Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 309
309 him. In the chapter headed, Al-Mu’min u n, the Holy Quran mentions the creation of the heavens and the earth and the setting up of the machinery of the uni- verse, and describes the powers and faculties with which man has been endowed and then enquires whether men still imagine that their whole existence is confined to this life and that there is no life after death. It says: 'Then, do you imagine that We have created you as a mere pastime and that you will not have eter- nal life and opportunities of eternal development after death? That surely is not so, for God is the High and the True Monarch, Who has created all things with a purpose. He is the one God and pos- sesses attributes which command purity and re- spect. ' 148 It cannot then be imagined that God is not the Creator of the universe, or that He has created it without a purpose. The Holy Quran teaches that the soul is not im- ported into the human body from outside, but grows in the body as it develops in the womb. It is an essence which is distilled from the body in the course of a long process, as beer is distilled from barley. It has at first no separate existence from the body, but the processes through which the body passes during its development 148 Al-Mu’min u n, 23:116,117.