Friday Sermon: Death and Its Mysteries 2: Immortality of the Soul

They ask thee concerning the Spirit (Ruh). Say: “The Spirit (cometh) by command of my Lord: Of knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you, (O men!)”  (Al-Isra 17:85)

The problem with the immortality of the soul has not yet been solved in the affirmative, but neither has it been solved in the negative, but continues to be mired in mystery.

What is the Soul and what is its definition? No one knows the definition of Soul. The Qur’an talks about the Soul but the interpretation of the above verse differs from one scholar to the other.

Some scholars say the word Ruh in this verse does not mean Soul but it means the Qur’an. And when you ask them how they arrived at that conclusion, they say the Quran is called Ruh in the Qur’an itself: He causes the angels to descend with this Ruh, bestowed at His behest upon whomever He wills of His servants: “Warn all human beings that there is no deity save Me: be, therefore conscious of Me.” (An-Nahl 16:2) In this regard it has no connection with the Soul.

Another being identified with the term Ruh in the Qur’an is the angel Gabriel who came with revelations to the Prophet: “The Ruh came with the Qur’an directly to your heart so you will be one of the warners” (Ash-Shu’ara, 26:194). So the word Ruh could have several meanings but the definition of the Soul, as we understand it, eludes us.

When the ulama (religious scholars) talk about the Soul, they talk about its characteristics only; they do not talk about what it is. Some scholars say it is like the water in a rose or a flower, it gives it life.

Others nowadays offer an analogy with electricity in a wire – if there is electricity flowing in the wire it is said to be alive, if not the wire is dead. But the Soul, per se, no one has been able to define it until now and the field is wide open for more thinking; it is not closed. We are urged to seek knowledge about the Soul. We may not reach our goal but we have to try.

And there is the other question: Where was the Soul before it entered the body? Nobody knows. All we know is that the Soul is the second stage in the creation of Man.

The Qur’an describes it in Sura Al Mu’minūn:

Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay); Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (fetus) lump; then We made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the Best to create! After that, at length ye will die. Again on the Day of Judgment, will ye be raised up. (Al Mu’minūn 23:12-16)

In these passages, Allah’s creative work, as far as man is concerned, is recapitulated, in order to show man’s real position in this life, and the certainty of the future. For the various stages of creation, see Sura 2:117.

So far man’s growth is like that of an animal, but a further process takes place which makes the infant animal into the infant man. This is the breathing from Allah’s spirit into him: Behold! Thy Lord said to the angels: “I am about to create man, from sounding clay from mud molded into shape; “When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed into him of My spirit, . . . .”(Al-Hijr 15:29).

It may be a continuous process parallel to that of physical growth. The child is born; it grows; it decays and dies; but after death another chapter opens for the individual, and it is to remind us of this most momentous chapter that the previous stages are recapitulated.

The immortality of the soul remains a complex and debated topic, with significant implications for ethics, morality, and the understanding of human existence. While many traditions uphold the belief in an immortal soul, others challenge this notion, advocating for a more unified view of body and soul. The discussion continues to evolve, influenced by philosophical inquiry and theological reflection, making it a rich area for exploration and contemplation.

The concept of the immortality of the soul has been a significant topic in philosophy and theology, with various perspectives arguing for and against its existence.

Philosophers like Thomas Aquinas argue for the immortality of the soul, viewing it as the essence of a human being that exists independently of the body. Aquinas posits that the soul is not made of matter and therefore cannot decay or die. He believes that the soul’s intellectual and volitional powers suggest its immortality, as they exist on a spiritual plane beyond physical limitations. According to Aquinas, after death, the soul experiences either eternal happiness or suffering based on its alignment with divine law.

Then the third question: When the Soul separates from the body upon death where does it go? And what happens to it?

Al mawt, or death, is a separation of the material element – the body – from the spiritual element – the Soul. The body goes back to the earth from where it came, and the Soul goes back from where it came. The Qur’an says: From the (earth) did We create you, and into it shall We return you, and from it shall We bring you out once again. (Ta Ha 20:55) No doubt, the soul goes back to its owner, God whose ‘breath’ it is in the beginning. It shall be placed with its physical body which shall be bodily resurrected for judgment on the Day of Qiyyamah.

As to the length of the Day of Judgment, the Qur’an, in Surah al–Ma’arij tells us: “The angels and the Spirit will ascend to Him during a Day the extent of which is fifty thousand years.”(Al-Ma’arij 70:4)

 The persistent study of this great problem leads us to believe, today, that the mystery of death is less obscure and impenetrable than has been admitted hitherto, and that it may become clear to the mind’s eye by the light of certain actual experiments that were unknown half a century ago.

Death continues to reign over the destinies of humanity! She is indeed the sovereign. Her scepter has never exercised its controlling power with such ferocious and savage violence as in these recent years. Everywhere is war and death”: From Gaza to Sudan to Congo and Yemen.

We may not admit the existence of the soul, “because we know of no quality without matter, because we have never met with gravitation in the body without weight, heat without a warm body, electricity without an electrical body, affinity without substances in combination, life, feeling, thought without a living being, feeling and thinking.”

But this sort of reasoning, starting with the use of the word quality, simply begs the question. To compare thought to gravitation, to heat, to the mechanical, physical, and chemical reactions of material bodies is to compare two very different things, precisely those things that we are debating, – mind and matter.

Scientific reasoning itself sometimes errs fundamentally. Heat, for example, does not always come from a warm body; motion, which has no temperature, can produce heat. Heat is a form of motion. Light also is a form of motion. The nature of electricity remains unknown.

What we ought first to prove positively is that thought is a property of the nervous substance, that the unconscious can create the conscious, which is contradictory in principle.

What we wish to show here is that the human being is not only a material body endowed with various essential faculties, but also a spiritual body endowed with different faculties from those of the animal organism.

It is impossible to analyze the mechanism of the eye and of vision, of the ear and of hearing, without concluding that the organs of sight and hearing have been intellectually constructed. This same conclusion can be drawn, with even more supporting evidence, from the analysis of the fecundation of a plant, an animal, or a human being.

The progressive evolution of the fertilized human egg, the role of the placenta, the life of the embryo and the fetus, the creation of the little creature in the womb of the mother, the organic transformation of the woman, the formation of the milk, the birth of the child, its nourishment, the physical and psychical development of the child, are so many irrefutable manifestations of an intelligent, directing force that organizes everything and directs the tiniest molecules with as perfect an order as it does the planets and stars in the immensity of the heavens.

Where does this mysterious force lead us? We do not know. So long as life imposes its laws upon us, the planet that we inhabit carries us through space at the speed of 107,000 kilometers an hour, itself the plaything of forces that direct the world’s system and of fourteen different movements. We are thinking-atoms on a moving atom a million times smaller than the sun, which is itself an atom in our gigantic stellar nebula, which is only one universe, surrounded by infinity of other universes. Unlimited immensity! Prodigious movements, stupefying speeds!

These are matters which Man needs to contemplate and wonder. Who are we? Where are we? Where are we going? Ihdinas Siratal Mustaqim: Guide us unto the right path. (Fathia 1:6)

Rabbana atina fid dunya hasanatan wa fil Aakhirati hasanatan waqina ‘adhaban-nar: “Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the Fire!” (Baqara 2:201)

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.