is what divine wisdom (hikmat) and the abundant goodness demands.
The Qur'anic verse (36:68): "And he whom We grant long life We cause him to turn upside down (from the world of command to the world of creation)" implies that whoever is given a long life in the spiritual world is sent to this world for a very great feat. It should be known that when God grants long life to someone, it is long according to His standard, therefore it is very vast according to the calculation of this world. And the wisdom of the phrase "upside down" is that the world of command or the spiritual world and the world of creation or the physical world are like two half circles [see the diagram below], which together present the concept of a complete circle, in which the upper half circle is the world of command and the lower half circle is the world of creation. In this example, the one who goes from the physical world to the summit of the spiritual world, his head will be turned upwards and when he comes from there to this world, his head will be turned down.
In this connection it is important to understand whence Adam (May peace be through him) came into this world. He came from the world of command, spiritual world or paradise. If he came from paradise, from which one? He came from the final or the supreme paradise. In this descent was Adam (May peace be through him) alone or were there other people as well? With Adam (May peace be through him), together with Eve (May peace be through her) there were many other people as well. If so, is it correct to say that in paradise, the lives of Adam, Eve and their companions had reached the point where it became necessary for them to return to this world [to renew their knowledge and actions]? Yes, this is absolutely true. If Allah's sunnat (law) and habit and the law of nature are the same forever without any change, can we say that perfect souls continue to come to this world like Adam and his companions, from the spiritual world? Yes, this is perfectly correct.
In the wise Qur'an in verse (36:40), it is mentioned: "And everything rotates in an orbit".
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